Stauffer, J. Mark (1919-2004)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2004 Mar 22 p. 7

Birth date: 1919

text of obituary:

EMU professor of music, choral leader dies at 85

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. — J. Mark Stauffer, professor emeritus of music at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va., died March 14 at Menno-Haven Retirement Community. He was 85.

Stauffer taught music and led choirs at EMU from 1939 to 1976. He had been a chaplain at Menno-Haven and Mennonite Village in Chambersburg, where he lived since 1979.

Stauffer led the choral music program and directed the traditional alumni rendition of The Holy City during homecoming weekend.

The Altoona native was choral director for seven years of the Mennonite Hour radio broadcasts produced by Mennonite Media. He was pastor of Charlottesville (Va.) Mennonite Church from 1961 to 1977 and chaplain of the Cedars and the Towers nursing facilities in Charlottesville during that time.

He completed a two-year program of at Eastern Mennonite College and earned a bachelor's degree from Madison College, now James Madison University. He attended Juillard School of Music in New York City and received a master's degree from George Peabody College, Nashville, Tenn.

His wife, Eva Hostetter Stauffer, a Denbigh, Va., native, died Feb. 25, 1997. They were married Dec. 24, 1939.

Survivors include a son, John of New Market, Va.; two daughters, Margaret Corle of Lancaster and Evelyn Baer of Hagerstown, Md.; a sister, Margaret Alger of Dayton, Va.; a brother, James k. of Harrisonburg, eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

A memorial service was scheduled for March 27 at Park View Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg, with burial at Lindale Mennonite Church cemetery.