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Kauffman, Clara Fricke (1909-2006)
Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2006 Feb 20 p. 8
Birth date: 1909 Jan 28
text of obituary:
CLARA KAUFFMAN
Clara Kauffman, 97, of Hesston, Kan., died Feb. 8, 2006, at Newton Medical Center. She was born Jan. 28, 1909, to Charles and Anna (Dietrich) Fricke in Chicago.
She married Milo Kauffman on Oct. 3, 1931, in Chicago.
She was a homemaker and a member of Hesston Mennonite Church.
Survivors include a son, Milo F. Kauffman Jr. and his wife, Carolyn, of Newton; seven daughters, Marilyn Miller and her husband, Maurice, of Boulder, Colo., Joy Sears and her husband, Merle, of Tiskilwa, Ill., Evelyn Shellenberger and her husband, Wally, of Paoli, Ind., Gloria Yoder and her husband, Levi, of Lovington, Ill., Bonnie Sowers and her husband, Floyd, of Hesston, Phyllis Hysong and her husband, John, of Phoenix, Ariz., and Betty Kauffman Schmidt and her husband, Clinton, of Littleton, Colo.; a brother, Elmer Fricke of McMinnville, Ore.; a sister, Evelyn Millbern of Springfield, Mo.; 28 grandchildren and 36 great-grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Milo, in 1988; three sons, Glen, Charles and David; four brothers; a sister; and a grandson, Michael Miller.
Services will be held at Hesston Mennonite Church. Burial will be in Eastlawn Cemetery.
Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2006 Feb 27 p. 7
text of obituary:
By Phil Richard
Hesston College
HESSTON, Kan. — Clara Kauffman, who played an important supportive role during her husband's presidency at Hesston college, died Feb. 8 at Newton Medical Center. She was 97.
"She felt she was a partner with Dad," said Bonnie Sowers, a daughter and director of the college's nursing program and associate dean. "The nine children in our family took a lot of time and work, but Mom felt that her role of maintaining a strong home was important so Dad could do his work for the college."
Milo Kauffman, who died in 1988, was Hesston's president from 1932-51. He and Clara (Fricke) were married in 1931 in Chicago, where Clara grew upo. The next year, he accepted a call to be Hesston's second president.
Their legacy of giving to the college extended far beyond the year's of Milo's presidency.
I 1984, during the college's 75th anniversary celebration, 59 quilts in a quilt auction brought $65,000 for a student aid scholarship fund names in honor of the Kauffmans. The fund had been established a year earlier by family and friends.
"Her heart was in the student aid scholarship fund," Sowers said. "It was important to her to give students the opportunity to attend Hesston college.
Last October, during the 50-year reunion of the class of 1955, which included Marilyn Miller of Boulder, Colo., one of the Kauffman's six daughters, a class gift of $4,630 was raised for the Milo and Clara Kauffman Scholarship Fund.
The fund has grown to about $155,000. this school year, the fund provided $7,600 in scholarships to Hesston students.
