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Blosser, Eugene (1917-2008)
Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2008 Jul 7 p. 7
Birth date: 1917 Mar 27
text of obituary:
By Mennonite Mission Network staff
WELLMAN, Iow — Eugen Blosser thought he would spend his life ministering in china. He was off by only a few hundred miles.
Bosser, 91, who died June 8 in Wellman, spent 28 years planting churches and serving congregations and an international school in Hokkaido, Japan.
His service continued in Iowa, where he was active at Wellman Mennonite Church for 24 years after retirement.
Blosser was born March 27, 1917, to Perry and Ada V. Lahman Blosser of South English.
During World War II, Blosser served in Civilian Public Service in Nebraska and Wisconsin. He graduated from Goshen (Ind.) College and Goshen Biblical Seminary and did postgraduate work in Far Eastern studies at the University of Michigan.
Blosser married Louella Gingerich of Sept. 19, 1949, in Hong Kong, where each had been sent separately by Mennonite Board of Missions.
In December 1949, Communists took over Chengdu, China, where they were serving. By January 1951, the Blossers with their young son, Philip, were leaving China with the rest of the Mennonite mission workers.
The Blossers then went to Japan, where they ministered in Tokyo and on Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island.
Masakazu Yamade, an executive member of Japan Mennonite Fellowship, chaired Hokkaido Mennonite Conference when the Blossers served in Taiki.
"The Blossers were always willing to go where there was need," Yamade said.
He recalled when they left Taiki, despite an expectation for growth there, because no one else was available to continue work at a Sapporo boarding facility for missionary children.
"The move resulted not only in the start of the first Mennonite church in Sapporo but also led to Mennonite relationships with other denominations," Yamade said.
The Blossers stayed in Japan from 1953 to 1981. Working with other Mennonite mission workers and Japanese Christians, they planted churches in Taiki, Sapporo and Hiroo, ministering, evangelizing and baptizing. They also worked with already established churches in Obihiro and Kushiro where they spent time alongside Pastor Akira Mimoto at Tottori Mennonite Church, the first Hokkaido Mennonite congregation established deliberately by a team of North Americans and Japanese.
Blosser served as treasurer for Japan Mennonite Mission and served on various Hokkaido Mennonite Conference committees. He returned after retirement to work for a short time at the Tokyo Anabaptist center.
During his ministerial career, Blosser also served as pastor for Parnell Mennonite Church, a church plant out of nearby West Union Mennonite Church. He and Louella Blosser pastored First Mennonite Church in Nampa, Idaho.
He was preceded in death by his wife in 1983. A son, Thomas Yoshiro, six brothers and two sisters are also deceased.
He married Elsie Zook of Wellman on Aug. 7, 1984. She survives with his children, Philip of Detroit, Rachel Blosser Derstine of Schwenksville, Pa., and Meiko Blosser of Seattle; eight grand-children and four great-grndchildren.