Kaufman, Ralph (1919-2006)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2006 Dec 4 p. 12

Birth date: 1919 Feb 20

text of obituary:

RALPH KAUFMAN

Ralph Kenneth Kaufman, 87, of Fonda, Iowa, died Aug. 18, 2006, at the Fonda Nursing & Rehab Center. He was born Feb. 20, 1919, at Havelock, Iowa.

He graduated from Havelock High School in 1937. For two years after high school, he worked as a farm hand for his neighbors. He farmed before registering for the draft. He chose Civilian Public Service as an alternative to going to war. He was assigned to Belton, Mont., and worked as a truck driver hauling wood and fighting forest fires. He was also a foreman of a crew for two years and two months. He then went to Monroe, Mich., as a dairy tester, going to the University of Michigan at Lansing for about six weeks to learn to be a dairy tester. He was in Michigan 18 months.

He drove truck for Mennonite Central Committee in Akron, Pa., one winter. He went to war-torn Poland on a Horses for Humanity Mission trip sponsored by the Brethren service and the UNRRA. He was one of 100 cowboys/seamen caring for 1,600 horses on the ship. Farmland opened in rural Fonda, so he moved to Fonda and started farming on his own.

He married Arnetta Detweiler in January 1956.

At Manson Mennonite Church he served on the church board, as an elder and as Sunday school superintendent. He enjoyed raising livestock and was an avid hunter and fisherman.

Survivors include his wife, Arnetta; a son, Peter Kaufman and his wife, Janel, of Fonda; two daughters, Teresa Simpson and her husband, Roscoe, of Lytton, and Christina Kauffman and her husband, Lyle, of Manson; two brothers, Will Kaufman of Bartlesville, Okla., and Wayne Kaufman of Hutchinson, Kan.; two sisters, Marie Kaufman of Glendale, Ariz., and Bernice Johnson of Minier, Ill.; and eight grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by a sister, Marcille Davidhizar.

Funeral services were held at Manson Mennonite Church. Burial was in Rose Hill Cemetery in Manson.