Klaassen, Glendon J. (1933-2015)

Revision as of 16:26, 20 December 2017

Mennonite World Review obituary: 2015 Aug 17 p. 15

Birth date: 1933 Mar 30

Text of obituary:

Glendon J. Klaassen

Glendon J. Klaassen, 82, died Aug. 1, 2015. He was born March 30, 1933, to Jacob A. and Sarah Unruh Klaassen in Mountain Lake, Minn.

He grew up in Mountain Lake on a farm and accepted Christ at an early age. He graduated from Grace Bible Institute in Omaha, Neb., where he met the love of his life, Reitha Kaufman. They were married July 15, 1955, in Newton, Kan.

He continued his education at the University of Omaha in social work, graduated from Goshen (Ind.) College with a degree in secondary education in 1958 and in 1974 obtained a master of divinity degree from Mennonite Biblical Seminary.

He was ordained as a minister on July 19, 1959. He and Reitha confirmed a call to become mission workers in Colombia with the Board of Missions of the General Conference Mennonite Church of Newton. On Aug. 28, 1959, the left for 18 years of mission work in Colombia. They aided in ministries to children, teaching at Bible schools, setting up churches, teaching and leading people to know Christ and understand the joy of salvation. They returned to Newton in 1977.

He accepted the call to pastor Hoffnungsau Mennonite Church in Inman, Kan., in 1979; and in 1981 he accepted a call from the Commission on Overseas Mission to become the secretary of Latin America and later executive secretary, in Newton, where he retired in 1998. He enjoyed family, traveling, music, tennis and various collections, including stamps and foreign currency from his travels.

In 2011, he was diagnosed with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy. He fought the disease courageously and died at his home in The Villages, Fla.

Survivors include his wife of 60 years, Reitha; four children, Mark Klaassen and his wife, Susan, of Indiana, Steve Klaassen and his wife, Evie, of Florida, James Klaassen and his wife, Catherine, of New Jersey, and Marcella Andres and her husband, Steve, of Kansas; an older sister, Ethel Neufeld of California; a brother, Marvin Klaassen of Pennsylvania; and a younger sister, Jeanette Kroeker of Nebraska; 11 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

A celebration of his life service will be held Sept. 6 at Eighth Street Mennonite Church in Goshen.

Mennonite World Review obituary: 2015 Aug 31 p. 13

Text of obituary:

Colombia worker, mission executive dies

THE VILLAGES, Fla. — Glendon J. Klaassen, who served 18 years in Colombia as a mission worker and later was a pastor in Kansas and a mission executive for the General Conference Mennonite Church, died Aug. 1 at his home. He was 82.

IN Colombia, Klaassen and his wife, Reitha, helped establish churches, taught in Bible schools and shared the gospel of Jesus Christ. They served in Cachipay, Ibagué and Bogotá.