Kraft, James Lewis (d. 1953)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1953 Dec 10 p. 1

Birth date:

text of obituary:

Cheese Manufacturer Was Outstanding Layman

FOUNDER OF KRAFT COMPANY CAME FROM MENNONITE FAMILY

New York, N. Y. — The Board of Managers of the American Bible Society records with sorrow the death on February 16, 1953, of James Lewis Kraft, a distinguished layman who, since 1926, was a Vice President of the Society. Mr. Kraft became a citizen of this country in 1911 having come from a humble family of Canadian Mennonites. Six years later he perfected a method of processing cheese led to his rapid rise in the industry until he became the founder of the Kraft Cheese Corporation.

In church circles Mr. Kraft was an outstanding leader in the field of Christian Education. He was President Pro Tem and Treasurer of the International Council of Religious Education, President and a Trustee of the American Baptist Assembly at Green Lake, Wisconsin, and at the time of his death was Associate Treasurer of the National Council of Churches. He was for many years a devoted member of the North Shore Baptist Church of Chicago.

For the last 25 years the exercise of Mr. Kraft’s consecrated principles for giving his time, his talent and his money for the cause of Christ had a profound effect upon hundreds of churches, thousands of ministers of many denominations and countless laymen everywhere. (From “Bible Society Record”)