Pannabecker, Samuel Floyd (1896-1977)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1977 Sep 22 p. 3

Birth date: 1896

text of obituary:

Former Seminary President, Missionary to China Dies

ELKHART, IND.—Samuel Floyd Pannabecker, 81, president emeritus of Mennonite Biblical Seminary, died Sept. 14 at Elkhart General Hospital. He had been in failing health since he and his wife returned in April to their residence at Greencroft Retirement Center in Goshen from a winter residence in Florida.

Funeral services were held Sept. 17 at the Chapel of the Sermon on the Mount, Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries, under the direction of Ross T. Bender, AMBS dean, and Erland Waltner, president of Mennonite Biblical Seminary. Pannabecker had been a member of Hively Avenue Mennonite Church, Elkhart.

Born in Petoskey, Mich. in 1896, Pannabecker graduated from Bluffton College and Witmarsum Theological Seminary, and taught at Bluffton College from 1918 to 1923. He married Sylvia Tschantz of Dalton, Ohio in 1921; she survives.

THE PANNABECKERS spent many of their next 23 years serving in China, first under the General Conference Mennonite Church and later with Mennonite Central Committee. During an extended furlough in the early 1930s he completed a divinity degree at Garrett Biblical Institute, Evanston, Ill., and later secured a Ph. D. at Yale University in 1944, after the Sino-Japanese war had forced them back to the U. S.

After working for one year in China relief under MCC, Pannabecker joined the faculty of Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Chicago, in 1946. He served as dean and professor of missions, and then as president until the seminary moved to Elkhart in 1958. He occupied the positions of dean, registrar, and archivist over the ensuing 20 years, and also served on the General Conference mission board from 1947-1965.

AN AUTHOR as well as a scholar in Oriental and Western history, Pannabecker wrote three books for publication during his years in Elkhart: Faith in Ferment, a history of the Central District Conference (GCMC), Open Doors, a history of the General Conference Mennonite Church, and Ventures in Faith, a history of Mennonite Biblical Seminary. A final book, completed in February 1977 and still unpublished, tells of the experiences of the identical twin brothers—Floyd and Lloyd—from the cradle to their college years.

Survivors besides his wife include three children and their spouses, Richard and Wanda Pannabecker of Bluffton, Ohio, Robert and Deborah Pannabecker of Kailua, Hawaii, and Alice Ruth and Robert Ramseyer of Elkhart, Ind. Three brothers, Lloyd, Karl and Ray, and 11 grandchildren also survive.

The Mennonite obituary: 1977 Oct 4 p. 571