Roten, Gertrude Wiebe (1921-2000)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2000 Jul 13 p. 12

Birth date: 1921 May 4

text of obituary:

Retired AMBS professor dies

By Mary E. Klassen

ELKHART, Ind. - Gertrude Roten, professor emerita of Greek and New Testament at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, died July 10 at her home. She was 79.

Roten taught New Testament Greek at AMBS from 1966 to 1989. Until recently, she continued to work out of her office at AMBS writing a commentary on the Johannine Epistles and working on her memoirs.

"Gertrude's passion and scholarship for the Greek New Testament touched all of us who knew her,” said Mark Weidner, AMBS vice president who studied under Roten in the early 1970s. "For many years she was a gateway at AMBS, inviting and welcoming students into a life-long dialogue with the Word."

Erland Waltner, president emeritus of Mennonite Biblical Seminary, said: “Gertrude was a contagious enthusiast, having a gift to inspire enthusiasm in others. She was enthusiastic about Christian faith, about biblical studies, about Greek, about AMBS and her faith community, about flowers and her garden, about life itself. This helped make her an excellent teacher."

Willard M. Swartley, New Testament professor at AMBS and colleague of Roten's, said one of her passions was “prayer and more prayer” - before the current swell of interest in spirituality. Other passions, according to Swartley, were "her husband and family; the Bible as God’s Word, especially John and I John; and discerning gifts and future in her students, especially young women.”

Roten also is remembered for her acceptance and love of others. She had an unusually large circle of friends because of her ability to listen and share other’s struggles and pains.

Roten was born May 4, 1921, to Henry John and Eliese Regier Wiebe of Whitewater, Kan. She was baptized when she was 16 and joined Emmaus Mennonite Church. She attended Hesston (Kan.) Academy and earned a B.A. from Wheaton (Ill.) College in 1948. She then earned an M.R.E. from Biblical Seminary in New York in 1950, an M. A. from Columbia University in 1951 and an Ed. D. from Columbia University in 1960. From 1952 to 1964 she taught at Manchester College, North Manchester, Ind. She married Paul Roten in 1961. In 1965 Paul accepted a call to AMBS to serve as librarian, and Gertrude became the instructor in Greek. Paul died in 1986.

Roten is survived by two children, Renee of Joplin, Mo., and Paul Lyman of Seattle; four grandchildren: three great-grandchildren; and two brothers, Wilbert Wiebe of Whitewater and Leonard Wiebe of North Newton, Kan. A third brother, Alfred, preceded her in death.

The funeral was scheduled for July 14 in the Chapel of the Sermon on the Mount at AMBS, followed by a meal and time of reminiscence at Hively Avenue Mennonite Church, where Roten was a member for 34 years. Burial will be in Yellow Creek Cemetery.