Steiner, Mildred Esther Metzler (1913-2007)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2007 Dec 24 p. 8

Birth date: 1913 Jan 23

text of obituary:

MILDRED METZLER STEINER>

Mildred Esther Steiner, 94, of Goshen, Ind., died Nov. 29, 2007. She was born Jan. 23, 1913, to Edith and Harvey Metzler on their family farm in Columbiana, Ohio.

After high school she attended Goshen College and then graduated from Kent State College. She then taught in a two-room country school in her home community until her marriage to John Steiner on June 6, 1936.

The call of the church led she and John to move their family to Kansas. For the next seven years they lived in three different communities in central and western Kansas: Hesston, Garden City and Elbing. They moved to Goshen in 1954, when they received a call for John to serve as superintendent at Bethany Christian High School. She continued to pursue her interest in teaching, receiving her bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Goshen College. She taught at Clinton Christian School and Harrison Elementary School, near Wakarusa, until her retirement in 1977.

She was a member at Pleasant View Mennonite Church of Goshen for the past 53 years, where she served not only as a minister’s wife but as children’s Sunday school superintendent, women’s fellowship president, and Sunday school and summer Bible school teacher. She was active in the women’s missionary sewing association and the Mennonite Relief Sale.

Survivors include five children, Sylvia Miller and her husband, Don, and J. Steiner and his wife, Lillian, all of Goshen, Wes Steiner and his wife, Margaret, of Middlebury, Janet Steiner and her husband, Michael O’Malley, of Washington, D.C., and Joan Vogt and her husband, Dave, of Evanston, Ill.; a sister, Laura Metzler of Columbiana, Ohio; nine grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her husband, John; and three sisters, Rena Cullar, Sarah Metzler and Ruth Steiner.