Stuckey, Anne Woelfle (1953-2007)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2007 Jun 11 p. 1, 3

Birth date: 1953 Feb 26

text of obituary:

Ohio pastor dies in crash on rain-slicked highway

By Robert Rhodes

Mennonite Weekly Review

ARCHBOLD, Ohio — Anne Stuckey, associate pastor of Zion Mennonite Church, who was known for her writing and was documenting her struggle with breast cancer, died May 31 in an automobile accident near Peru, Ill.

Stuckey, 54, of Somerset, Mich., died when she apparently lost control of her vehicle on a rain-slicked Interstate 80. Stuckey's eastbound Volkswagen sedan crossed the highway median and collided with a westbound semi driven by a Minnesota man, who was not injured.

According to news reports, Stuckey had been in Iowa researching a new book about her battle with breast cancer, tentatively titled When the Pastor Gets Cancer. She had recently begun a sabbatical from her pastoral work to concentrate on the book.

"She had just begun the introduction to the book when the Lord chose to take her," Stuckey's husband, Terry, wrote in a remembrance of his wife. "The book was to be her spiritual journey and awakening as she went from a dedicated caregiver in the congregation to one receiving the care and trying to understand that process.

"She was overwhelmed by how much the congregation at Zion taught her about caregiving and wished to put it in writing."

Stuckey often counseled with church members who were grieving or facing major life challenges, according to the Toledo Blade newspaper.

"She was superb at doing that and incredibly appreciated by the congregation," Zion Pastor Ronald D. Guengerich told the Blade.

Stuckey was ordained in 1988 and had served several pastorates. She was associate pastor of First Mennonite Church in Iowa City from 1987 to 1989 and co-pastor at the church from 1989 to 1990. She was preaching minister at Salem Mennonite Church in Waldron, Mich., from 1991 to 2000, when she joined the staff of the Archbold congregation.

She had been a writer for Builder and The Mennonite and was the author of Training Ministry Teams: A Manual for Deacons and Elders, which was translated into several languages.

Stuckey served as chair of the worhship committee and as worship leader at the Mennonite Church general assembly in 1985. She also served on the Goshen (Ind.) Biblical Seminary board of overseers. She was minister of congregational leadership for the former Mennonite Board of Congregational Ministries and chaired the Archbold Area Ministerium from 2004 to 2005. She was a keynote speaker at many church assemblies, conventions and schools.

Forn Feb. 26, 1953, at Kitchener, Ont., the daughter of Richard and Elizabeth Porter Woelfle, she married Terry Stuckey on June 22, 1974. She received a bachelor's degree from Waterloo (Ont.) Lutheran University and a master's degree from Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Ind. She attended the Sorbonne in Paris and in 2003 graduated from the Theological Foundation at South Bend, Ind.

Survivors include her husband; a daughter, Leah of Elkhart, Ind.; a son, matt of Elkhart, Ind.; her mother and stepfather, Elizabeth and A. Leonard Hagey of Cambridge, Ont.; a brother, John Woelfle of Cambridge, Ont.; and a stepbrother, John Arthur Hagey of Toronto, Ont.

A memorial service was to be held June 6 at Founders Hall at Sauder Village, Memorials may be made to Mennonite Central Committee.