Swartzentruber, Clayton Laban (1928-2010)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2010 Nov 8 p. 13

Birth date: 1928 May 16

text of obituary:

CLAYTON SWARTZENTRUBER

Clayton Laban Swartzentruber, 82, died Aug. 12, 2010. He was born May 16, 1928, to Laban and Nanna Swartzentruber.

He holds a bachelor’s degree from Eastern Mennonite University, a master of divinity degree from Goshen Biblical Seminary and a doctorate from Walden University.

He was raised in Greenwood, Del., and taught at the Mennonite school there. He was principal at Western Mennonite High School in Salem, Ore., from 1952 to 1956, and taught at Bethany Christian High School in Goshen, Ind., 1956-58. As superintendent, he helped found Central Christian High School in Kidron, Ohio, and he served there 1958-67. He served as superintendent of Rockway Mennonite High School in Kitchener, Ont., 1967-69.

In 1969, he moved with his family to Harleysville, Pa., and worked as a guidance counselor in the Perkiomen Valley Schools. He founded the Mainland Institute, a graduate extension school of Marywood College in Scranton, Pa., and served on the pastoral team at Salford Mennonite Church in Harleysville, Pa. He later was ordained as pastor at Methacton Mennonite Church and later at Deep Run East. He served on the Franconia Conference Leadership Commission, was an overseer in the Franconia Mennonite Conference, and served on numerous Mennonite church boards, including the board of Eastern Mennonite University. He founded the Kairos School of Spiritual Formation.

He was a churchman, educator and Christian businessman. He will be missed by many whom he befriended, many whom he nurtured and mentored, and by many whose lives he touched with his wisdom, humor and life of service.

Survivors include his wife, Margaret Louise Risser Swartzentruber; five children, Don, Jon and his wife, Jane Trent, Evon Swartzentruber Bergey and her husband, Phil, Lon and his wife, Sandy, and Ron and his wife, Maureen; a sister, Dorcas Miller; and 13 grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by a twin brother and sisters.