Thut, Harold (1909-1997)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1997 Jun 19 p. 12

Birth date: 1909 Jul 30

text of obituary:

HAROLD THUT

Harold Thut, 87, of Orrville, Ohio, died April 9, 1997, at Aultman Hospital in Canton after complications from a heart attack March 11.

He was born July 30, 1909, in Bluffton to Noah and Emma Neuenschwander Thut. In 1913 the family moved to West Liberty, where he was president of his senior class in 1927.

He graduated from Urbana Junior College and farmed in the area. He married Louella Miller on July 29, 1936. They raised four children and a foster son on a dairy farm near Orrville.

Over the 60 years of their marriage, Harold and Louella frequently hosted foreign exchange students, travelers and many friends and family in their home. They loved to travel and visited more than 15 countries.

Harold liked wood carving gardening, genealogy and history. he served in many posts for Oak Grove Mennonite Church of Smithville, Habitat for Humanity, Smithville Garden Club, Smithville Historical Society, the former Friendly Neighbors Farm Bureau Council and the former FISH volunteer transportation group.

The Thuts volunteered for a year at the Mennonite Central Committee International Guest House in Washington, D. C., and a year with Germantown Mennonite Church in Philadelphia. They also helped at Penn Alps, a restored stagecoach stop in Grantsville, Md.

Surviving, in addition to his wife, are his children and their spouses, Owen and Mahlon Schmucker of Wooster, Richard and Shirley Thut of Orrville, Tim and Margaret Thut of Goshen, Ind., and Kay and Ray Nussbaum of Salem, Ore.; a foster son and his wife, Vic and Bev Plessinger of Smithville; 14 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. Three brothers and two sisters died previously.