Wiebe, Dwight (d. 2000)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 6 Jan 2000 p. 3

Birth date:

text of obituary:

Former MCC European Pax Director Dies

DALLAS — Dwight Wiebe, European Pax director for Mennonite Central Committee from 1954 to 1957, died Jan. 3 at Presbyterian Hospital. He was 72.

As Pax director in Europe, he oversaw a program in which young men aid alternative service as conscientious objectors to aid refugees and others in the wake of World War II.

Most of the work he directed focused on construction of housing and church buildings for Mennonite refugees at seven locations in western Germany.

“Many former MCC Pax workers remember Dwight as a mentor who enriched their service experience and challenged them to achieve things beyond their expectations," said Robert Schrag, Mennonite Weekly Review publisher, who worked under Wiebe’s direction in Germany during the mid-1950s.

Wiebe met and married Margot Stauffer while working in Germany.

He was well known in Mennonite circles across the country for his many years of service with a variety of organizations.

After working two years in the MCC central office in Akron, Pa., he went to work for Mennonite Brethren Board of Missions in Hillsboro, Kan., serving 12 years as service and relief secretary for missions/services.

He then returned to school to complete a doctorate at Kansas State University and spent the remaining years of his career developing and managing international education programs. Most recently, he founded United Educational Services, a non-profit venture that provided educational opportunities for Taiwanese students. He continued to direct that program until his death.

Wiebe was involved with many charitable organizations, including Mennonite Mutual Aid. He was active in Peace Mennonite Church in Dallas.

He was born to missionaries F.V. and Agnes Wiebe in Tientsin, China. He graduated from Tabor College Academy in Hillsboro in 1948 and received a bachelor’s degree from Taylor University in Upland, Ind., in 1951. He completed a master's degree from Purdue University in 1954 and received a Ph.D. from Kansas State in 1977.

He was diagnosed with esophageal cancer three weeks before he died and had been hospitalized for pneumonia and other infections.

He is survived by his wife, Margot; two daughters, Ricki and her husband Lou Parris, and Christine Wiebe and her husband Drew Dahl; a son, Franck Wiebe and his wife Mary Jane Breinholt; five grandchildren; two brothers, Franklin and Richard; and four sisters, Rachel Hiebert, Elizabeth Smith, Barbara Miller and Hope Ortman.

He was preceded in death by two brothers, David, his twin, who died during childhood in China, and Harold; and a sister, Grace.