Willems, Abe (1919-2005)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2005 Jun 6 p. 8

Birth date: 1919 Jan 28

text of obituary:

ABE WILLEMS

Abe Willems, 86, of Goshen, Ind., died May 5, 2005, at Greencroft Healthcare. He was born Jan. 28, 1919, to Abraham F. and Anna Isaac Willems in Greensburg, Kan.

He was baptized into the Krimmer Mennonite Church in January 1932, and in 1938 graduated from Greensburg High School. On Nov. 29, 1941, he married Ruth Miller in Yoder, Kan.

From 1942 through 1946, he served in Civilian Public Service at Sideling Hill, Pa., Howard and Exeter, R.I. After CPS they lived in Berlin, Ohio, for 10 years, where he was employed by Nickles Bakery. In 1956 they moved to Goshen and remained there. He graduated from Goshen College and earned a masters degree from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. He taught school at York Elementary and at Middlebury Elementary. He was a member of Indiana and Elkhart County Retired Teachers associations, and of College Mennonite Church, where he served as Sunday school superintendent and a Sunday school teacher. He was a skilled woodworker and a devoted grandpa.

Survivors include a daughter, Rhonda Swartzendruber and her husband, Douglas, of Malibu, Calif.; two sons, Arnold E. and his wife, Wanda, of Laramie, Wyo., and Kenneth D. and his wife, Ann, of Goshen; a sister, Rosie Roupp of Goshen; two brothers, Mike of Craig, Colo., and John of Albany, Ore.; seven grandchildren and six great- grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Ruth, on Jan. 29, 2003; a sister, Esther Selzer; and a brother, Aaron Willems.

The memorial service was held at College Mennonite Church. Burial was in Elkhart Prairie Cemetery of Goshen.