Yoder, Sanford C. (1879-1975)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1975 Feb 27 p. 3

Birth date: 1879

text of obituary:

Served From 1924 to 1940

Former Goshen College President Dies at Age 95

GOSHEN, IND. — Sanford C. Yoder, president emeritus of Goshen College and for many years a leader in mission activities of the Mennonite Church, died Sunday, Feb. 23, at the Greencroft Nursing Center near the college campus. He was 95.

Funeral services were conducted at 11 a.m. Wednesday at the College Mennonite Church by John Mosemann, pastor, and J. Lawrence Burkholder, Goshen president.

Dr. Yoder's death followed by only a few weeks the death of another president emeritus of the school, Dr. Ernest E. Miller.

Since retirement Dr. Yoder had lived at the Pleasantview Home, Kalona, Ia., and at Greencroft Manor here. His wife, the former Emma Stutzman, died several years ago.

DR. YODER SERVED as the seventh president of Goshen College in the years 1924 to 1940. He was also professor of Bible, and continued on the faculty until 1951. Following that, he was director of the college's Bible Correspondence Department until 1962.

A native of Johnson County, Iowa, Dr. Yoder was ordained a minister in 1911 and to the office of bishop in 1913. He was president of the Mennonite Board of Education for five years before assuming the presidency of the college after the temporary closing of the school in the early 20s.

He was a long-time member of the Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities and of the Mennonite Central Committee. He assisted in opening the Argentine field of the Mennonite Church in 1919-1920, and in 1940 traveled to Argentina and Paraguay as a representative of the mission Board and the MCC.

A GRADUATE of the State University of Iowa, he received the M.A. degree in theology from the Winona Lake School of Theology, the B.D. and D.D. degrees from Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, and the S.T.D. degree from the Divinity School of Gordon College.

In his alter years, Dr. Yoder wrote extensively and authored four books published by the Herald Press, Scottdale, Pa.

Survivors include one daughter, Mrs. LaVerne Hostetler of Goshen, nine grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, and four sisters.

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1975 Mar 13 p. 6