Yoder, Sanford C. (1879-1975)

Latest revision as of 16:28, 26 October 2023

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1975 Feb 27 p. 3

Birth date: 1879 Dec 5

text of obituary:

Served From 1924 to 1940

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

text of obituary:

Educator, Missions Leader, Pastor, Writer

Mr. Yoder was born Dec. 5, 1879, to Christian S. and Anna (Swartzendruber) Yoder, pioneers on the Iowa prairie at Sharon Center, near Iowa City. When he was a young boy, the family moved to northwestern Iowa. Owing to economic depression and family hardship, he finished high school as he was able and was graduated from Clarion High School at the age of 22 and most likely was the first child of Amish parents west of the Mississippi rive to continue his education through high school.

A brief sketch of his early years includes teaching rural school and high school in Iowa, 1901-1905; delegate to county, district and Iowa state political conventions, 1901-04; marriage to Emma Stutsman [Stutzman], of his home community, in 1903; and school principal and homesteader in the state of Washington. In 1908 he settled in Nebraska and became deeply interested in the work of the Amish-Mennonite Church.

HE WAS ORDAINED to the ministry in 1911 at Chappell, Neb. and ordained bishop in 1913 at Kalona, Ia. He was pastor of the East Union Mennonite Church,Kalona, 1913-24.

During World War I he was one of those responsible for the Amish and Mennonite conscientious objectors in camps of the Mississippi River and helped draft the document setting forth the church's position on nonresistance.

He was elected tot he Mennonite Board of Education in 1916 and was its president 1919-24. He was moderator of the Mennonite General Conference, 1919-21, the Western Amish-Mennonite Conference in 1920, and the Iowa-Nebraska Mennonite Conference 1921, 1924 and 1930.

IN 1918 he was elected to the Mennonite Board of Missions. From 1921 to 1940 he was the board secretary and from 1940 to 1944 its president. he was also a founding member of the MCC.

Mr. Yoder was asked to take over the presidency of Goshen College several times before he finally accepted in August 1923. A difficult situation then faced him: the church had closed the college for the year 1923-24 due to major controversy and lack of confidence. It was his job to reorganize the college and open it in 1924.

SENSING the immediate as well as long-range needs, Mr. Yoder began at once to establish proper relations between the college and the church constituency. That he gradually won the confidence of the Mennonite Church during his 17-year tenure as president is shown by the size of the student body, which grew from 70 in 1924 to 326 in 1939, and in contributions for operations as well as for four buildings — Coffman Hall (1929), Kulp Hall (rebuilt 1930), Health Center (1939), and Memorial Library (1940).

He built a faculty of adequate size and training for a strong liberal arts college and a central graduate Bible school, and helped launch the Mennonite Historical Library and the scholarly "Mennonite Quarterly Review." He laid the groundwork for accreditation by the North Central Association, a milestone reached by his successor, Ernest E. Miller, in the first year of his presidency.

While president of Goshen College, he was pastor of the College Mennonite Church 1941-44, and its bishop 1944-56.

Mr. Yoder completed his college education after accepting the presidency. In 1927 he received the B.A. from Iowa State University and the LL.B. from Hamilton College of Law, of Chicago. In 1933 he received the M.A. in theology from Winona Lake School of Theology, in 1934 the B.D. from Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, and in 1939 the S.T.D. from the divinity school of Gordon College of Theology and Missions.

UPON RETIRING from the presidency in 1940, Mr. Yoder taught Bible at Goshen College until 1951, and was director of the college's Bible correspondence department until 1962. Just before leaving the presidency, he began writing of a wide variety of topics and experiences, and his first book, "For Conscience Sake," a study of Mennonite migrations resulting from World War I, was published in 1940.

Numerous books appeared later: "Down South American Way" (1943), "Poetry of the Old Testament" (1948), "Eastward to the Sun" (1953), "Horse Trails Along the Desert" (1954), "Days of My Years" (1959), "If I Were Young Again" (1963), and "He Gave Some Prophets" (1964) about the Old Testament prophets and their message. He also wrote a number of pamphlets and booklets.

Mr. Yoder was a member of several national professional societies and the American Bible Society. He was elected to the Eugene Field Society of Authors in 1941 and to the International mark Twain Society of Authors and Journalists in 1954. He is listed in "Who's Who in the Midwest."

NORTHERN BAPTIST Theological Seminary conferred the honorary D.D. on him in 1937.