Stauffer, Howard Otterbein (1897-1986)

Howard Otterbein Stauffer: deacon in the Mount View Mennonite Church near High River, Alberta, and the Rainham Mennonite Church in Ontario. He was born 19 January 1897 near Breslau, Ontario, and died at Tofield, Alberta, on 16 May 1986. He was married to Stella Mabel Brubaker (8 May 1896-4 June 1933) on 20 November 1923. They had four children. After the death of his first wife, Howard Stauffer married Mary Holderbein (27 October 1907-29 October 1964) on 3 November 1935. After Mary died, Howard married Barbara Fretz (2 April 1905-22 August 1997), the widow of A. Lewis Fretz.

Howard Staffer was the eldest son of Bishop Norman Stauffer. The family came to the High River district in 1901. Howard was baptized and became a member of the Mount View Mennonite Church in 1909. He spent the winter of 1917-18 attending the Ontario Mennonite Bible School in Kitchener, but also worked for the Ford Motor Company in Detroit and on a farm at Guernsey, Saskatchewan in his later teens. He was elected Assistant Superintendent of the Mount View Sunday school in 1918, and became Superintendent and teacher after he returned to the High River district in 1921.

The first year after their marriage in 1923 Howard and Stella Stauffer farmed in the Aldersyde district, but then moved to Duchess where Howard operated a garage until the spring of 1936. The family then moved to a farm near Rosemary, Alberta, but a year later the family moved back to Aldersyde onto Howard's father's old farm. They lived there until 1952 when the farm was sold.

Howard Stauffer was ordained, by lot, as a deacon in the Mount View Mennonite Church on 11 January 1942. Unfortunately, one of the other men in the lot was not able to accept the result. He left the Mount View church and attempted to start a church of his own.

The Stauffer family moved to Ontario in 1952, working at various jobs, including work in Mennonite homes for seniors. In 1959 they returned to Edmonton, where Howard worked in the Rosecrest Home for handicapped children until his retirement in 1965. The family then moved to Ryley near Tofield, and relocated to Tofield in 1975. Howard apparently did not serve as a deacon in Edmonton or Tofield although, having been ordained for life, he continued to be listed in some Mennonite directories.

Bibliography

Gladys-Dinton through the years, Vol. 1, 1883-1964: 48.

Obituary notice in the Gospel Herald for Howard O. Stauffer.

Regehr, T. D. Faith, Life and Witness in the Northwest, 1903-2003: Centennial History of the Northwest Mennonite Conference .Kitchener, ON: Pandora Press, 2003.

Stauffer, Ezra. History of the Alberta-Saskatchewan Mennonite Conference. Ryley, Alberta: Alberta-Saskatchewan Mennonite Conference, 1960: 97-98.

Author(s)	Ted D Regehr
Date Published	December 2003

Cite This Article

MLA style

Regehr, Ted D. "Stauffer, Howard Otterbein (1897-1986)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. December 2003. Web. 16 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Stauffer,_Howard_Otterbein_(1897-1986)&oldid=143245.

APA style

Regehr, Ted D. (December 2003). Stauffer, Howard Otterbein (1897-1986). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 16 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Stauffer,_Howard_Otterbein_(1897-1986)&oldid=143245.

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