View source for Stoltzfus, Grant Moses (1916-1974)

[[File:Stoltzfus_Grant_1969.jpg|300px|thumb|right|''Grant Stoltzfus, 1969.<br />
Scan courtesy [http://www.mennoniteusa.org/executive-board/archives/ Mennonite Church USA Archives-Goshen] HM 4-299'']]     

Grant Moses Stoltzfus was a professor of sociology and church history at [[Eastern Mennonite University (Harrisonburg, Virginia, USA)|Eastern Mennonite College and Seminary]], 1957-1974. Born 12 February 1916 at Elverson, [[Pennsylvania (USA)|Pennsylvania]], he was the son of Sylvanus and Lydia Hartz Stoltzfus. He married Ruth Brunk of [[Denbigh (Warwick County, Virginia, USA)|Denbigh]], [[Virginia (USA)|Virginia]] on 17 June 1941. Together they raised a family of three daughters and two sons.

A graduate of [[Goshen College (Goshen, Indiana, USA)|Goshen College]] (BA), University of Pittsburgh (MA), and Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, VA. (BD and ThD), Stoltzfus served the church as a teacher in the classroom and in numerous conferences, frequently with Ruth, on the theme of strengthening family life; as a historian and the author of the well-regarded <em>Mennonites of the Ohio and Eastern Conference </em>(1969); as a member of several local and bi-national committees including Park View Mennonite Church and the [[Historical Committee of the Mennonite Church|Historical Committee]] (MC); as editor of the <em>[[Mennonite Community, The (Periodical)|Mennonite Com]]</em>[[Mennonite Community, The (Periodical)|<em>munity Magazine</em>]] (1947-1953); and as administrator of [[Civilian Public Service|Civilian Public Service]] units for [[Mennonite Central Committee (International)|Mennonite Central Committee]] (1941-1946).

Stoltzfus pioneered in recovering the early history of the Amish in colonial [[Pennsylvania (USA)|Pennsylvania]]. His concern for religious freedom and civil liberties inspired his work for [[Conscientious Objection|conscientious objectors]] and the mentally handicapped during World War II. At the time of his death he was writing a history of the origins of [[Alternative Service (USA)|alternative service]] for conscientious objectors in the [[United States of America|United States]]. He was active in the National Committee for Amish Religious Freedom and the civil rights movement in [[Virginia (USA)|Virginia]]. As the inscription on his tombstone observes, he indeed "loved the truth and peace."

Grant Stoltzfus died suddenly of a heart attack on 21 July 1974.
= Bibliography =
Keim, Albert N. and Grant M. Stoltzfus. <em>The politics of conscience : the historic peace churches and America at war, 1917-1955</em>. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1988.

Springer, Nelson and A.J. Klassen, compilers, <em>Mennonite Bibliography, 1631-1961</em>, 2 vols. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1977: II, p. 507.

Stoltzfus, Grant M. <em>History of the first Amish Mennonite communities in America</em>. Morgantown, PA: Masthof Press, 2002.

Stoltzfus, Grant M. <em>Mennonites of the Ohio and Eastern Conference : from the colonial period in Pennsylvania to 1968</em>. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1969.

Warkentin, A. and Melvin Gingerich, compilers. <em>Who's Who Among the Mennonites</em>. North Newton, KS: Bethel College, 1943: 235.
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