Dyck, Sarah (1924-2017)

Sarah Dyck, 2006. Family photo

Sarah Dick Dyck: author and translator, was born 28 September 1924 on a farm in Wilmot Township, Waterloo County, Ontario, Canada to Abraham Dick (29 September 1893-3 July 1967) and Agatha Peters Dick (12 January 1898-16 January 2001). Sarah’s parents were Russian-Mennonite immigrants to Canada. Their first years in Canada were difficult as they learned a new language, worked hard for their room and board and worried about their family back home.

Sarah was the second of four children. She had an older sister (Helen), a younger sister (Anne) and a younger brother (Arthur). Her early years were spent living in downtown Kitchener, before moving to a farm in the village of St. Agatha in 1930.

Sarah attended a one-room public school just over the hill from their farm in St. Agatha. There were never more than 14 or 15 pupils in all eight grades. School was easy for Sarah; she quickly moved through the grades and finished Senior Fourth (Grade 8) at the age of 11. With no way to get into town to attend high school, Sarah stayed on the farm and helped her parents.

With the onset of war in 1939, Sarah found job opportunities away from the farm. She worked at the Dominion Tire Company (later Uniroyal), at Cluett-Peabody (Arrow shirts) and at the Sunshine Company (later Sunar) where she became a self-described Rosie the Riveter working in the lab and later in cost accounting.

In December 1944, the Dick family moved to a more modern farm on Erb Street West which was then the outer edge of the town of Waterloo. Access to Sarah’s work and friends became easier.

With the end of the war in 1945, Sarah was inspired to take piano lessons. Within four years, she completed the Grade IX piano exam and the rudiments and harmony exams.

When her younger sister, Anne, went off to a Mennonite college in Kansas, Sarah investigated the possibility of registering at Bethel College in North Newton, Kansas as a “special” student of piano and organ. She was admitted and quickly became a degree student.

In 1950, her second year at Bethel, Sarah met J. William "Bill" Dyck. He was a recent Russian Mennonite immigrant who spoke very little English. Since she had learned German at home, they were able to communicate and later she was able to help him apply to various universities for post-graduate work.

After their wedding on 9 June 1951, Sarah and Bill began married life in Missouri, in Ann Arbor, Michigan (where Bill received his PhD) and in Ohio (where Bill was a professor at Oberlin College). Life was busy especially after the birth of their two daughters, Julie and Vickie.

In 1957, the family returned to Waterloo for the wedding of Sarah’s sister. While Sarah was busy with the wedding preparations, Bill explored the local college. Since Waterloo was “home,” shortly after, Bill accepted a teaching assignment at Waterloo College and later as a founding professor at the new University of Waterloo.

Sarah’s desire to learn continued. She completed a BA degree at the University of Western Ontario’s Waterloo campus in 1960. She later graduated with a Master of Philosophy (MPhil) in English from the University of Waterloo in 1969.

Much of the early Waterloo years was focused on helping to grow the new university. Sarah was an integral partner with her husband in this endeavour. In 1961, Bill and Sarah travelled to Europe to buy books for the new University of Waterloo library. This was the beginning of many trips to visit universities in Europe, in the US and Canada and in Australia and New Zealand.

Bill died in 1998. Now on her own, Sarah turned more and more to reading and to books. As a storyteller, she wanted to share Mennonite stories that were not available in English. She translated, compiled and published stories about the Mennonites (The Silence Echoes and Path of Thorns); she translated and published stories from authors she had met (Many are the Voices of Home and The Biblical Story); she wrote poems; she compiled a music book of her favourite German and English Christmas Carols; she wrote her memoirs for her family. She shared many of her publications, her special pictures and her stories with the Mennonite Archives of Ontario at Conrad Grebel in Waterloo.

Sarah Dyck died 13 November 2017 in Waterloo, Ontario.

Bibliography

Dyck, Sarah. Dearly Beloved Children: Letters to Canada from my Grandfather Isaak B. Peters and Family 1925-1933, transcribed, translated and edited from the German Gothic script by Sarah Dyck. Waterloo, Ontario, 1996.

Dyck, Sarah. Child of the Sabbath Day: Random Reflections. Waterloo, 2001. (memoirs)

Nun Singet und Seid Froh: Thirty-seven German Christmas Carols with Pian Accompaniment, compiled and edited by Sarah Dyck. Waterloo, 1998. (to accompany the carols in the Waterloo-Kitchener United Mennonite Christmas Carol Booklet of 1981)

The Silence Echoes: Memoirs of Trauma and Tears. edited and translated by Sarah Dyck. Kitchener, Ont.: Pandora Press, 1997. ISBN 0-9698762-7-0

Schreiber, Ilse. Many Are the Voices of Home, translated from the German by Sarah Dyck. Waterloo, 2006. ISBN 0-9781489-0-8

Neufeld, Jacob A. Path of Thorns: Soviet Mennonite Life Under Communist and Nazi Rule, edited by Harvey Dyck, translated by Sarah Dyck. Toronto, Ont.: University of Toronto Press, 2014. ISBN 978-4426-4609-4

Andres, Stefan. The Biblical Story, translated from the German by Sarah Dyck. Kitchener, Ont.: Pandora Press, 2014. ISBN 978-1-926599-44-1

Author(s)	Julie Telfer
Date Published	March 2018

Cite This Article

MLA style

Telfer, Julie. "Dyck, Sarah (1924-2017)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. March 2018. Web. 22 Nov 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Dyck,_Sarah_(1924-2017)&oldid=160127.

APA style

Telfer, Julie. (March 2018). Dyck, Sarah (1924-2017). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 22 November 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Dyck,_Sarah_(1924-2017)&oldid=160127.

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