Showing 3 results

Authority record
Mennonite Central Committee Archives Person

Bender, Harold Stauffer

  • MCC US
  • Person
  • 1897-1962

On January 18, 1930 Harold S. Bender attended an MCC Executive Committee meeting as a member of the Colonization Study Committee. MCC appointed Bender to a Study Committee to investigate and provide MCC with accurate reports of conditions in Russia and Germany. Bender reported back to the MCC Executive Committee with possibilities of providing relief (July 5, 1930 MCC Minutes). In 1936 he served on the Peace Problems Committee of the Mennonite Church and became the Chairman of the International Mennonite Peace Committee. In 1942 Harold became chairman of the MCC Peace Section. Dr. Bender continued to serve on the MCC Executive Committee and the MCC Peace Section until his passing in 1962.

Miller, Orie O.

  • MCC US
  • Person
  • 1892-1977

Orie O. "O. O." Miller, a Mennonite (Mennonite Church) layman, administrator who bridged the worlds of business and church. Born 7 July 1892, he was the eldest in the family of Bishop Daniel D. and Jeanette Hostetler Miller, Middlebury, Indiana. O. O. directed the farm work when his father traveled as an evangelist. Orie wanted to serve the church full-time as a school teacher, minister, or missionary. Before college he taught public school, and after his freshman year at Goshen College he directed Goshen's school of business.
Orie graduated from Goshen College in 1915, and that August married classmate Elta Wolf. The couple moved to Akron, Pennsylvania, where Orie soon became a part-owner in the shoe company headed by his father-in-law. Despite the growing success of the shoe business, Orie still felt called to church work, particularly the ministry. Three times he was a ministerial candidate at Ephrata Mennonite Church but the lot failed to fall on him. Speaking of his first experience in the lot, he said, "I just couldn't understand it. God didn't confirm my call. These were the most difficult days of my life." The church, however, did call Orie, asking him to help in relief work in Syria and Armenia after World War I. As church leaders met in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to discuss a request for Mennonite workers for overseas relief, "Father Miller leaned over to me [and said], 'Orie, shouldn't you volunteer for this?"' With his wife's assent and a leave from the business for several months, Orie sailed for Beirut on the USS Pensacola on 25 January 1919.
Three months after his return to the United States, at a meeting regarding Mennonite needs in Russia, Orie again said “yes” when asked to go. But, how could he represent all of the committees? The idea for a Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) was born and became a reality on 21 July 1920. Orie was chosen to direct the first unit of volunteers. However, Orie's father-in-law, heading a business adversely affected by the postwar economic slump, was not ready to release him again. "You can't mix business and the church," he said. "You must give full time to the business or leave it." Orie went to Russia.
Orie and Clayton Kratz got into Russia and made arrangements to do relief work, however, the overthrow of the Wrangel Government prevented plans from being carried out. Orie returned to Constantinople and organized relief activities among the Russian refugees pouring into that city. He returned to Akron in spring 1921. He and his father-in-law eventually arrived at an arrangement whereby Orie gave about two-thirds time to the business and one-third to the church. Church work centered in world relief, missions, and education. He was executive secretary of Mennonite Central Committee, 1935-1958.
In 1940, at age 48, Orie was ready to devote even more time to the church. He turned over the sales work to others he had trained and continued as director and secretary-treasurer of Miller Hess and Company, president of Highland Shoe Company, also in Akron, and treasurer of A. N. Wolf Shoe Company, Denver, Pennsylvania. In the church, his influence was felt in the vast program of Mennonite relief and refugee resettlement, the Civilian Public Service Program, the organization and growth of Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA), the organization of Menno Travel Service and Mennonite Mutual Aid, and numerous other Mennonite and inter-church causes.
Orie spelled out his philosophy of administration in three words: freedom, responsibility, and structure. "The administrator's job is to build a structure so everyone knows what his job is and to whom he is responsible. The capable administrator helps people work together without wasting time, fighting, or stepping on each other's toes. He helps people become a team. When a person accurately senses the structure, and fulfills his responsibility, he is free."
Orie and Elta had five children. Elta died in 1958. In 1960 Orie married Elta Sensenig. Orie died 10 January 1977 at the Landis Retirement Home near Lancaster, Pennsylvania.”
Bender, John M. (1987). Miller, Orie O. (1892-1977). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 19 February 2021

Mumaw, Levi

  • MCC US
  • Person
  • 1879-1935

Levi Mumaw, the second of nine children of Amos and Catherine (Shaum) Mumaw, was born near Winesburg, Holmes County, Ohio, 6 November 1879. When he was a child the family moved to Elkhart County, Indiana, and after 16 years returned to Ohio, settling in Wayne County. He was married 6 June 1903 to Fannie Shoemaker (d. 1921). In 1923 he was married to Alice Hershey, Manheim, Pennsylvania, who survived him. No children survived. In 1910 Mumaw was called to Scottdale to serve as treasurer of the Mennonite Publishing House. In a few years the work of secretary was combined with that of treasurer and he continued to serve as secretary-treasurer of the Publishing House until his death. It was in this period of 25 years of devoted service to the publishing interests of the Mennonite Church that he made his greatest contribution. Other important offices were given to Mumaw. He was chosen secretary of the Mennonite Relief Commission when it was organized in 1917. When the various Mennonite groups organized the Mennonite Central Committee in 1920 he was elected executive secretary-treasurer, which office he held until his death in 1935. When the Mennonite Relief Committee (under the Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities) replaced the Mennonite Relief Commission in 1926, by action of both the Mission Board and Mennonite General Conference, he was elected secretary and continued to serve in that capacity until his death. He was vice-president of the Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities 1927-1935. By virtue of the offices which he held in these bodies he served on the executive committees of the Mennonite Publication Board and the Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities.
Mumaw was song leader in the local congregation for many years and was often called to serve in this capacity in church-wide meetings. When the Church Hymnal, published first in 1927, was in preparation he took care of all business matters relating to its compilation, and read the proof for both words and music. He died at Scottdale on 4 June 1935.
Umble, John Sylvanus. Mennonite pioneers: biographical sketches of some of the leading men and women in the Mennonite Church who have served in the institutions of the church in the home land. Scottdale, PA: Mennonite Publishing House, 1940: 137-151.