Bertha Harder dies

Long-time leader in Christian education, Bertha Fast Harder, died August 23 in Goessel, Kan. She was 94.

Bertha was an instructor at AMBS beginning in 1958 when Mennonite Biblical Seminary moved to the Elkhart campus and began its association with Goshen Biblical Seminary. She taught courses related to Christian education and also developed courses especially for the wives of seminary students to prepare them to more fully engage in leadership in the congregations where their husbands would be pastors.

Bertha was the first female faculty member of AMBS," Erland Waltner noted. "Her field was Christian education, but she also worked hard with the issue of the pastor's wife--as it was called in those days. She was an emerging feminist, and kept a good balance between the growing sense of women's strength and respect for the traditional roles of women in the church. She was a pioneer."

Bertha was born July 26, 1914, to Herman B. and Anna Warkentin Fast in Mountain Lake, Minn. She graduated from Mankato State Teachers' College (Mankato, Minn.) in 1937. She was a first grade teacher in Minnesota public schools from 1937 to 1944. Then for two years until the end of World War II, she volunteered as a relief worker in Egypt and Italy for Mennonite Central Committeee and the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.

Erland Waltner was pastor of Bertha's home congregation, Bethel Mennonite in Mountain Lake, Minn., and he remembers that an aunt of Bertha's joined her volunteering for the relief work. Her aunt died when the boat she was on hit an underwater explosive device and she fell as she tried to board a lifeboat. This affected Bertha deeply, Erland remembers. "When I think of Bertha, I think of how she and her aunt had the courage to go into relief work." After her aunt's death, she felt she needed to give her life to helping others in some way, Erland said.

Following this experience, Bertha earned a BA from Bethel College, North Newton, Kan., in 1949, and an MRE from Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Chicago, Ill., in 1951. While studying at MBS, she met Leland Harder, whom she married on August 8, 1951. Together they joined the new faculty when MBS moved to Elkhart in 1958, and they both taught there until 1983. They also were active in the development of Hively Avenue Mennonite Church in Elkhart.

In addition, Bertha served as the first director of Mennonite Voluntary Service. She as the first woman elected to a major denominational board and continued as a member of the commission on Education for eighteen years, active in planning, writing and leading in the program of Christian education. After Leland and Bertha retired, they moved to North Newton, Kan., where she became a docent at the Kauffman Museum, a frequent storyteller in the community and director of Low German programs at the Annual Fall Festival at Bethel College. She was an active member of the Bethel College Mennonite Church, where she taught Sunday school children for eighteen years.

Ken Hawkley, now associate director of development for AMBS, was a member of Bethel College Mennonite Church when his children were younger. He said, "As a Sunday school teacher, Bertha made a connection with each child in her class and they loved her for it. Bertha paid attention to who they were and always saw their potential. The highlight of the class was the annual sleep-over at the Harder house with Leland and Bertha."

In the 1960s, Lillian Elias, now copastor of Parkview Mennonite Church in Kokomo, Ind., was at AMBS while her husband completed a Master of Divinity degree. She said, "Bertha was a strong person, strong in her faith in Christ, and strong in her commitment to the church. She modeled for me how a woman in her time, who might have felt side-lined in a very male dominated culture and church environment, was able to joyfully serve Christ and the church with her gifts. I enrolled in several of the classes she taught for women. Her enthusiasm, vision and drive to educate women as teachers of children in the home and in the church, and as a support for the spouse in ministry was contagious."

Jacob Elias, copastor with Lillian of Parkview Mennonite Church in Kokomo, Ind., was a student of Leland Harder and later a colleague of both Bertha and Leland. "After I joined the AMBS faculty in 1977, I experienced Bertha and Leland as my colleagues. They modeled a commitment to shared pastoral ministry, resulting in their move to St. Louis for a church planting ministry. I fondly recall the energy and enthusiasm that went into Bertha’s coordination of the Low German program segments during Bethel College’s fall harvest festivals. Above all, I can picture Bertha sitting in a huddle with children during story time in worship services or in the Sunday School classroom.

Survivors include Leland, her husband; two sons and their families--John and Julie Harder of Windsor, Ont., and their daughters, Chani and Leah; and Tom and Lois Harder of Wichita, and their daughters, Hillary, Madeline and Anna. Bertha also leaves two sisters and a brother--Wilma Fast Jungas, Mountain Lake, Minn.; Marie Ruth Fast Wall and husband, Gaylord, of Avon, Conn.; and Bob Fast and wife, Odette, of Fairmont, Minn. Preceding her in death were her parents, her sister Alma Fast Young, and Alma's husband, Philip, of Sun Lake, Ariz.

A memorial service will be held at the Bethel College Mennonite Church on Saturday, August 30, 11 a.m. following a family interment service at the Gnadenau Mennonite Cemetery south of Hillsboro. Memorials have been established at Mennonite Central Committee and Bethel College Mennonite Church.