Joseph Carl Wolgemuth, 81, was born on September 22, 1931 in Mount Joy, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania to Ira and Anna Martha Walters Wolgemuth and died September 25, 2012 at Kidron Bethel Health Care after a long battle with Parkinson's disease. Carl has donated his body to science.
He grew up in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania and attended schools there before going on for higher education at Messiah College, Grantham, Pennsylvania. In 1953 he graduated with a bachelor's degree in religious education. On March 27, 1954 he married Marilyn Joyce Minter at Zion Brethren in Christ church of rural Abilene.
After Marriage, Carl and Marilyn served four years of Volunteer Service with Mennonite Central Committee among the agricultural migrant workers in Fresno County, California. He and his wife then studied linguistics and became members of Wycliffe Bible Translators. They went to live in a remote area of southern Veracruz, Mexico with the indigenous Isthmus Aztec people group whose spoken Nahuatl language, wrote literacy materials, provided medical services and helped with community projects. There are many Aztec Christians who now pray, sing and read the translated Scriptures in their heart language.
After moving to Dallas, Texas, Carl worked for 7 years as a computer specialist at the Interntional Linguistic Center . In 1987 they moved to Newton where he taught English as a second language. He graduated with a masters' degree from Wichita State University in 1994. Among his many other intersests were carpentering, computerized typesetting, music, reading and traveling. Together, he and Marilyn authored two books about their life experiences.
He is survived by Marilyn, his wife of 58 years; daughter, Carolyn Bishop; 5 grandchildren;one great granddaughter; sister, Gail Williams. He was preceded in death his parents; sister, Joanne Goble and stillborn baby daughter, Joyce Elaine.
