Justus G. Holsinger
HESSTON - Justus G. Holsinger died
Wednesday (Aug. 8, 2007) at Newton Medical Center. He was born July
8, 1911 near Harrisonburg, Va. to Henry S. and Elizabeth Cline
Holsinger. On Dec. 16, 1944, he married Salome Fast in Puerto Rico
where he was in CPS (civilian public service) and she was a MCC
(Mennonite Central Committee) nurse. Holsinger received degrees from
Eastern Mennonite College, the University of Virginia and the
University of Kansas. He taught in several public schools in
Virginia and Bluffton College in Ohio. Following Bluffton College, he
and Salome served in Puerto Rico for four years where he directed the
La Plata Project. They moved to Hesston in 1952.
He was Academic Dean at Hesston College
and then became director of teacher education and professor at Bethel
College. He also taught at Friends University and Kansas Wesleyan
University. Other leadership positions included executive secretary
of the Council of Mennonite Colleges, the conference coordinator of
the South Central Conference of the Mennonite Church which includes
Hesston Mennonite Church. Following retirement from Bethel College,
he and Salome accepted service assignments in Bolivia and Puerto
Rico.
Survivors include his wife, children,
Dave and Jan Holsinger of Houston, Texas, Don and Ruth Holsinger of
Edmonds, Wash., Betty and Keaton Shenk of Harrisonburg, Va., and
Becky and Tom Rand of Winter Park, Colo., 11 grandchildren; two
great-grandchildren; a sister Catherine Miller of Harrisonburg, Va.;
sisters-in-law Erna J. Fast and Liz McBride of Hesston;
brothers-in-law Marvin and Willard Fast; and numerous nieces and
nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents, four sisters and a
brother.
A private burial service has taken
place. A memorial service will be at 3 p.m. Saturday in the
Schowalter Villa Chapel in Hesston with visitation with the family
beginning one hour prior.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be
made to the Holsinger Teaching Scholarship at Bethel College, the
Good Samaritan Fund at Schowalter Villa or MCC in care of Miller
Funeral Home in Hesston.
