Elaine Sommers Rich
1926 - 2020
Elaine Sommers Rich, age 94, died
peacefully on September 27, 2020 in North Manchester, Indiana. She
was born February 8, 1926 to Monroe and Effie (Horner) Sommers in
Plevna, Indiana where she grew up as the oldest of five children
during the Depression era. The children's novel Hannah Elizabeth is
semiautobiographical about her childhood. She committed her life to
Christ and joined the Howard-Miami Mennonite Church as a young teen.
She skipped her last year of high
school and went to Goshen College from which she graduated in 1947.
She began teaching at Goshen that year and later received a Master's
degree from Michigan State University. She met Ronald Rich of
Washington, Illinois on a Mennonite college trip to Europe in 1947
and they were married on June 14, 1953 in the Goshen College Chapel.
Ronald died in 2014.
Elaine was a writer, teacher,
homemaker, and church worker who could recite scores of poems by
heart. Everywhere she lived, she would either find or start a
Writer's Group. For 67 years she kept a journal, in which, alongside
the mundanities of life, she recorded her private thoughts, reactions
to the news, analysis of what she was reading, and snatches of
poetry. Among her books were Hannah Elizabeth, Breaking Bread
Together, Mennonite Women, Prayers for Everyday, and Pondered in her
Heart. For over 30 years, she wrote a column called "Thinking
With" for the Mennonite Weekly Review. She taught at Goshen
College, Bethel College in Kansas, the International Christian
University in Tokyo, and Bluffton College, as well as being an
adjunct professor at North Carolina State U., Bowling Green State U.,
Findlay College, and Owens Community College. She was a TESOL
instructor in the Ada and Bluffton Ohio public schools.
She was active in the First Mennonite
Church in Bluffton as well as in the church at large. In Tokyo,
Japan, she chaired Church Women United. In Bluffton, she coordinated
World Day of Prayer observations for many years and served on the
United Church Board. She served twelve years on the Commission on
Education of the General Conference Mennonite Church until its merger
in 2000. She was interested in fostering international peace and went
to Hebron, Palestine with Christian Peacemaker Teams; taught English
at Chongqing University (summer 2000); and attended Mennonite World
Conference in Calcutta, India (1997).
She was a loving mother to her four
children who survive her: Jonathan (Tai) of Union City, CA; Andrew
(Sally) of North Manchester, IN; Miriam (JB) of Blacksburg, VA; and
Mark (Kathy) of Yellow Springs, OH. She is also survived by six
grandchildren: Sarah, Joseph, Rebekah, Jonathan, Louisa Rich, and
Hannah Brown. A memorial service will be held at Eel River Church of
the Brethren at a later date.
She was a small but mighty woman who
loved people, big ideas, and the worldwide church.
Arrangements are entrusted to McKee
Mortuary.
Condolences may be emailed to
mckeemortuary.com.
