Eugene Blosser

Eugene Blosser
March 27, 1917 - June 08, 2008
Wellman, Iowa
Visitation: 3-7 p.m. June 09, 2008 at Wellman Mennonite Church
Funeral Service: 7:00 p.m. June 09, 2008 at Wellman Mennonite Church
Interment: 10:00 a.m. June 10, 2008 at West Union Cemetery
Eugene Edward Blosser (March 27, 1917 - June 8, 2008), a career missionary in China and Japan cited in The Mennonite Encyclopedia (1955+), died Sunday morning at Parkview Manor in Wellman, IA, following a long respiratory illness. The son of Perry and Ada V. Lahman Blosser of South English, Iowa, Eugene was the eighth of nine children. He attended a rural elementary school near his home, and South English High School, where his education was interrupted in 1932 in order to help his father farm. During WWII he served in the Civilian Public Service corps in Nebraska and Wisconsin. After passing his General Education Development exams, he was admitted to Goshen College in Indiana, from which he graduated with a B.A. in Bible in 1949. In 1952, he earned a B.A. in Theology from Goshen Biblical Seminary, and subsequently pursued post-graduate work in Far Eastern Studies at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1959. Eugene was commissioned by the Mennonite Board of Missions to serve as a missionary in China in the summer of 1949. On September 19th, upon arriving in Hong Kong, he was married in St. John's Cathedral to Louella Gingerich, whom he had dated at Goshen College, and who had preceded him to China as a medical missionary in 1947. They served together in Chengdu, Sichuan, from 1949 to 1951. Their efforts to continue their work following the Maoist takeover of Chengdu on December 30, 1949, are chronicled in Dorothy McCammon's We Tried to Stay (1953). In March 1951 they returned to the U.S., and were reassigned to Japan in 1953. They planted new churches in Hokkaido (Taiki, Sapporo, Hiroo), served established congregations (Obihiro, Kushiro), and administered a boarding facility for missionary children attending Hokkaido International School in Sapporo. In 1981 they returned to the U.S. after Louella was diagnosed with brain cancer. She died in 1983. After serving as interim pastor in Oregon and Nebraska, Eugene married Elsie Zook of Wellman on August 7, 1984. The couple lived together in Wellman for 24 years, where they continued active involvement in the local Mennonite church after retirement. Eugene was preceded in death by his first wife, Louella; an adopted son, Thomas Yoshiro; his parents, Perry and Ada; and all of his siblings, including six brothers, Wilmer, Aquila, Dwight, Menno, Oren, and Amos; and two sisters, Abbie (Zook) and Mary Kate (Yoder). He is survived by his second wife, Elsie; his children, Philip Blosser and wife Amy of Detroit, Michigan; Rachel Blosser Derstine and husband Rodney Derstine of Schwenksville, Pennsylvania; and Meiko Blosser Schoemig and husband Ewald Schoemig of Seattle, Washington; eight grand-children, Christopher, Jonathan, Benjamin, Nathaniel, and Hannah Blosser, Katherine and Elizabeth Derstine, and Julia Schoemig; and four great-grandchildren, Augustine, Ambrose, Cyprian (sons of Benjamin), and Raphael (son of Christopher). Funeral services will be held at 7:00pm Monday, June 9, 2008, at the Wellman Mennonite Church with Rev. Marvin Hostetler officiating. Burial will be at West Union Cemetery in rural Wellman. Visitation will be from 3:00p.m. to 5:00p.m. on Monday, June 9, 2008, at Wellman Mennonite Church, where the family will be present from 3:00p.m. until 5:00p.m. A memorial fund has been established for the Wellman Mennonite Church or the Mennonite Mission Network. Powell Funeral Home and Cremation Service in Wellman is handling the arrangements. Condolences may be e-mailed at www.powellfuneralhomes.com under obituaries.