wfn.org | Estate supports MBM and Hesston College

[BethAH@mbm.org]

December 13, 2000
Beth Hawn
Communications Coordinator
Mennonite Board of Missions
phone (219) 294-7523
fax (219) 294-8669
<www.MBM.org>
December 13, 2000

Cooprider estate supports MBM and Hesston College

HESSTON, Kan. (MBM) – Henry and Clara Cooprider were dedicated to
the Mennonite Church and to Hesston College.  At their death,
that loyalty translated into gifts from their estate of more than
$40,000 each to Mennonite Board of Missions and Hesston College’s
pastoral ministries program.

At MBM, the gift will go toward general mission outreach.  “We
cherish the vision for mission of supporters like the
Coopriders,” said Calvin King, special assistant to the president
and development manager.  “Because they did not designate the
gift for a specific ministry, we are able to use it in areas
where there is great need, but which do not attract large
donations.”

At Hesston College, the gift established the Henry and Clara
Cooprider Memorial Scholarship, a fund that benefits students in
the pastoral ministries program.

The first recipient of the Henry and Clara Cooprider scholarship
award was Gordon Miller.  After 22 years of farming near
Shickley, Neb., Miller left the dairy business to enroll at
Hesston in 1999.  “Life is much simpler now that I’m doing what
God wants me to do,” he said.

Miller will receive his diploma in May 2001.  “It has been a
great blessing and help to receive financial support from other
sources, to know that others support this program, and in so
doing, support me,” he said.

This fall Miller began searching for a church that needs a
pastor; his goal is to find one in early spring.  “It’s exciting
and scary to find out what might happen in the future, but I’m
eager to know what God has planned.”

The Coopriders spent their working years farming in McPherson
County, Kansas.  They were active in and loyal to West Liberty
Mennonite Church, a congregation that disbanded in 1977.

Though neither Henry nor Clara had more than an eighth-grade
education, both attended short-term Bible classes at Hesston
Academy and Bible School (now Hesston College).  Their twin
children, James Cooprider and Joyce (Cooprider) Cook, graduated
from Hesston Academy in 1946.  Henry and Clara retired to
Schowalter Villa, in Hesston, in 1975.  Henry passed away that
year; Clara, in 1998.

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John D. Yoder