wfn.org | Brethren historian Donald Durnbaugh remembered

[COBNews@aol.com]

Date: Sept. 1, 2005
Contact: Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford
V: 847/742-5100 F:  847/742-6103
E-MAIL: _CoBNews@AOL.Com_ (mailto:CoBNews@AOL.Com) 
 

CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN NEWSLINE
September 1, 2005
 
Donald F. Durnbaugh is remembered as `dean of Brethren historians.'
 
Sept. 1, 2005 (Elgin, IL) --  Church of the Brethren historian,  educator, 
and church leader Donald F. Durnbaugh died on Saturday, Aug. 27, at  Beth
Israel 
Hospital in Newark, N.J., at age 77. He and his wife, Hedda, were  returning 
from a trip to Europe. He lived in James Creek, Pa., and attended  Stone 
Church of the Brethren in Huntingdon, Pa. He was born in Detroit, Mich.,  in
1927. 
The Durnbaughs have three children and two grandchildren.
 
Durnbaugh held a unique position in the Church of the Brethren as "the dean  
of Brethren historians," in the words of Dale W. Brown, a colleague when  
Durnbaugh taught at Bethany Theological Seminary. He also was considered a  
leading authority on the Historic Peace Churches and American communitarian  
movements. "Don is internationally known and widely considered to be the
leading  
twentieth century historian of the Church of the Brethren and other Brethren 

groups that originated in Schwarzenau, Germany, in the early 18th century,"  
wrote seminary colleague Donald E. Miller in a 1997 "festschrift" celebrating
 
Durnbaugh's work.
 
Among his numerous books and articles are "European Origins of the  Brethren:

A Source Book on the Beginnings of the Church of the Brethren in Early	
Eighteenth-Century Europe" (Brethren Press, 1958), "Brethren in Colonial 
America: 
A Source Book on the Transplantation and Development of the Church of  the 
Brethren in the Eighteenth Century" (Brethren Press, 1967), "The Believers'  
Church: The History and Character of Radical Protestantism" (Macmillan,
1968),	
and "Fruit of the Vine: A History of the Brethren, 1708-1995" (Brethren
Press,	
1997). Durnbaugh served as editor-in-chief of the three-volume "Brethren  
Encyclopedia," published in 1983-84. He was working on completing the editing
of  
the fourth volume that is to be published soon.
 
Durnbaugh taught at Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pa., for four years	
before he began teaching church history at Bethany Theological Seminary in
1962.  
In 1988 he became the J. Omar Good Distinguished Visiting Professor at
Juniata, 
 and in 1989 became the Carl W. Ziegler Professor of History and Religion at 

Elizabethtown (Pa.) College. He held degrees from Manchester College in North

 Manchester, Ind.; the University of Michigan; and the University of  
Pennsylvania; and studied at Philipps-Universitaet Marburg, Germany. His many
 
professional associations included affiliation with the Young Center for the 
Study 
of Anabaptist and Pietist Groups at Elizabethtown, and service as  president 
of the Brethren Journal Association.
 
Among Durnbaugh's Brethren mentors were Gladdys Muir and M.R. Zigler.  
Commissioned by Zigler, he collected a book of documents entitled "On Earth 
Peace: 
Discussions on War/Peace Issues Between Friends, Mennonites, Brethren,	and 
European Churches 1935-1975" (Brethren Press, 1978). His biography of 
Zigler, 
"Pragmatic Prophet," was published by Brethren Press in 1989.
 
Durnbaugh's career as a church leader began with volunteer service in  Europe

through the Brethren Service Commission, beginning in 1949. He was in the  
third unit of Brethren Volunteer Service and worked with refugees in Austria,
 
later returning to direct the Brethren Service program there. He met his
wife,  
Hedda, at a peace seminar in Vienna. It was with her help in translating  
documents from the German that Durnbaugh began his study of Brethren history
in  
Europe.
 
In 1986 he served in the highest elected position in the Church of the	
Brethren as Annual Conference moderator. Other church leadership positions  
included a Conference study committee on church and state, leadership of the 

Brethren Colleges Abroad program in Europe 1964-65, membership in the
Brethren  
Historical Committee and the Germantown Trust, leadership in  a
Brethren-Russian Orthodox Exchange in 1971, and service in the Fraternal  
Relations Committee. With John Howard Yoder he was a co-coordinator of	
Believers' Church conferences that gathered "free church" traditions in a new
 
configuration.
 
Most recently, he was a member of the committee planning the celebration of  
the 300th anniversary of the Church of the Brethren. He served a term as
chair 
 and was a key leader in contacts with other Brethren bodies, who held him in

 high esteem. In recent years, he and Hedda also led Brethren history tours 
of  Europe. 
 
A memorial service is being planned for a future date. 
 
The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination committed to  
continuing the work of Jesus peacefully and simply, and to living out its
faith  in 
community. The denomination is based in the Anabaptist and Pietist faith  
traditions and is one of the three Historic Peace Churches. It celebrates its
 300th 
anniversary in 2008. It counts about 130,000 members across the United	
States and Puerto Rico, and has missions and sister churches in Brazil, the  
Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Nigeria.
 
# # #
 
For more information contact:
 
Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford
Director of News Services
Church of the  Brethren General Board
1451 Dundee Ave.
Elgin, IL 60120
847-742-5100  ext. 260
_cbrumbaugh-cayford_gb@brethren.org_ 
(mailto:cbrumbaugh-cayford_gb@brethren.org) 
 
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