Albert Meyer, former physics professor and Mennonite education advocate, dies at 90

Albert J. “Al” Meyer, a retired assistant professor of physics and a lifelong promoter of Mennonite values in education, died Friday, July 31, at his home in Goshen, surrounded by his family. He was 90.

Meyer served on the Mennonite Board of Education for 28 years. In the early 1970s he coined the term “peoplehood education” to emphasize the distinctive focus of the Mennonite Church and its schools, colleges and seminaries. He also served as executive secretary of the board, and he held both roles until his retirement in 1995.

His daughter, Kathy Meyer Reimer, GC professor of education, said he was “totally committed to Mennonite Education.” She said education had been transformative in his own life and that he believed Mennonites had a role to play in the education landscape. She added that he was attentive to young people, especially college students, whom he saw as the future and as people who could lead with creativity. He was a father who handed his convictions to the next generation, a pattern that recalls the call to tell the coming generation of the works of the Lord (Psalm 78:4).

Meyer was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on Sept. 24, 1929, the son of Jacob Conrad and Esther (Steiner) Meyer. At age 16, he went with a group of “seagoing cowboys” to deliver horses to Gdansk, Poland, after World War II. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Goshen College in 1950 and a Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1954. During his doctoral studies he spent a year at the University of Basel as a Kent Fellow of the National Council for Religion in Higher Education and Princeton University Exchange Fellow. On Aug. 21, 1954, he married Mary Ellen Yoder, and the two remained a team until his death.

His work abroad continued with two years in France as regional director for Mennonite Central Committee. He later returned to Switzerland to serve for one year as a research assistant at the University of Basel. He then served as the Mennonite liaison with the World Council of Churches and as the Mennonite representative on the Continuation Committee of the Historic Peace Churches in Europe.

Meyer taught physics at Goshen College from 1957 to 1960 and then moved to Kansas, where he served five years as academic dean and professor of physics at Bethel College. He returned to Goshen in 1966 as a part-time professor of physics. There he worked with colleague Robert C. Buschert to found the Turner X-ray Precision Measurement Laboratory in 1969. In 2009 he published *Realizing our Intentions: A Guide for Churches and Colleges with Distinctive Missions*, a guide for educators, church leaders and college and university board members. Upon his retirement as chief executive officer of the board in 1995, a fund for peoplehood education was created to support church-supported education projects.

He is survived by his wife, Mary Ellen (Yoder) Meyer; five children, Richard (Brenda) Hostetler Meyer, Anne (Mark) Meyer Byler, Kathryn (Paul) Meyer Reimer, Barbara (Lane) Meyer-Reed and Elaine (Robert) Meyer-Lee; two siblings, Margaret Meyer Irvin and John (Maria) Meyer; 15 grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren. He is also survived by grandchildren in love, Rob Weiss and Kylie Gruner.

A memorial service will be held on Zoom on Saturday, Aug. 8, 2020. A slide show will begin at 10:45 a.m., followed by an 11 a.m. memorial service. In lieu of flowers, donations in his memory may be sent to the Peace and Justice Support Network of Mennonite Church USA.

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