Funeral services for 91-year-old Ellis J. Gerber, formerly of Mountain Lake, Minnesota, and currently of Cannon Falls, Minnesota, will be held at 1 p.m. on Monday afternoon, April 6, 2015, at the First Mennonite Church in Mountain Lake. The church is located at 305 7th Street North.
Interment will be in Cornerstone Cemetery (formerly Evangelical Mennonite Brethren Cemetery), located in rural Mountain Lake on the west side of 570 Avenue, south of 360th Street and north of 10th Street/Cottonwood County Road #9.
Pastor Elaine Kauffman will serve as officiant for the services.
Visitation will be at Sturm Funeral Home-Mountain Lake Chapel on Monday, April 6, 2015, from 9:30 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. The funeral home is located at 420 10th Street North.
Ellis J. Gerber passed away Tuesday, March 31, 2015 in Cannon Falls.
Ellis J. Gerber was born to Fairy Amstutz and Grover Gerber on July 19, 1923 near Kidron, Ohio. Ellis had an older sister, Dorothy and two younger sisters, Ruth and Celia. Ellis helped his mother and father on the farm during the economic depression of the 1930s.
Anabaptist faith was an important part of the Gerber household. Ellis was baptized February 7, 1936 by Aaron Mast at the Kidron Tabernacle and was received into membership at the Sonnenburg Mennonite Church. He loved to read the Bible and learned to milk cows with the Bible perched on his knee. Since the third grade, when the church gave him a Bible, he has read through a different version every year for over 80 years. He graduated from Dalton High. Then for a number years he worked for local farmers and a feed mill in order to save money to attend Goshen College in Goshen, Indiana.
Once in Goshen, Ellis met the love of his life in a singing group. Ellis and Edna married on June 21, 1949. Both graduated from Goshen College with teaching certificates. They both had a heart for missionary service. Their first mission assignment was a home mission in Dillonvale, Ohio.
In 1953, Ellis and Edna answered the call to serve in the Belgian Congo with African Inter-Mennonite Mission (AIMM). While serving as missionary teachers in Belgian Congo, they had three children, Daniel, Rebecca and Joanna. During their 20 years with AIMM, they lived within the struggle of political upheaval as the Congolese rebelled against the Belgian government. On furlough in 1967, Ellis received his Master’s degree in French from Mankato State College in Mankato, Minnesota (today Minnesota State University-Mankato).
In 1973, they returned to America and settled in Mountain Lake, where Ellis became the manager of Mennonite Mutual Insurance until he retired in 1988. From there he did Mennonite Volunteer Service with Mennonite Housing in Wichita, Kansas and served in Haiti on a Christian Peacemaker Team.
He had many interests – Bible reading, restoring old houses, gardening, collecting antiques and writing. He was the president of the Cottonwood County Bird Club and served in the church as a deacon and a Sunday school teacher. He also helped Laotian people acclimate to the Mountain Lake community, and sang with the Mountain Lake German singers.
Due to declining health, Edna and Ellis moved to Cannon Falls, Minnesota in spring 2013 in order to be closer to their children.
He was preceded in death by his parents; a sister and brother-in-law, Dorothy (Gerber) Schrock and David Schrock; a sister, Ruth Gerber and brothers-in-law, Harold and Peter Buller.
Ellis is survived by his wife of over 66 years, Edna (Buller) Gerber; his children, Dan and Terry (Coleman) Gerber in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Becky (Gerber) and Rick Ruddy in Cannon Falls and Joanna (Gerber) and Randy Pinkerton in Wichita, Kansas; sister, Celia (Gerber) Lehman; brothers-in-law, Clarence Buller and Henry Buller; sister in-law, Shirley (Buller) Newman; six grandchildren and many nieces and nephews.
Instead of flowers, those interested may make a donation to Africa Inter- Mennonite Mission P.O. Box 744, Goshen, IN 46527-0744.