If, indeed, as Robert S. Kreider has suggested (in his introduction to Paul Erb's 1969 Orie O. Miller, the Story of a Man and an Era), Orie Miller was "the most remarkable Mennonite of his generation, and perhaps of the 20th century," it is past time for a comprehensive biography. Mennonites and others ought to remember and be inspired by this unusually creative church leader.
While Orie is best known as a pioneer MCC overseas worker and long-time executive secretary, and as executive of the Eastern Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities, he also played major leadership roles in what were then National Service Board for Religious Objectors (NSBRO), Mennonite Board of Education, and the Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities. He was a key player in the organizing of Mennonite Indemnity, Inc., Mennonite Mutual Aid, Mennonite Travel Service, Mennonite Economic Development Associates, Schowalter Foundation, American Leprosy Mission and others.
While Paul Erb noted Miller’s role as “industrialist, educator, mission leader, salesman, innovator, relief administrator,” Robert Kreider also noted a number of topics not addressed fully in the 1969 biography, such as Miller’s relationships with peers in other agencies, his relationships with major Mennonite crises, his connections with other Mennonite bodies and the larger ecumenical world, particularly the Historic Peace Church linkages. John A. Lapp added the additional roles as board member, philanthropist, organizer, interpreter of mission and service ministries as well as administrator and nurturer of a generation of younger leaders.
We have now major biographical works on HAROLD S. BENDER by Albert Keim and on GUY F. HERSHBERGER by Theron Schlabach. We need a comparable work on Orie Miller that in the words of Cal Redekop “places Orie Miller in the larger history and development of the Mennonite churches of North America and beyond in the 20th Century. The benefit of such a study would enlighten us on how leadership and follower-ship can be reconciled and illuminate the organizational conundrums we are dealing with now.” Several other noteworthy biographies have been published on people close to MCC such as J.J. Thiessen, David Toews, C. N. Hostetter, P.C Hiebert, and C. F. Klassen.
While I am honored to have been offered this opportunity, I am also awed by its great challenge. Ironically, I was a young staff writer and minute taker of the Mennonite Board of Education meeting in Chicago in January 1977, when word came that Orie Miller had died. I turned to Paul Bender and asked, “Who is Orie Miller?” I now have the opportunity to answer that question for myself and for the many others who should know of Miller’s unique contribution to the Mennonite world and beyond. In this comprehensive biography I will attempt to portray Orie Miller in the context of a century of total war, in the context of providing business and church leadership, in the context of a church that in the first years of the century had little of the organizational/institutional energy he helped to generate, and in the context of an era that began with great hope and confidence which 100 years later is much less visible. I have already been captured by the wide-ranging creative spirit of Orie Miller.
This scholarly biography will be a substantial resource for the MCC centennial celebration in 2020. We expect this volume of 350-400 pages to appear in the Studies in Anabaptist and Mennonite History series published by the Mennonite Historical Society in Goshen, Indiana.
With the special encouragement of the Anabaptist Center for the Study of Religion and Society at EMU, the MCC Executive Committee in April 2008 decided to initiate an “Orie Miller Biography Project.” They asked John A. Lapp to provide leadership of a project committee who will oversee and support the work of the author. MCC is prepared to contribute a substantial amount toward this project with an expectation that other agencies that benefited from Orie Miller’s leadership will also contribute to this project. One of the coordinator’s roles will also be to raise the additional funds needed for the project.
-John E. Sharp, biographer
-John A. Lapp, project committee chair
-John E. Sharp, biographer
-John A. Lapp, project committee chair
The following people make up the project committee:
--John A. Lapp, project committee chair, former Dean, Provost, and Prof. of History at Goshen College, Executive Secretary Emeritus of MCC, Coordinator and co-editor of the Global Mennonite History Project, Akron, Pennsylvania.
--Jose Ortiz, a retired pastor and teacher, former Executive Director of MCC US, now living in Goshen, Indiana.
--Calvin Redekop, long time faculty member in Sociology at Goshen and Conrad Grebel Colleges, MCC PAX service in Europe, resides in Harrisonburg, Virginia. He is a widely published author.
--Peter Rempel long -time MCC worker in Canada and Europe, currently Executive Director of MCC Manitoba in Winnipeg. Earlier in his career he was assistant archivist of the Mennonite Heritage Center.
--Laura Schmidt Roberts, Chair, Biblical and Religious Studies Division, Fresno Pacific University, currently Vice-Chair of the MCC Executive Committee. Fresno, California.
--Morris Sider, retired Professor of History and English Literature at Messiah College, BIC archivist and editor of Brethren in Christ History and Life, Grantham, Pennsylvania.
--Jose Ortiz, a retired pastor and teacher, former Executive Director of MCC US, now living in Goshen, Indiana.
--Calvin Redekop, long time faculty member in Sociology at Goshen and Conrad Grebel Colleges, MCC PAX service in Europe, resides in Harrisonburg, Virginia. He is a widely published author.
--Peter Rempel long -time MCC worker in Canada and Europe, currently Executive Director of MCC Manitoba in Winnipeg. Earlier in his career he was assistant archivist of the Mennonite Heritage Center.
--Laura Schmidt Roberts, Chair, Biblical and Religious Studies Division, Fresno Pacific University, currently Vice-Chair of the MCC Executive Committee. Fresno, California.
--Morris Sider, retired Professor of History and English Literature at Messiah College, BIC archivist and editor of Brethren in Christ History and Life, Grantham, Pennsylvania.
