Title: Calvin Redekop Old Colony Mennonite Research Collection, 1952-2012
Administrative/Biographical History
Calvin Wall Redekop was born on September 19, 1925, to Jacob and Katherine Redekop. As a child, Redekop lived on a farm in Volt, Montana. However, due to the effects of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, the Redekop family relocated first to Oregon, and then to Minnesota, where Redekop attended high school. Between 1946-1949, Redekop attended Goshen College, graduating with a B.A. in social science. In 1949, he joined the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) doing voluntary service work in the U.S. and abroad. Expanding on this work, Redekop went to Europe in 1950 to serve as PAX Program Coordinator and Mennonite Voluntary Service Director until 1952. By 1953, Redekop returned to the U.S. and spent one semester at the Goshen College Seminary before enrolling in the University of Minnesota. In 1955, Redekop earned his M.A. in sociology and anthropology. The same year, he married Freda Pellman, with whom he had three sons. In 1959, Redekop earned his Ph.D. in sociology and anthropology from the University of Chicago. After gaining this degree, Redekop became a professor, first at Hesston College from 1955-1962, and then at Earlham College (1962-1967), Goshen College (1967-1976), and Conrad Grebel College (1979-1990). Between 1971-1972, Redekop and his family moved to Paraguay so he could study indigenous-Mennonite relationships in Chaco. From 1976-1978, Redekop was Vice President of Tabor College. Along with his wife, Redekop led travel tours, with a mainly Anabaptist focus, abroad in Europe, Central and South America, and Jamaica. After 1989, the couple moved to Harrisonburg, Virginia, where Redekop was a founding member of the Brethren-Mennonite Heritage Center and the Anabaptist Center for Religion and Society. Additionally, Redekop has been involved in a number of business ventures, including Excel Industries, Inc. and Sunflower Energy Works. He was a board member of EnerSource, Secure Futures, Wood Composites, Inc., and Real Associates, Inc. He was founding editor of The Marketplace, a publication by the Mennonite Economic Development Associates. Throughout his life, Redekop published extensively on Mennonite and other Anabaptist topics, including the Old Colony Mennonites of Mexico and Canada. His 1959 dissertation on the Old Colony Mennonites was titled The Secratarian Black and White World. In 1959, Redekop published The Old Colony Mennonites: Dilemmas of Ethnic Minority Life with John’s Hopkins University Press. In 2022, Redekop published Service: The Path to Justice with Terry Beitzel. Further, Redekop and his family created the JustPax Fund and Redekop Family Endowment, both dedicated to supporting economic, gender, and environmental justice. On July 20, 2022, Redekop passed away in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
