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By Brooklyn Torquato '27
Collection Overview
Scope and Contents of the Materials
This collection contains correspondence, personal diaries, reports, speeches, newspaper clippings, newsletters, and a photograph album relevant to Dr. John Kenneth Kreider’s personal life and work with the Brethren Volunteer Service. Personal correspondence spans from February 1955 to August 1957 and includes topics on the University Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he was assigned to be a normal control patient by the Brethren Volunteer Service program, as well as Kreider’s return home from Ann Arbor, his personal life, and his photography hobby. Correspondents include A. Clyde Kreider (his father), Catherine Herr Neff Kreider (his mother), and John Eberly. Three diaries, which encompass the years 1955 to1957, detail Kreider's trip abroad to Europe as a member of the Brethren Volunteer Service. A booklet in German celebrates the 250th anniversary of the Church of the Brethren. Reports from September 1955 to August 1957 written by Kreider detail his work in and travels in various European countries, particularly Germany, Austria, and Italy as a Brethren Volunteer Service member, including notes on the Heifer Project Initiative. Newspaper clippings, several featuring Kreider and some written by him, comment on the aims and achievements of the Brethren Volunteer Service and Heifer Project overseas. Clippings from the Church of the Brethren’s Gospel Messenger newsletter covers the Heifer project and Brethren volunteers serving in German. An album of annotated photographs shows the Brethren volunteers in action: providing clothes, facilitating activities, and supporting refugees in West Germany. The collection also includes later correspondence and papers from the 1960s, during his time in Elizabethtown. The speeches, ranging from 1956 to 2025, cover a variety of subject matter such as the goals and beliefs of the Church of the Brethren, the Vietnam war, conflict in the Middle East, social protest, education, politics, Christianity, peacemaking, and Elizabethtown College.
Collection Historical Note
Dr. J. [John] Kenneth Kreider (April 7, 1934 - October 19, 2025), Professor of History Emeritus, taught at Elizabethtown College for 35 years, retiring in 1999. He focused on Russian and European history, and many of his publications draw on his Brethren upbringing.
Raised in Buck, Lancaster County, Kreider grew up in the Church of the Brethren. After graduating from Southern Lancaster County Joint High School, Kreider was a conscientious objector and served in alternative service for three years. He primarily worked with Heifer Project International on post-World-War-II reconstruction in Germany and Austria.
Back in the U.S., Kreider obtained an A.B. degree from Elizabethtown College (history major, political science minor, 1961) and later M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the Pennsylvania State University. He spent his teaching career at Elizabethtown College, where he served as History Department Chair, Personnel Council Chair, and a member of the Library Committee. During the Vietnam War, he actively participated in anti-war demonstrations on campus and in the community. His wife, Carroll Kreider, also taught at the College, retiring as a Professor of Business in 1999. Both were popular teachers. In 2013 Dr. Thomas Conner (a 1972 graduate of Elizabethtown College and a current professor at Hillside College) funded the Kreider Prize endowment in their honor. The Kreider Prize for Excellence in Teaching honors both Kreiders “for their inspirational service to countless students at Elizabethtown College.”
In retirement, Kreider published the book A Cup of Cold Water: The Story of Brethren Service (Brethren Press, 2001), the autobiography From the Buck to E-town: An Awesome Journey (Brethren Press, 2010), and several articles including one in Chicken Soup for the Grandma’s Soul (Canfield, Hanser, Theiman, 2005). He frequently delivered speeches and sermons throughout his life.
For the complete autobiography from which this biographical note is taken, see box 2 folder 91. His full autobiography, From the Buck to Etown, is located in the High Library, Hess Archives, and Young Center, and details his travels to all seven continents (106 foreign countries and all 50 of the United States).
Box and Folder Listing
Browse by Box:
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Box 1],
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Box 2],
[Box 3],
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All]
- Box 3
- Folder 1: Medical Testing Brethren Volunteer Service Personal Correspondence, Feb. 1955-Sep. 1955
- Folder 2: Europe Brethren Volunteer Service Personal Correspondence, Jan. 1956-Aug. 1957
- Folder 3: Reports from Brethren Volunteer Service in Europe, Sep. 1955-Aug.1957
- Folder 4: Personal Correspondence Addressed to Kreider, Mar. 1956-Nov. 1956
- Folder 5: Time in Elizabethtown Correspondence, June 1965-April 1966
- Folder 6: Trip with Mennonites to Holy Land, Feb. 1956
- Folder 7: 250th Anniversary of Church of the Brethren Ephemera, 1958
- Folder 8: Brethren Service Commission Student Exchange Program, May 1955-Dec.1956
- Folder 9: Diary #1, July 27, 1955-July 26, 1956
- Folder 10: Diary #2, July 27, 1956-July 26, 1957
- Folder 11: Diary #3, July 27, 1957-Sep. 3, 1957
- Folder 12: Annotated Photograph Book of Brethren Volunteer Service, 1950s
Browse by Box:
[
Box 1],
[
Box 2],
[Box 3],
[
All]
