Henry H. Dueck

Henry H. Dueck was born on September 27, 1927, in Namaka, Alberta, the third of 11 children born to Henry J. Dueck and Katharina (Barg) Dueck. His two older brothers, Jake and John, were born in Elisabethtal, in the Molotschna colony in Ukraine, and the family landed in Canada in December of 1926, and. Henry was the first of the 11 children in his family born in Canada.

Henry’s parents moved from Alberta to Saskatchewan in 1929, and then migrated to Ontario in December of 1933. They started living in Vineland, where Henry began attending elementary school in the spring of 1934. A few years later his parents had saved enough money to buy a 5 acre farm of their own on East and West Line in Virgil, Ontario, where Henry continued his schooling until Grade 8.

At age 13, while in grade 8, Henry made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ following a sermon series by guest minister, H. H. Janzen, in the Virgil Mennonite Brethren church. He was convicted by the passage in Revelations 3: 19 - 20, “So be earnest and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me.” He gave his life to the Lord at that time, and this was his source of guidance and inspiration from then on.

Henry was very determined to get a high school education, and with no high school in their immediate area, he was not sure how to pursue this. It was 1941, jobs were readily available as older men were away at war, and many young men, including his older brothers, obtained full-time work at that point rather than go on to high school. At age 14 Henry got a delivery job at a grocery store in St. Catharines, 10 miles away, and hitchhiked back and forth between Virgil and St. Catharines every day, while keeping his bicycle at the grocery store for doing deliveries. He soon was promoted to an inside position at the store.

Henry’s organizational abilities first showed themselves in that position, when he convinced the store owner to allow him to re-organize the shelving system to improve sales. He still wanted to continue his education, however, and in September of 1942, at age 15, he was able to register for grade 9 at St. Catharines Collegiate, and continued working on weekends to pay for books and bus fare. He also had to conquer regulatory hurdles to obtain the necessary paperwork from municipal officials to permit him to attend school in a different town than his place of residence.

Henry rode his bike to the nearest St. Catharines bus stop, took a bus from there as close to the school as he could, and then walked another 15 minutes, to get to and from school every day. When it got too cold to ride his bike, he found a group of people who were car-pooling to jobs in St. Catharines, and arranged to ride with them into town and walk from there to school. As he remarks in his memoirs, “I don’t know of any other friend in my age group who had to jump through so many hoops just in order to take the ninth grade.”

Following grade 9, Henry was baptized in Lake Ontario in August of 1943. A few days later he was diagnosed with typhoid fever, and was hospitalized for five weeks. While in a high fever during that time, he recalled briefly seeing a vision of Jesus at the foot of his hospital bed, and thought he was being called home to heaven, but then the vision left. He later interpreted that experience to mean that God still had things he wanted him to accomplish here on earth. After returning from hospital, Henry was so weakened that he had to learn how to walk all over again. He recalled learning how to walk again at the same time his youngest brother, then a toddler, was learning to walk for the first time.

This experience set back Henry’s educational progress by another year, which he discussed with his parents. They mentioned a private high school in Gretna, Manitoba, where a respected teacher from Russia, known to his parents, was the principal. Henry was given permission by his parents to attend there, but he would have to pay his own way as they could not afford it. Henry applied to the Mennonite Collegiate Institute (MCI) in Gretna, Manitoba later in 1943, and was accepted to commence Grade 10 there in September of 1944.

For the next three summers, Henry worked long hours at the Niagara Township Fruit Co-operative to earn his tuition and room and board, so that he could attend MCI in Gretna. He graduated from grade 12 at MCI in June of 1947. While there, he first became involved in serving on student committees and began learning how to bring groups of people together to work out common goals and realize them.

It was while attending the boarding school at MCI that Henry also met Mary Regehr, whose family was from Winnipeg, and this was the beginning of their relationship. Following graduation, Henry pursued a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Manitoba, continuing to return home to Niagara to spend his summers working at the Fruit Co-op. Following his graduation from U of M, Henry and Mary were married in July of 1950.

In April of that year, shortly before their wedding, Henry was awarded a student exchange scholarship to study at Christian Albrecht University in Kiel, Germany for one year. Rather than postpone the wedding to pursue this opportunity, he and Mary decided to get married as planned and go to Europe together. They worked that summer to earn sufficient funds, and in October of 1950 they set sail from Montreal on a Dutch cargo ship, to travel to Germany.

While Henry pursued his studies, Mary worked in a clerical position at the University. Having enjoyed their first year in Europe very much, they decided to spend the following year in England. They spent several weeks touring Europe in the summer of 1951, hitchhiking and living in youth hostels, before both finding teaching jobs in England, for the next school year. After those two years in Europe, Henry was able to gain a scholarship to complete his Masters Degree in German Studies, at the University of Michigan, where he studied from 1952-53. Their first child, Theodore (Ted) was born there.

Following graduation from University of Michigan, Henry and Mary returned to Virgil, Ontario, where Henry started teaching at Eden Christian College, in Niagara-on-the-Lake. Henry taught at Eden from 1953 to 1960, during which time their second child, Karen was born in St. Catharines. He then moved to take a teaching position at Eastwood Collegiate in Kitchener, Ontario, where he taught another 5 years and became a guidance counselor. It was during those years that their third child, Christine, was born in Kitchener.

During these teaching years, Henry became increasingly involved in serving on various committees of the local MB churches (first in Virgil and then in Kitchener). This expanded into roles on various MB conference committees, particularly in areas related to youth and Christian Education.

In 1965, Henry noticed a job posting for the position of Registrar and Secretary of the Senate, at Waterloo Lutheran University (which later became Wilfrid Laurier University). He applied and was hired. This new position coincided with increasing growth and student enrollment at the university, and the introduction of computerization to the student records keeping process. Henry had many opportunities to increase his organizational management skills in these new roles. At the same time, he served as moderator of the Kitchener MB Church for many years, as well as becoming increasingly involved in MB conference committees related to higher education.

In particular, Henry served on the Board of what was then Mennonite Brethren Bible College in Winnipeg (now part of Canadian Mennonite University), and then served on the MB Conference Board of Higher Education, which appointed him to a seat on the MB Seminary board. During these years Mary returned to school herself, completing her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees and part of her doctorate. She became a university lecturer at WLU during this time.

In 1977 the Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary (MBBS) in Fresno California appointed a new president, Elmer Martens, who wished to continue his teaching role and accepted the position on condition that a vice-president would be appointed to handle the day-to-day administrative tasks of operating the seminary. Henry was offered the newly created position of Vice President - Administration, and at age 50 he and Mary, along with their youngest daughter Christine, moved across the continent to start a whole new phase of their lives in Fresno, California.

Henry spent the next 8 years as Vice-President of the seminary, from 1977 – 1985, seeing the seminary through the fund raising and building of a new library, traveling to Mennonite Brethren churches all over North America to promote the work of the seminary and taking leadership of the administrative aspects of that institution. He also completed another Masters Degree in Biblical Studies during those years at MBBS. He then finished his career working as a financial planner in Fresno, until Mary’s retirement from her teaching position at Fresno Pacific University.

After leaving the seminary, Henry and Mary began teaching English as a Second Language overseas between Mary’s teaching semesters at Fresno Pacific. They travelled together to China several times to pursue this work, and became involved in the beginning of Lithuania Christian College in Klaipeda.

Following Mary’s retirement and their relocation to Abbotsford in 1993, Henry and Mary taught at the State University of Nizhni Novgorod in Russia, and Russian-American Christian University in Moscow, before Henry’s work with the Logos Canada board led to the founding of St. Petersburg Christian University (SPCU).

Henry served on the SPCU board of directors from its formation in 1994 until finally retiring in 2006, serving many of these years as the chairman. Twice during that time, he and Mary moved to St. Petersburg for a period of six months, so that Henry could serve as the interim President (Rector) of SPCU when that was required to guide the university through some difficult times.

When Henry first began serving SPCU there was one program of study - a four year Bachelor of Theology degree. Over the next 12 years he played a major role in leading SPCU through the international accreditation of that program as well as the development of a three year Bachelor of Christian Education program, a three year Bachelor of Pastoral-Youth Ministry program, and two Master of Theology programs.

During the same period, Henry also was instrumental in guiding SPCU through the process of developing its new campus. This included the purchase of two buildings in St. Petersburg, to develop a student residence, a teaching building and library; along with fundraising in North America for large amounts of money and gifts in kind to fund the initial purchase and the gradual renovation of these buildings. When he was not physically present in St. Petersburg, Henry spent countless hours in his home office, sending and receiving emails, reviewing documents and providing advice from a distance, in order to advance the work.

In honor of these years of faithful service, guidance, support and love, SPCU bestowed on Henry the honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 2006.

Travel was always a big part of Henry’s life (and by extension, the life of his family). Right from the first years and throughout their marriage, Henry and Mary travelled widely. While their children were young, family road trips to Winnipeg occurred regularly. Henry also guided several Menno Travel Service tours to Europe and other parts of the world, and the family travelled to destinations all over North America in their house trailer.

In later years, Henry continued to enjoy traveling with Mary, church activities, visiting family and sharing hospitality with many friends. Four years ago, for health reasons, Henry moved to Tabor Home. He and Mary continued to bless people, even as Henry’s health declined. The family wishes to thank the many friends and loved ones who have supported and prayed for Henry and Mary in these recent years. In particular, they wish to recognize and honour the loving and respectful care and support received from the excellent staff at Tabor Home.

In lieu of flowers donations may be made to Logos Canada, Mennonite Central Committee or Tabor Home Society.

Henry is survived by his loving wife of 66 years, Mary (Regehr) Dueck; children Theodore Dueck (Deborah), Karen Pennington (David), Christine Petkau (Brent); grandchildren Sarah Crant (Kevin), Amanda Dueck, Greg Hallman (Genevieve), Michael Hallman, Amy Pennington, Gillian Pennington, Justin Pennington, Christina Pennington, Benjamin Petkau and Haley Petkau; great-grandchildren Gabriel Crant, Eli Crant and Sloane Hallman; siblings Justina Goertzen (Frank), Abe Dueck, Stella Dyck (Henry), Walter Dueck (Esther), Erma Reimer (Walter), Agnes Abbott (Donald), Eric Dueck and Elma Dueck; and by Mary’s siblings Eugene Regehr, Irene Unger (Herman) and Lorraine Harms (Charles) and brother-in-law Frank Dyck. He is predeceased by his parents, Henry J. Dueck, Katharina (Barg) Dueck, his father-in-law, Jacob Regehr, mothers-in-law Eudokia (Korolykova) Regehr and Anna (Braun) Regehr, older brothers Jacob Dueck and John Dueck and by sisters-in-law, Alice Dueck, Frieda Dueck, Betty Dueck, Ann Dyck and Helen Regehr.