Daniel E. Kauffman

Daniel E. Kauffman, 84, who developed stewardship programs for the Mennonite Church and some of its colleges, died Tuesday.   He was the former director of development at Goshen College.  He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 1995. In 1946 at the age of 23 he became business manager of Hesston College.  Then most Mennonite Churches did not have annual giving budgets.  Money was often contributed on a weekly basis for specific causes.  Churches sometimes had five offerings during one service.  In order to fit into that pattern Mr. Kauffman would visit nearly every Mennonite church each year west of the Mississippi and present Hesston College’s program to congregations and then spent the rest of the week knocking on congregates doors asking for money.  He referred this as his tin cupping days and said he knew there had to be a better way to raise money for the church’s mission.   In 1956, while getting his Master’s degree in Educational Administration from Columbia University, he met with stewardship leaders in other churches.  From them he got the idea of a Christian stewardship which would encourage people to use their time, abilities and money so that they could be part of the larger work of the church.  Returning to Hesston be begin to talk about the necessity of more effective stewardship.   He suggested that it would be more efficient and effective for congregations to pool their resources into a unified budget rather than using the system of weekly offerings.   In 1961 he became Secretary of Stewardship for the General Board of Mennonite Church in Scottdale, PA.   He, along with others, then helped the entire church move to a concept which developed into an organized program for teaching Christian stewardship of all human talents.  In 1971 he became the development director of Goshen College where he continued to promote these stewardship ideas.  When he went to Goshen the institution had a very small endowment.   By the time he retired, in 1986, the endowment exceeded $20 million.   After retirement, he summarized his stewardship beliefs in a book titled: Managers with God: Continuing the work Christ Began, published by Herald Press.   While ferociously devoted to his work, he loved his family and music.  Much of his life was devoted to trying to get his children to “plan their work and work their plan.”  He sometimes smilingly said he was less successful in this effort than with other ventures.  Music was central to his life.  He occasionally stood in the living room and pretend conducted while he listened to classical pieces on the stereo.  His children affectionately bought him conductor’s batons. Even when his memory was gone, listening to music was still a joyous thing he and his children did together.  As young man he sang in the Ambassadors, a gospel quartet.    They had singing reunions, which were a joy to him, into old age.   He was a graduate of both Hesston and Goshen Colleges. For a time he was also the business administer of Southmoreland School District in Pennsylvania. He was born on a dairy farm in Kansas.   His first wife, Edith Yoder, died in 1988 after a marriage of 44 years.  His second wife, Anna Martin, died in 2004, after a marriage of 12 years.   He is survived by his children, Daniel of Hayes, VA , Debby Miller of Atlanta GA, Sally Green of Cranberry Township, PA and Jim of Talledega, AL;  eight grandchildren, Melanie Schmidt, Jacob Kauffman, Joey Green, Hannah Miller, Sarah Nathaniel, Ryan Kauffman, Ginger Kauffman, Sam Kauffman and great grandchildren, Mykayla Nathaniel and Courtney Rae Schmidt. A brother, Robert Kauffman of Seattle, Washington, also survives.   Friends will be received 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m., Friday, November 11, at College Mennonite Church, Goshen.   Burial will be at 9:30 a.m., Saturday, November 12, 2006, in Elkhart Prairie Cemetery, Goshen.  A memorial service will follow at 11:00 a.m. at College Mennonite Church.  Pastor Firman Gingerich and Rev. Clare Schumm will officiate.   Memorial contributions may be designated to Goshen College for the Daniel and Edith Kauffman Scholarship Fund.