Rosemary Alice Wyse Reimer

Rosemary Alice Wyse Reimer, 88, died in Goshen on March 3.  She was born on August 22, 1933 in Archbold, Ohio, the oldest of 10 children of Cora (Nofziger) and Harold Wyse.  Her siblings are Buetta, deceased 2006 (Marion Bontrager), Dean (Berneda Grieser), Byrdalene (Willis Horst), Denton (Faith Troyer), Sanford (Judy Wyse), Allen (Jo Nofziger), Ned (Debra Rupp), Norma (Mark Ramseyer), and Sara (Rich Wenger).

Rosemary’s first job as a bank teller brought her into contact with Spanish-speaking clients and sparked her love of Spanish. She earned a BA in Spanish from Goshen College in 1958.  She developed and taught the first Spanish language classes at Archbold and Pettisville public schools.

Bethany Christian High School recruited her to teach Spanish, if she would also take on the school library. During the 1960s she worked in libraries and taught English in Mennonite schools and seminaries in Colombia, Uruguay and Paraguay. In 1972 she earned a master’s degree in Library Science from Arizona State University.

In the decades that followed she continued organizing Anabaptist libraries in Japan and India and teaching Spanish. For the 1978 Mennonite World Conference (Newton, KS) she recruited and organized translators in 5 languages, and edited the multilingual conference songbook.

She developed TESOL (Teaching English) programs.  She and her students taught and welcomed immigrants and refugees.  Rosemary taught TESOL at both Goshen College and Bethel College (KS). She developed a cross-cultural curriculum to ease the adjustment of the Chinese exchange professors who started coming to Goshen College in the early 80s and led an early Goshen College SST unit in China.

In 1994 she married Gerhard Reimer. Together they led study abroad programs in Mexico, Costa Rica, and Germany.  For many years they volunteered at the Anabaptist Seminary library in Bogotá, Colombia. Rosemary developed and led the language and cultural orientation program for young people coming to volunteer in the U.S. through Mennonite Central Committee’s IVEP program for over 10 years.

Rosemary was skilled and passionate about developing relationships across cultures.  She was a well-loved teacher, a hospitable host to international guests, an advocate for immigrants and refugees, and a hard worker who was willing to move around the world responding to needs. She baked innumerable “worm” birthday cakes and shared her table frequently bringing people together over dinner.

Surviving her are three step children, Paul (Kathryn Meyer), Julia (Phillip Lund), and Christine (Michael Collins), five grandchildren, Peter, Benjamin, Elena, Lyra, and Henry and many beloved nieces and nephews.  Gerhard and Rosemary had been married for 24 years when he passed away in 2019.

She was a member of College Mennonite Church where a memorial service will take place April 9 at 11:30 a.m.  Visitation will start at 10:00 a.m. before the service.  Memorial gifts can be made to the International Student Aid Fund at College Mennonite Church.