Peter Samuel Bartel, 87, of Wichita, Kan., died May 26, 2008. He was born March 14, 1921, to Peter and Anna Schmidt Bartel in Marion County.

He grew up on a farm and attended a one-room school. He graduated with honors from Bethel College in North Newton in 1943.

As a conscientious objector to war, he joined a Relief Training Unit at Goshen (Ind.) College to prepare to serve in war-torn areas at the end of World War II as he waited to be drafted. Once drafted he was assigned to Civilian Public Service in Downey, Idaho, and helped dig irrigation ditches. Later he did CPS work in Mulberry, Fla., on a hookworm prevention program, and in California as education director in a veteran’s hospital. After World War II, he went to Germany with Mennonite Central Committee to help feed many people in the Krefeld area.

He returned to Kansas in December 1948, and MCC hired him to set up voluntary service programs in Kansas and Oklahoma. Then, after marrying Amanda, they moved to WaKeeney, where he taught math and science in the high school for two years. They then moved to Iowa City, where he earned a master’s degree at the University of Iowa. After this he taught physics at Bethel College for three years. After a year at the University of Kansas, he went back to high school teaching at Wichita West High School. In 1965 he began teaching at Wichita State University, where he taught until retiring in 1989.

He was a member of Lorraine Avenue Mennonite Church of Wichita. He was involved with children in Indian Guides, Boy Scouts and later ice hockey. His Science Foundation summer study grants took he and his family all over the country. In 1983 the city of Krefeld, Germany, invited him to accept their thanks for MCC’s relief work.  

https://mla.bethelks.edu/mediawiki/index.php/Bartel,_Peter_Samuel_(1921-2008)

Obituary: http://www.cochranmortuary.com/obituary/229404

Memorial: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/30424911