A Mennonite Draft Dodger in Canada: A Memoir

Sam Steiner reflects on his journey from a small Mennonite community in eastern Ohio to political radicalization in the 1960s at Goshen College in Indiana. Following expulsion from college for helping to edit an underground newspaper, he became a draft resister in Chicago, eventually leaving for Canada in October 1968 at the urging of the woman who would become his wife. In Canada, life transformed again as he became a custodian of Ontario Mennonite history at Conrad Grebel College in Waterloo as an archivist, librarian, and author. His wife, Sue, became a Mennonite minister, which further shapes their life together, including his participation in the realignment and merger of mainline North American Mennonite denominations. He concludes by reminiscing about retirement and the final illness and death of his marriage companion of 50 years. In this second, enlarged edition, the author makes use of over 70 recently returned letters he wrote to a friend between 1964 and 1969 during the time of his life's greatest crises.

Sam Steiner reflects on his journey from a small Mennonite community in eastern Ohio to political radicalization in the 1960s at Goshen College in Indiana. Following expulsion from college for helping to edit an underground newspaper, he became a draft resister in Chicago, eventually leaving for Canada in October 1968 at the urging of the woman who would become his wife. In Canada, life transformed again as he became a custodian of Ontario Mennonite history at Conrad Grebel College in Waterloo as an archivist, librarian, and author. His wife, Sue, became a Mennonite minister, which further shapes their life together, including his participation in the realignment and merger of mainline North American Mennonite denominations. He concludes by reminiscing about retirement and the final illness and death of his marriage companion of 50 years. In this second, enlarged edition, the author makes use of over 70 recently returned letters he wrote to a friend between 1964 and 1969 during the time of his life's greatest crises.