Paul Mowere Longacre, formerly of Akron, died at Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community on Feb. 19, 2018, after a long journey with chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
He was born Feb. 26, 1937, to Paul E. Longacre and Edna Mowere Longacre, on a dairy farm near Bally. As a youth, he joined the Bally Mennonite Church.
Paul attended a one-room school through the eighth grade. After graduating from Boyertown Area High School, he helped his father on the farm for two years before attending college. He graduated from Goshen College in Goshen, Ind., and later earned degrees from Goshen Biblical Seminary and Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary.
In 1963, Paul married Doris Janzen, a fellow Goshen College graduate. The next year they moved to Vietnam, where Paul served for three years as the director for Mennonite Central Committee (MCC).
Daughter Cara was born in Vietnam; daughter Marta was born after the Longacre family returned to the United States. Later the family lived in Indonesia when Paul became director of MCC programs there. After returning to the States, Paul earned a master’s degree from Kansas State University. Much of his MCC work thereafter focused on food and hunger education, which complemented Doris’ work writing the More-with-Less Cookbook and Living More with Less. Doris died in 1979 following a long illness.
During his more than two decades of work with MCC, Paul also served in various administrative positions at MCC headquarters in Akron, including program director for Asia, assistant executive secretary, acting executive secretary, interim personnel director, and interim director for MCC-US. Between 1968 and 1973, Paul was a member of several MCC delegations that visited North Vietnamese and Viet Cong offices in Paris and in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, as part of MCC’s efforts to offer humanitarian aid to all Vietnamese people.
In 1981, Paul married Nancy Heisey, who worked in MCC’s Africa department, and in 1987 they accepted a two-year assignment with five Mennonite mission and service agencies, visiting and listening to Christians and other partners in 45 countries around the world. Later, Paul worked in prison ministry for 13 years first on the board and then the staff of Prisoner Visitation and Support (PVS).
Throughout his life, Paul served on various Mennonite boards and as interim pastor and elder at Mennonite churches. After retiring from PVS in 2004, he was active on the board of Crossing Creeks, a program providing mental health services in Harrisonburg, Va.
Each year Paul loved visiting “Uncle Johnnie’s Cabin” in northern Pennsylvania. He also spent many summer days helping brother Jim bale hay and pick sweet corn at Long Meadow Farm, and hunting there in the fall with brothers, sons-in-law, nephews, and friends.
That farm was where Paul cultivated his beloved apple trees. But his skills at husbandry reached beyond the orchard. He devoted his life to nurturing, mending, encouraging, and helping others bring their own lives to fruition: a husbandry of the heart.
He is survived by his wife: Nancy Heisey, of Harrisonburg, Va.; his daughters: Cara Longacre Hurst (Kevin) of Conestoga; and Marta van Zanten (Erwin) of Media; his three grandchildren: Ruby van Zanten, Anika Hurst, and Claire Hurst; siblings David (Gladys): Harrisonburg, Va.; Mark (Ruth), Susquehanna; Aaron (Martha), Tampa, Fla.; Anna Mary Brubacher (Glenn), Kitchener, Ontario; Jim (Ellen), Barto; and many nieces and nephews. He is also survived by Melinda Nolitha Williams-Maluka, Vienna, Austria
He was preceded in death by his sister: Rhoda King; and by Thabiso Williams, Cape Town, South Africa.
A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m., Saturday, March 3, 2018 at Community Mennonite Church, 70 S. High St., Harrisonburg, Va. The family will receive friends at 9 a.m., on Saturday prior to the service at the church.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to the Paul Longacre Food and Environment Endowed Scholarship at Eastern Mennonite University, or to Sentara RMH Hospice.
Kyger Funeral Homes & Crematory, Harrisonburg, Va., handled the arrangements. Condolences and memories may be shared at kygers.com.
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