Frank C. Peters

1920 – 1987

Frank C. Peters of Kitchener Ontario passed away October 7, 1987 in Kitchener, Ontario.

Frank Cornelius Peters: preacher, professor, and university administrator; born 5 July 1920 in Ukraine, the fifth child of Cornelius C. and Katharina (Hildebrand) Peters. A few weeks after his birth, his mother died. His father, a teacher, remarried, and Anna Reimer became the new mother.

In 1924 the family immigrated to Canada, settling in Langham, and then Herbert, Saskatchewan before moving to Agassiz and then Yarrow, British Columbia.

At seventeen Frank traveled back to Saskatchewan to find employment. It was while working in Foam Lake that Frank committed his life to Christ, was baptized in the local Mennonite Brethren Church and spent a year at the Bethany Bible School in Hepburn, Saskatchewan. For his second year, he returned to Yarrow, where his father was one of the instructors in the Elim Bible School.

It was here, in Yarrow, that he fell in love with Melita Krause, a fellow student. Melita was the daughter of Jacob C. Krause (6 March 1894 – 5 July 1970) and Maria (Rempel) Krause (26 February 1895 – 24 January 1992).

When World War II broke out, Frank, who registered as a conscientious objector, spent several years in alternate service on Vancouver Island. During this time he was given leave from the camp to marry Melita on 15 August 1943 in Yarrow. Frank and Melita eventually had four sons and one daughter: Robert, Edward, Gerald, Marianne and John.

In 1945, following the war, they moved to Hillsboro, Kansas, where Frank earned a B.A. degree at Tabor College and a M.Sc. degree at Emporia State Teachers College. While in Kansas he pastored several churches. Because of visa problems they returned to Canada, where Frank taught for a year at Elim Bible School. In 1949, Frank became the pastor of the Kitchener Mennonite Brethren Church. While pastoring this congregation, Frank earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Waterloo Lutheran Seminary, and a Master of Theology degree from the Federated Faculty in Toronto. He also taught at Waterloo College as a lecturer.

In 1954 Frank was invited to become president of Tabor College, Kansas. However, he resigned in 1956 and earned a Doctor of Theology degree from Central Baptist Seminary, Kansas City and a Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of Kansas. He provided for his family’s livelihood during these years by pastoring local churches.

In 1957 the Peters family moved to Winnipeg, where Frank joined the faculty of the Mennonite Brethren Bible College. He was an outstanding lecturer and students from all across Canada sat in his classes. For eight years he taught in the area of biblical and practical theology. For several years he also served as academic dean of the college. He was a man of boundless energy and combined full-time teaching with preaching ministries in churches all across Canada. Also, he served on the Board of Reference and Council of the Mennonite Brethren Church and for a number of years was moderator of the Canadian Conference (1975-77) as well as the General Conference (1965-69) of the Mennonite Brethren.

Frank was not only a popular speaker but also a good writer, and he contributed regularly to a theological journal called The Voice, published by the Mennonite Brethren Bible College in Winnipeg. He was a man of deep emotions; he could laugh heartily at the droll and absurd, but he also cried quite readily in the face of sorrow and pain. As a trained psychologist, with deep roots in the Christian faith, he was in great demand as a counselor.

He left the college in Winnipeg in 1965 and returned to the pastorate in Kitchener and a part-time teaching position at Waterloo Lutheran University. It wasn’t long before the university invited him to become its president. During the years that he headed the university from 1968 until 1978, Frank’s politically astute leadership helped guide this school from a church-supported university to one receiving full provincial status and financial support (under the name Wilfrid Laurier University). Peters became chairman of the MB Board of Missions as well as a member of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada. He reached out to other denominations in his spiritual ministry and repeatedly he accepted invitations to serve for short periods abroad.

After retiring from the university and after the children had grown up, Frank and Melita returned to Winnipeg to pastor the Portage Avenue Mennonite Brethren Church. Two years later, in 1982, they returned to Kitchener, from where Frank continued to serve in the teaching/preaching ministry at home and abroad. In the summer of 1987 Frank was elected once more to the Board of Reference and Council of the MB Church of North America. A few months later he flew to Blaine, Washington for a preaching mission. It was to be his last. On his return to Kitchener, he suffered a heart attack, and shortly after he passed away on 7 October 1987 at the age of 67. For an epitaph on his gravestone, Melita chose the verse, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21)

A tribute to F.C. Peters

by David Ewert -

It was with a keen sense of loss that we heard the news that God whose ways are past finding out, had called His servant, F.C. Peters, home. His passing leaves a gaping hole in the Peters family, his church, in our schools, in our conference and in the larger evangelical community.

To write a short tribute to a friend and colleague in the work of the kingdom is a delight, although I am deeply saddened by his death. Those eight years we served together on the faculty of the Mennonite Brethren Bible College were some of the best in my entire life. Frank came to us after pastoring the Kitchener MB Church, teaching at Waterloo College and a short stint as president of Tabor College.

He came to Winnipeg full of ideas, chomping at the bit to get into the classroom, where he taught both psychology and theology with great vigor (he had doctorates in both fields). We all thrived on the joy and enthusiasm he brought to his work. He quickly introduced the American coffee break to our faculty, and this provided us with a setting where we could get to know each other better as friends and colleagues. We tended to be a bit straight-laced in those days, and Frank introduced the practice of addressing one another by our first names – something we had not done until then.

Our Canadian churches quickly discovered Dr. Peters’ gifts of teaching, preaching and counselling, and he was very much in demand for the weekend meetings. It was my delight to team up with him on numerous occasions at Bible conferences. We also worked together in the Board of Reference and Council for many years, debating quite vigorously theological and current issues that faced the church, but always as friends.

Frank had a great capacity for friendship. He laughed and cried with us; he played tricks on us; we sent each other notes; we criticized, but also complimented each other. He also had a great capacity for work. In spite of the energy he put into his activities, he never seemed to tire. He had a penchant for telling humorous stories on himself (he claimed all of us got into as many embarrassing situations as he did, only that we wouldn’t tell).

Frank was not always a follower of Jesus. It wasn’t until he was 21 that he gave his life to Christ. After a profound conversion experience, he devoted his life to the service of the Lord. He served God’s people in a great variety of ways until he was 67, when the Lord took him to himself. Not only our churches, but also our schools and countless individuals were the beneficiaries of his gifts and training.

Frank was first and foremost a preacher of the Word. The minutiae of grammar and theology were not his primary interest, but he concentrated on the great fundamentals of the Christian faith. He had a great gift of communication. Whether he preached to large audiences or spoke to smaller groups, people always understood what he meant. His messages were down to earth. He laced his sermons with humor, but one never got the feeling that he wanted to be a funny man; he simply wanted to illustrate and to captivate.

He found it hard to turn down invitations to preach. Whether he was speaking to Mexican Mennonites in Low German (they liked him because they said he was not as “learned” as some other preachers) or to a university crowd, he was uncompromising when it came to the great truths of the gospel. He was trained in homiletics of a former generation, in which it was understood that a sermon must have a clear and logical structure so that the hearers could follow step by step and could also tell others what the preacher had said.

Brother Peters was also a schoolman. He taught at Waterloo College, Tabor College, MBBC and Wilfred Laurier University. Now in his retirement, he also taught part-time at Emmanuel Bible College and made frequent trips to other lands to give short courses. He was a fascinating lecturer, and students usually crowded into his classes.

Frank loved the church. He served the MB Church in a great many ways, not only as a pastor, preacher, teacher and counselor, but also as moderator, and for many years as chairman of the Board of Missions and Services. He had a heart for the mission of the church and frequently went abroad to serve the church in other lands. Although he was loyal to the Mennonite Brethren church, he was greatly in demand beyond the confines of his own denomination. His passing is great loss to the evangelical world as a whole.

We had always hoped Frank would write a few books while he was still a full strength, but the call to teach, to preach, and to counsel always seemed to take precedence. He was a people man, and there are hundreds of people everywhere today who bless him for helping them find the right way.

We would be remiss if we thought of Frank only as a public servant. He was first of all, a husband, a father and a grandfather. He loved his family, and they loved him. We were all deeply moved when members of his family paid tribute to brother Peters at his funeral.

And now he is gone. We will miss him. He was too young to leave us. But who am I to give advice to God? “Honor such men” is Paul’s admonition, and what the apostle said of his colleague Epaphroditus, we transfer easily to F.C. Peters: “My brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister….” (Phil. 3:25-30.

We shall see him again on the great resurrection day when the word of God will be fulfilled. “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

MB Herald October 30, 1987 p.30

Leadership Contribution of Frank C. Peters

Peters’ contribution as university president during the Waterloo Lutheran/Wilfrid Laurier transition is described in Ewert’s article above as “politically astute leadership”. That description is amplified by additional information below, by John H. Redekop, Ph.D. D. Hum. (hon.). Redekop, a political scientist, was professor, department head, member of the University Senate and member of the WLU Board of Governors under President Peters.

Frank Cornelius Peters, equipped with two doctorates and pastoral ordination, was internationally acclaimed as a lecturer, orator, and preacher. He was also a highly successful university president. Perhaps his greatest achievement as president of Waterloo Lutheran University was to convince the Ontario government to take over another private university even though the government had publicly announced that such undertakings had ended.

Actually, President Peters had to deal with three opposing constituencies: a substantial cohort of Lutheran faculty members who were determined to keep the university as it was; the Government of Ontario; and his employer, the Eastern Canada Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. With consummate skill he led to the creation of a win-win-win situation. He overcame entrenched but minority faculty opposition by conducting lengthy open faculty meetings where he tactfully gave the opponents all the time, they wanted to make their case and then observed his majority supporters defeat them in a democratic vote. He also offered to retain the acronym WLU. He emerged unscathed and with a widely appreciated resolution in hand. He convinced the Government of Ontario by bringing the then-premier (William Davis) and the university affairs minister on campus and pointing out that if WLU would have to close because of its financial crisis, they would have to find spaces for the thousands of WLU students in crowded classrooms. He knew they had no such spaces. With substantial logic he not only convinced them to do what they had insisted they would not do, but he also convinced them to fund a large new campus building, which the government did a few years later, one with more than 100 rooms and offices. Amazingly, the government did this despite a province-wide freeze on all campus construction. Understandably, the new edifice was subsequently named the Frank C. Peters Building.

President Peters overcame the Lutheran Synod’s opposition by convincing the Ontario government to repay the Lutherans for virtually all of the funds they had invested in the construction of various campus buildings since the school was established in 1911. In the end the Synod acquiesced – and gratefully thanked President Peters for the large endowment they now had for their financially struggling Waterloo Lutheran Seminary on campus.

An inspiring leader, a tactful visionary, and a brilliant negotiator had achieved what many respected critics had insisted was impossible. Thus, in 1973, Waterloo Lutheran University became Wilfrid Laurier University