Harold (1932-1997) & Nancy Riediger Fehderau

Title: Harold and Nancy Fehderau fonds

Dates of creation: 1990

Physical description: 3 leaves of textual records

Biographical sketch: On 6 February 1932 Harold was born to Nicholas and Louise Fehderau, in Kitchener, Ontario. In 1995 he developed cancer and died 8 April 1997, the year he planned to retire. Harold was a member of the Kitchener Mennonite Brethren Church. Nancy Riediger became his wife on 28 December 1957. Their three children were born in different parts of the world, daughter Becky in the Congo, son Dan in Winnipeg and son David in Kinshasa, Zaire.

Harold was gifted in languages. After completing high school at Kitchener-Waterloo Collegiate Institute, he received a B.A. from the University of Western Ontario in 1954 and a Masters degree in German from the University of Colorado in 1956. For three years he taught in the language department at Tabor College in Hillsboro and in 1966 completed Ph.D. studies in linguistics and anthropology at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

In all, Harold and Nancy spent 22 years in Africa where Harold worked for ten years as a missionary Bible translator in the Congo, eight years as United Bible Societies translation adviser in Zaire, and four years as Bible translation coordinator for Africa. His work in the Congo included "translating the Kituba language and establishing written forms of other local languages in order for the Bible to be accessible to those peoples." (MB Herald, 29 August 1997, p. 24) On his return to Kitchener-Waterloo in 1980 Harold was appointed United Bible Societies translation co-ordinator for the Americas. In 1989 he became Director of Scripture translation for the Canadian Bible Society, a position he held until his death. His special interest in this position was in native language Scripture translations.

Nancy Riediger Fehderau was a nurse and a teacher.

Custodial history: Donated by Nancy Fehderau to the Mennonite Archives of Ontario in December 1999.

Scope and content: The fonds consists of a letter from Ben Horch to Harold Fehderau, as well as Fehderau's response on the subject of church music.

Notes: Original archival description created 1999 by Sam Steiner.

1. Correspondence with Ben Horch, 1990

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