Yoder, who retired from 91����Ƶ in 2004, died on July 17, 2025, at Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community in Harrisonburg, following a long journey with Parkinson’s disease. He was 86 years old. 

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 23, in the Eastern Mennonite School auditorium, 801 Parkwood Drive, Harrisonburg. 

“His love for travel was only surpassed by his love for people and he formed lasting relationships in the classroom, his community and around the world,” states an obituary written by his family.

You can read the obituary .

From Iowa to Africa

Born on April 17, 1939, Yoder was raised in a Mennonite family in Wellman, Iowa, a rural farming community about 25 miles from Iowa City. He was the oldest of five brothers and was the first in his family to attend college, majoring in English and history at 91����Ƶ and earning a BA in 1962. 

“He was not about to be a farmer,” said Nancy Myers Yoder ’66, his wife of 55 years. “He loved to read and he read voraciously, and so he was more of an academic.”

“He definitely was an academic,” agreed their youngest son, Joel Yoder ’97. “Growing up, he would be reading poetry or literature while working on the tiling machine in the summers for his uncle to pay for college.”

After graduating from college, Carroll left for Brussels to study French for a year and then taught in the French language in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as a conscientious objector through Mennonite Central Committee’s . In the fall of 1971, he was hired to teach French at 91����Ƶ, while a PhD candidate at the University of Iowa, and Nancy was hired at the school to teach nursing. Carroll would earn his doctorate in French African Literature from the University of Iowa in 1974.

From 1983-1984, during a two-year leave from 91����Ƶ, Carroll returned to the Democratic Republic of the Congo with his wife and two sons to serve as a Fulbright lecturer in French. It wouldn’t be the last time their travels would take them to the continent.

An ‘intellectual force’

Over the years, Carroll and Nancy led a total of 121 students on five semesterlong intercultural programs to France (1974 and 1989) and to France and Ivory Coast (1994, 1997, and 2001). He also led 16 students as a solo leader on two summerlong intercultural programs to Quebec (1987) and France and Ivory Coast (1992), according to a list from 91����Ƶ Intercultural Programs. 

“They were such a good team,” said Joel, who joined the 1989 and 1994 trips. “They needed each other to make it all work. Every time they’d come back from a cross-cultural, they’d say, ‘Don’t let us do that again.’ And then a little while later, they’d say, ‘Oh, we need to do another cross-cultural.’”

“He was a real people person,” Nancy said about Carroll. “He could communicate and make contacts with people in French-speaking countries and find opportunities to get speakers or find families for students to live with. He had a gift for reaching out and contacting people and seeing what might work out.”

Many of Carroll’s colleagues and former students, including those on his intercultural programs, have written tributes following his death to express their gratitude. 

Patricia King ’89, a former student of his who taught in 91����Ƶ’s Language and Literature Department from 2000 to 2003 and is now an author living in Durham, England, reflected on Carroll’s love of laughter and language: “He was someone who clearly took joy in his work and who loved the French language with a passion he transferred to his students.”

Novelist Christine Benner Dixon ’04, author of The Height of Land, said that Carroll had a “huge impact” on her development as a writer. “I am so grateful to have had him as my teacher,” she wrote. “In his classes, I deepened my interest in the craft of reading, teaching, and writing literature.”

Tim Swartzendruber ’95, a student on the 1994 intercultural group that traveled to France and Ivory Coast, remembered Carroll for his adventuresome spirit and keen intellect. “He had a reputation among faculty for having probably the most gifted mind,” said the English literature major and French minor. “He was the intellectual force on the faculty at that time. He was a real expert in literary criticism and taught us, at a high level, to analyze what we were reading and apply it to our lives.” Swartzendruber, who now serves as senior regional advancement director at 91����Ƶ, will be one of the speakers sharing their remembrances of Carroll at the Aug. 23 memorial service.

As an English major at 91����Ƶ, Joel took several of his father’s English and French classes. “He was known as one of the tougher professors, in terms of courseload,” he said. “He would have these daily quizzes. They weren’t worth a ton, but that was his way of seeing how many classes you actually attended.”

Carroll mentored many aspiring teachers and was also known for his successful track record in hiring and retaining qualified and dedicated faculty members while he was chair of the Language and Literature Department. 

Dr. Marti Eads, professor of English, was hired by Carroll to come teach at 91����Ƶ starting in the fall of 2003. “Carroll was the kind of person I aspired to be,” she said. “He was a very humble person and was always looking for ways to encourage others. He was always ready to sing other people’s praises.” Eads would chair the department for the next three years after Carroll retired and said that he supported her in that role. Carroll also helped start the Writers Read event that continues to draw authors to campus. 

Each year, the Carroll Yoder Award for Teaching Excellence honors an 91����Ƶ student who has demonstrated academic excellence in both literary studies and education courses and has shown a clear call to the teaching profession.

Later years

In a 2004 Weather Vane article about his retirement, Carroll is quoted as saying he will miss the “daily contact with students and colleagues,” and has most valued “the opportunity to integrate my Christian/Mennonite faith with my professional and service goals.”

Carroll was deeply engaged in the life of the church. The Yoders were one of the founding families of Shalom Mennonite Congregation in 1988. The church began meeting in Strite Auditorium in Campus Center and now meets at Eastern Mennonite School.

Carroll enjoyed attending concerts on campus and spectating basketball games. He also appreciated catching up with other retired 91����Ƶ faculty members at VMRC. “He kept physically fit,” Nancy said. “He would walk, he would bike, and he played tennis regularly.”

Carroll is survived by his wife, Nancy; sons Eric (Karina) and Joel (Chia-Chi/Judy ’98); and six grandchildren: Carrie (Jansen Miller), Elliott, Sophia, Bryn, Leah, and Lilly. He is also survived by his brothers Wilbur, Milford, and Galen, and was preceded in death by his brother Marcus.

One final testament to his love for 91����Ƶ was the many nephews, nieces, and other relatives he helped bring to the school. “I counted the number of students who came here, who I think were influenced by Carroll, and it totaled about 25,” said Nancy.

Seventeen of the 28 in the group flew in from as far as California and Texas to talk about their experiences and how the semester changed their lives. Some of the experiences were difficult, especially in the French-speaking West African country where they spent the second part of the spring term of 1994. Other experiences were exhilarating.

The group gathered during , Oct. 10-12, at the home of their faculty leaders, Carroll and Nancy Yoder. The conversation time, which went late into the night, was preceded by a pig roast next door at the home of Joel Yoder, the leaders’ son and a member of the 1994 group. The reunion included seven spouses and more than 20 children.

Carroll Yoder, a former French professor who retired about 10 years ago, recalled a night in an Ivory Coast village when the 91����Ƶ students were sitting around a fire under the starry skies. “This sure ain’t Nebraska,” said Brant Burkey, who grew up in Nebraska. Replied Kacey Bowers (now Raines) from West Virginia, swiping at the insects flying around her: “But it feels a bit like West Virginia!”

The students recalled the homes they were assigned to, sometimes with no running water and electricity – and sharing a bed with one of the family’s children.

“When you go through challenges, it makes you stronger,” said Ben Bolanos. Added Jo Wenger Fisher: “Shared experiences, especially in the face of adversity, drew us close together as a group.” Anne Charbeneau Zapanta said she had to “dig deep within herself” and that processing her experiences with her close-knit group helped a lot.

Katrina Wyse recalled vividly the night her host mother walked to a nearby clinic to give birth to a baby and then walked home before dawn with her new child. Maybe there is a connection, she said, but now she is a physician herself, delivering babies.

One student gave credit to the cross-cultural semester for the fact that he now devotes his life to Africa. Mark Schroeder is vice president of Africa analysis for in Austin, Texas. said the unforgettable experience “still permeates my life 20 years later.”

The reunion group surprised the Yoders by announcing they were donating over $2,300 in the Yoders’ honor to the .

Highlights of the weekend

This year’s Homecoming and Family Weekend also included reunions for all graduating classes ending in “4” and “9,” starting with 1964. Graduates from before that time, called “jubilee alumni,” met together for a reception and program.

91����Ƶ recognized three outstanding alumni during the weekend:

• . A pioneer in helping children with autism, he is longtime director of an autism clinic in Richmond, Virginia, and a clinical professor of psychiatry at Virginia Commonwealth University. He earned two master’s degrees and then a PhD in psychology from Virginia Tech University.

• . His lifetime of Christian service included 10 years in Saigon during the Vietnam War, refugee work in Thailand and Honduras, pastoring churches, and victim-offender reconciliation. He has a master’s degree in religious education from New York University.

• . Working as a hospital nurse, she quickly earned promotions, including director of the 150-employee emergency department at Aultman Hospital in Canton, Ohio. She has master’s degrees in both nursing and business administration from Case Western University.

91����Ƶ inducted two 2004 graduates into the Athletics Hall of Honor – Ellie Lind Holsopple in women’s soccer and Kristin Moyer Vasey in field hockey.

Other weekend events included a donor –appreciation banquet for 375 guests, a one-man theatrical presentation of C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce, an organ concert by recently-retired professor John Fast, a Sunday-morning worship service, an art exhibit opening, four intercollegiate games, tours of two renovated facilities, a panel discussion of retired science faculty, and departmental programs.

of Homecoming and Family Weekend events

These alumni sought to be of service amid war, disease, poverty, challenging living conditions, no transportation beyond their feet, survival-level pay, and much else. Yet many refer to feeling blessed, learning more than they were able to offer to others. “I write this article with a grateful heart,” says Miriam E. Krantz, who has lived, worked and studied in Nepal for 50 years.

The class of 1962 defies stereotypes of farm-raised, narrowly religious, stay-put, ethnically Swiss-Germanic Mennonites from days gone by.

Belying narrow stereotypes

Multiracial families through marriage, adoptions and in-laws are fairly common. These alumni have shown career flexibility, with lots of moving, internationally and across North America. Some have jumped to other worship settings – Catholic, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist, United Church of Christ, non-denominational. The majority, though, call themselves Mennonites.

There have been divorces, and there have been lots of second, even third, marriages, typically a couple of years after the death of a spouse. Yet one divorced couple remarried each other after seven years of separation.

Some dropped out of what was then called Eastern Mennonite College (EMC) and returned to finish their bachelor’s degrees much later, as did one 41-year-old woman, who lived in various African countries for 18 years. One 35-year-old father of two entered medical school after years of nursing, first as an RN, then as a nurse with a bachelor’s degree, then as a certified registered nurse anesthetist. (Supposedly retired, this physician is now involved with the training of anesthesiologists at the national medical school of Honduras.)

Breaking new ground

Some “firsts” – first EMC grad to attend law school, first women to be church leaders in certain locations, first alum to be a tennis pro (having mastered tennis growing up in his native Japan). The class of ’62 may even boast the first alumnus to take a course to prepare for conversion to Judaism (not to convert, but to help him understand the Jewish clients with whom he was doing social work).

All of this can be found in a new book, Senior Moments: Reflections from the Class of 1962, issued in 2013 through .

The genesis of the book dates to October 2012, when the class of 1962 celebrated their “Jubilee Reunion” at . In the months afterwards, 103 members of the class submitted essays – or, occasionally, diary-style entries – that classmates Millard E. Showalter, Anna Kathryn Eby, Reta Finger, Dorothy Jantzi and Carroll Yoder shaped into book chapters, with the support of alumni office staffer .

Almost half of the 103 writers mention having graduate degrees (11 at the doctoral level). The most common career field mentioned is teaching – 46 percent refer to years in the classroom – with perhaps half as many alumni working in healthcare and in the ministry. There’s one full-time artist, another who picked up art upon retirement.

Most of these alumni have racked up myriad work roles. David D. Yoder, for example, was (in this order) a pastor-missionary in Costa Rica and Mexico, mission business manager in Mexico, EMC student life administrator, writer of correspondence courses for prison ministries, EMC fundraiser, president of , and a Mennonite Church overseer for missions work in Trinidad and Tobago.

After retirement, these alumni typically continue with voluntary service – such as working at stores that raise money for Mennonite Central Committee and teaching Sunday School  – plus do gardening for food and fun.

Fruits of Spirit-led lives, courageous choices

Amid the wealth of memories in the book:

• Having interesting courtships: (1) Helen Longenecker and her future husband, Sam Lapp, kept in touch entirely by letters for two years while he worked in Honduras and she taught in Lancaster, Pa. (A stand-out memory in their 50-year marriage is attending Bob Marley’s funeral while living in Jamaica.) (2) Sam Shertzer, the future husband of nurse Alma Longnecker, tracked her down in Tocoa, Honduras, by taking the weekly plane running from the capital city to Tocoa and surprising her. He had to depart in less than a week, though, and rode a horse 10 miles to catch a train out.
• Teaching as the only white in an African American school in Powhatan, Va., and insisting that his local Mennonite church welcome blacks, over the protests of his pastor. (Alum Eli Miller got his way about the integration of that church.)
• Living in a remote part of Botswana in the late 1970s (while digging wells to help the locals access water) in a galvanized grain bin, with grass on the roof, and a door and windows cut in the walls – yielding a “stifling hot” home during the 100-plus-degree days. (John W. Eby)
• Being foster parents to a total of 50 children over the years: “At one time I had five children under the age of six, including my own.” (Rachel Frey Frerichs)
• Learning Portuguese as a 50-year-old in order to be effective as a community health nurse in Brazil. (Sara Jane Peachey Lind)
• Living in Vietnam from 1962 until 1975 as an worker, when Luke Martin, his wife and three children suddenly found themselves “homeless, bereft of friends, and uncertain what the future held for us,” as a result of the Communist victory over that country.
• Hoping to avoid the U.S. bombs exploding around him in a race to get food for his suffering Vietnamese neighbors in a refugee camp. “In the months ahead, I’d be literally measuring building plots between gravestones.” (Jim Metzler)
• Being principal, teacher, cook and janitor for 13 students in a one-room school in eastern Kentucky, accessible by crossing a swinging bridge and walking a mile and a half. (Martha Maust)
• Residing and working as a married couple in Virginia, Tanzania, Sudan, Kenya, and Ontario (Canada), before retiring in Kenya. Visiting 50 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. (Annette Wenger Miller, married to Harold)
• Skiing every winter on slopes in western U.S.A. and Europe since age 40, despite needing in recent years oxygen around the clock for an autoimmune lung disease. “I am able to ski with oxygen in a backpack,” writes Marlene Collins Showalter.
• Wondering if her guards should be allowed to fire upon attackers, perhaps killing in violation of Mennonite pacifist beliefs, when faced with the prospect of her health compound being overrun by armed Somali men, who were ransacking nearby compounds. (Naomi Weaver, a nurse, prayed fervently, along with another Mennonite nurse; the attackers hurled stones into the compound but moved on.)
• Seeing the olive trees he and others planted in support of Palestinian farmers uprooted by Israeli soldiers threatening them with American-made M-16 assault rifles. (Robert Weaver)
• Being hired by the U.S. Public Health Service as an expert in Hansen’s Disease after spending four years as a physician in centers in Ethiopia that cared for people with that disease, commonly known as leprosy. (Leo Yoder)
• Living for five decades in Nepal, usually employed by NGOs as a nutrition expert, but remaining after age 65 as a student of Nepalese music and art. (Miriam E. Krantz)
• Being involved in the struggle over equality for sexual minorities – Richard Lichty, married to classmate Mary Mosemann, lost his credentials in the late 1990s as a pastor in the Mennonite Church as a result of welcoming gays and lesbians as lead pastor in the oldest Mennonite congregation in North America, .
• Hiking 700 miles on the Appalachian Trail after retirement in 2007, with the intention of completing 1,900 miles. (Michael Mast)
• Raising children who became multicultural themselves. Ramona Horst Hartzler and her husband of 45 years, for example, have two sons: a financial analyst who married a Chinese woman and who has children fluent in English and Chinese, and a physician who married a woman reared in Paraguay and whose children speak English and Spanish.
• Encouraging their children to attend their alma mater. Living in Gainesville, Fl., Mary Ellen Lehman and her scientist-husband Paul saw their three children graduate from 91����Ƶ and embark on careers in medicine, clinical psychology, and occupational therapy.

Lessons learned, gently lived

Wisdom accrued from their lives:

• “The only important things one can wish for in our ‘valley of the shadows’ are a human hand to hold and shared shoulders on which our tears can fall. In my experience, nothing else has really mattered.” – Norman Coffman
• “We regularly read the scriptures in Portuguese [after learning it at age 50] and I play the flute – isn’t it said that continuing with a foreign language and playing a musical instrument are good mental gymnastics for folks in their 70s?” – Sara Jane Peachey Lind
  
• The desirability and even necessity, after a move-about life, to settle closer to aging parents, adult children and grandchildren – which is why, for example, Mary Rosenberger Newcomer and her husband Art moved from California to Ohio in 1977.
• Gathering a scattered family at a place of mutual enjoyment every year or two: Dorothy Martin Keim’s family of 11 gathers in Maine for a week each summer; Donella M. Clemens’ extended family of 15 spends a week at the beach every other year.
• “Golden twilight years bring a subtle ‘transition’ with more focus on ‘tolerance’ and relationships than on education, career, and accomplishments. . . We simplify our lifestyle, allowing time to meditate and enjoy our walk with Jesus and others.” – Mary Wenger Becker

“Class of ’62,” wrote Grace Hess Wolfgang at the end of her chapter. “I have so many wonderful memories of you creative, friendly, world-changing, God-loving, inspiring people! Life is rich and full. I feel so blessed.”