Leland Willis Voth, 94, resident of Harrisonburg, Virginia, passed away from this earth to his heavenly home on December 1, 2023. He was born January 27, 1929 to Rev. William C. and Matilda (Kliewer) Voth in the Bethel Deaconess Hospital, Newton, Kansas.
He graduated from Ohio State University with a B.S. degree in Agricultural Education, after attending Freeman Junior College in Freeman, South Dakota, as well as Bethel College, North Newton, Kansas, and Bluffton College, Bluffton, Ohio. His master’s degree was in Rural Adult Extension Education from Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.
On September 2, 1950, he married Joanne Buhler, daughter of Gerhard G. and Leucile G. (Steiner) Buhler in the First Mennonite Church, Bluffton, Ohio.
Leland lived in Hereford, Texas, from the age of 4 months to the age of two, when the family went to China where they were missionaries with the General Conference Mennonite Church. Leland lived in China until the age of 10 ½ when the family returned to Newton, Kansas. He attended school in Newton until his freshman year of high school at Bethel Academy in North Newton, Kansas. The following year the family moved to Lorraine, Kansas, where Leland’s father taught in the public schools. Leland graduated from Lorraine High School in 1947.
Leland’s goal in life, developed in high school, was to live for the Lord. He decided to major in agriculture to better serve the Lord, hopefully in the far east. After graduating from college, he taught agriculture at Freeman Junior College for four years. He and Joanne and two children then went overseas to work at the Mennonite Vocational School (MVS) for orphan boys in South Korea. Leland supervised the MVS farm and became director of the orphanage and the school principal. He also created the community service program for 10 villages, about 5,000 farmers around MVS. He and Joanne served 9 ½ years with the Mennonite Central Committee, near Kyung San, Korea.
When Leland joined the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Korea, they remained in Korea for five more years, where Leland served as advisor to governors in three provinces. After his transfer to Laos, his work projects included substituting crops for the poppy crop from which opium was extracted. Leland was active in the church there and wherever he lived. After being transferred to Zaire (D.R. Congo) his work projects included a large corn project in North Shaba Province. He became a deacon of the International Protestant Church.
After their transfer to the U.S., Leland provided technical agricultural support to the USAID programs in Jordan and Morocco. Leland and his wife helped develop small groups in a large growing Vienna, Virginia church where they both served as lay pastors.
They then moved to Jamaica for 4 years with USAID where Leland worked with the Jamaican government to develop agricultural research and improve their College of Agriculture. Following the Jamaican assignment, they returned to the Washington D.C. area for another three-year USAID assignment where he provided support to the agricultural programs in Egypt, West Bank and Gaza. He was the principal agricultural coordinator of the research and cooperative development programs between Israel and its Arab neighbors which was an outgrowth of President Jimmy Carter’s Camp David Accords.
He and Joanne retired to Bluffton, Ohio, in 1993 where two of their children lived, and in 2000 they moved to Harrisonburg, Virginia, where their youngest daughter lived with her family. They joined Harrisonburg Mennonite Church, Praise Fellowship. Leland also later worshiped at Horizon Fellowship in Harrisonburg. Surviving are four children, Nancy (Jerry) Suter, David (Laura) Voth, Pamela (Merlin) Shank, and Kevin (Sandra) Voth, as well as nine grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.
Leland was preceded in death by a brother (Stanley Voth), two sisters (Maurine Regehr and Helen Bertrand), his parents William and Matilda Voth, and a grandson Timothy Suter.
A memorial service is planned for 11:00 a.m. on Friday, December 29th at Horizon Christian Fellowship, 3591 Izaak Walton Drive, Harrisonburg, Va, 22801. In lieu of flowers memorial contributions may be made to Christian Friends of Korea, https://www.cfk.org. Online condolences may be made to the family by visiting www.mcmullenfh.com/
