Accession 2019.019
Title and Physical Description
Frederick Enns fonds. – 1959-2019. – 1 cm of textual records
Administrative/Biographical History
Frederick Enns was born in the Mennonite village of Kitchkas, Orenburg, Russia, on 4 July 1925 to David and Katarina (nee Bergen) Enns. He was the oldest of 8 children. The family left Russia in 1926 and lived briefly in Winkler, Manitoba and Magrath, Alberta before settling on a farm of their own near Rosemary, Alberta.
He received his elementary school education in Rosemary and then attended the German/English Academy (now Rosthern Junior College). After completing grade 12 he emrolled in the War Emergency Short Course for teacher training at the Calgary Normal School and then taught, and eventually served as principal, in a number of small rural schools in Alberta. He also continued to attend summer school at the University of Alberta working toward a Bachelor of Education degree. In 1959 he enrolled in a graduate program in Education at the University of Alberta earning his Master’s and Ph. D. degrees there. He then taught and served in a number of administrative positions in the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta. The family moved to Calgary after Fred’s retirement.
Fred, throughout his life, was also extensively involved in Mennonite churches and conferences, including First Mennonite Church in Edmonton. Trinity Mennonite Church in Calgary, Mennonite Church Alberta, Mennonite Church Canada, and the Mennonite Centres for Newcomers in Edmonton and Calgary.
Fred married Aganeta (nee Schroeder). They were the parents of three daughters.
Fred died in Calgary on 16 June 2019.
Source of Acquisition
Fred Enns’s daughter, Louella (Dave) Cronkite of Lethbridge donated this small collection of her father’s papers to the archives of the Mennonite Historical Society of Alberta shortly after his death.
Scope and Content
The fonds consists of a copy of Fred’s short autobiography, his obituary and several Mennonite conference related papers he wrote, co-wrote or collected.
File List
1-1 Short autobiography entitled: From Fred Enns. To my Children and Their Families. – ca 2012.
1-2 Fred Enns Obituary, 2019
1-3 “The Congregational Resources Board: A Review,” by Florence Driedger, Fred Enns, John Hiebert and Henry Neufeld. – 2 February 1983
1-4 To Build or not to Build: A Position Paper.” – [ca 1973]
1-5 “A Brief in Response to the Green Paper on Immigration and Population Prepared by the Mennonite Conference of Alberta, April 1975.”
1-6 “The Lordship of Christ in a Desperate World, by Elmer Neufeld.” – [1959].