Peter J. Dyck

Peter J. Dyck (December 4, 1914 – January 4, 2010) was a Canadian Mennonite relief worker and pastor best known for his work resettling Russian Mennonite refugees after World War II.

Personal history

Peter Dyck was born on December 4, 1914, in the Am Trakt Colony in Russia. He married Elfrieda Klassen on October 14, 1944, and they had two daughters, Ruth and Rebecca.

He emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1927 with his family. They eventually settled in Tiefengrund, Saskatchewan. He was baptized in the Tiefengrund Rosenort Mennonite Church in 1934. He graduated from Rosthern Junior College and attended the University of Saskatchewan, but dropped out to pastor several struggling local churches. In 1949 he finished his education, studying at Goshen College, Bethel College, Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries, and Bethel Theological Seminary in Chicago, where he earned a Master of Divinity degree in 1968. Audiences were thrilled by their modern-day exodus of Mennonite refugees from Berlin to the American zone of Germany, through the Soviet Occupied Zone.

He served as a pastor, alongside his wife, at Eden Mennonite Church in Kansas and Kingview Mennonite Church in Pennsylvania. He held dual membership with the Mennonite church and the General Conference Mennonite Church.