Schafer-Friesen Research Fellowship

This fellowship is established in honor of Laura Schafer Martens, aunt of Geraldine Schafer Friesen.  Laura graduated with a BA in Home Economics from Goshen College in 1947.  She participated in A Cappella chorus, Standards Committee, Vesperian, and was Home Economics Club President in her senior year.

Laura taught Home Economics in North Dakota for three years after which she married Frank Martens in Reedley, California in 1950.  She taught fulltime as a Home Economics teacher in the Shafter High School from 1964 until retirement in 1987, but along the way touched many lives.

At Shafter High School she worked with FHA-HERO on local, regional and state levels.  Laura co-chaired a conference on Family Communications in 1984 and for Teenagers in Crisis in 1986.  She served as a member of the California State Curriculum Development Project for Housing and Housing furnishing as taught in Home Economics classes.  She also helped in the development of the PACE Program, which educates young mothers in childcare.  Laura was named Future Homemakers of America and Teacher of Excellence in 1987. As a member of the Mennonite Brethren Church in Shafter, California, she organized and directed the YAH (Young at Heart) program.  Laura and Frank served as deacon couple in their church.  Laura enjoyed writing columns for the Shafter Press and the Kern Crest Manor Newsletter during retirement.

Geraldine Schafer Friesen is retired from work in the accounting department at two private schools in the Santa Barbara, California area.  Abraham Friesen served as professor of Reformation history at the University of California, Santa Barbara, California for 37 years.  In 2004, he became Emeritus Professor of History at UCSB, and continues to remain an active scholar in Reformation and Anabaptist history.  Now living in Fresno, California, the Friesens are members of College Community Church, Mennonite Brethren and active in the Council of Senior Professionals associated with Fresno Pacific University.  Gerry and Abraham have one son, Eric Stanford Friesen, living near Calgary, Alberta with his wife, Ruthanna.