Gordon Leo Harder

Gordon Leo Harder, age 76, passed away suddenly and peacefully at home in Mountain Lake, MN, from a heart attack on May 16, 2025.

A memorial service will be held at the Community Bible Church, Mountain Lake, MN, on Saturday, June 7 at 11:00 am. Visitation will be held at the church on June 6, 5:00-7:00 pm, and one hour prior to the service.

Gordon was born March 13, 1949 in Mountain Lake, MN to Leo John and Ruth Anita (Burkhard) Harder. Gordon, brother Charles, and sister Lois were born to this couple. Their birth mother, Ruth, passed away from breast cancer when Gordon was only eight years old. His father married Gladys Ella Harder several years later, and the couple had two more children: Kathleen and Mary.

Gordon attended Mountain Lake Christian Day School for elementary, then transferred to Mountain Lake Public High School, where he graduated in 1967. He attended Bethel College (North Newton, KS) for several semesters before transferring to the University of Minnesota to study agriculture management. As this was during the Vietnam War, Gordon enrolled in PAX, a Mennonite program that provided an alternative to military service for conscientious objectors to war. He served in Tres Palmas, Bolivia, for a year, then was transferred to the Chaco in Paraguay.

It was in the Chaco that he met his life-long partner and true soul mate, Eva Schroeder Toews, from Menno Colony, Paraguay. At the time she also was a voluntary service worker through her local Mennonite mission committee. The couple married in the Mennoniten Gemeinde in Loma Plata, Paraguay, on July 21, 1973. Together they served with Mennonite Central Committee and the local mission board for several years, namely in agricultural development in the indigenous communities of Campo Largo and Yalva Sanga. Their three children were born during this era: Willmar, Elisabeth, and David. In 1980, the family moved permanently to the Mountain Lake area.

Farming and stockmanship were always Gordon's life-long dream and passion. He engaged this in various ways, first raising and showing Southdown sheep while in high school, second managing the beef feedlot and farming at Oak Ridge farms, and then eventually starting out on their own farm north of town in 1986. There Gordon spent more than thirty years doing what he most loved: working the soil, raising livestock, baling hay, fixing machinery, and teaching practical life skills to the next generations. During this spring, Gordon fully participated in planting his corn and soybeans until the day before he passed away.

Upon confession of faith, Gordon was baptized into First Mennonite Church of Mountain Lake on June 6, 1965; here he remained a life-long, active member. An integral part of Gordon's identity and worldview was a lived-out faith of daily discipleship, including nonviolence and simple living following Jesus' example. He served in numerous leadership positions in the local congregation, teaching Sunday School and leading worship his last Sunday, as well as on conference committees.

Anabaptist-Mennonite history and genealogy were of great interest to Gordon; he read and studied broadly on his own and loved discussing these topics with others. He also enjoyed traveling with Eva and the family, including numerous times visiting Eva's family and his own children living in South America and Canada. Other memorable trips included through the American West, to Nicaragua for relief work after Hurricane Joan, tent-camping while driving out to British Columbia, and "the trip of a lifetime" to visit ancestral villages in Ukraine. Gordon's hobbies included woodworking, visiting, eating Eva's delicious food, and drinking yerba mate. He enjoyed music, especially four-part harmony. He was immensely proud of his children and their paths in life, including their spouses and children.

Gordon's survivors include his wife, Eva, and children Willmar (Hannah Neufeld), Elisabeth (Ramont Harder Schrock), and David (Rachel Byler Harder). He is also survived by his eight grandchildren: Elias, Amos, Reuben, Jonathan, Anna, Andrew, Annalise, and Maria; three sisters: Lois, Kathleen (Merin Kouay), and Mary (Wes Mark); and 21 Toews brothers- and sisters-in-law.

Gordon is preceded in death by his parents; brother Charles Kenneth Harder; Eva's parents, Cornelius and Helena (Schroeder) Toews; and three Toews brothers-in-law.