CPS Worker 011758 - Yoder, Samuel L.

CPS Worker 011758 - Yoder, Samuel L.

Birth year: 1920

Denomination: Mennonite Old

Original occupation: Carpenter

Occupation after CPS: Director of teacher education Goshen College

Drafted from: Topeka , Indiana, United States

Entered CPS: 12 10, 1941

Left CPS: 1 17, 1946

Notes:

Some fifty years later, Yoder reflected on his time at Utah State Hospital:

 

"Twenty COs settled into rather comfortable living quarters and for the first time since leaving home we were on the payroll, $15 a month, $7.50 coming every two weeks."

 

"What did I know coming from the community I did about schizophrenia, manic depression, involutional melancholia? Crazy was something we did not know.  The odd ones as I was growing up were cared for in the home and by the community. The hospital staff did much to orient us to our task."

 

"After an assortment of fill-in jobs I was assigned to the insulin and electric shock unit.  This was a job I enjoyed.  It provide excellent introduction to an understanding of mental illness."

 

"...My experience in three mental hospitals in a small way was part of the fabric that laid the foundation for our own Mennonite Mental Health program."

 

Yoder also recalled his return home following his discharge from Hudson River State Hospital:

 

"In late December 1945 I was discharged.  I was going home.  The overnight trip gave me time to reflect on my four years.  I had served in five units from coast to coast.  I had switched cultures and church affiliation.  I had met wonderful persons in CPS, believers from Mennonite General Conference, Mennonite Brethren, Brethren in Christ and a large number from the Mennonite Church if which I am now a part."

 

"I had matured in my Christian faith and was stronger and more sure about my peace position.  My experience in three mental hospitals in a small way was a part of the fabric that laid the foundation for our own Mennonite Mental Health program..."

 

"...I arrived in Goshen via New York Central on a Saturday morning and as I stepped off the train there was no band to play, no parade to ride in, not even yellow ribbons tied around the old maple tree."

 

"But there was the horse and buggy—my folks were there to meet me and welcome me home..."

 

--Taken from Peace Committee and Seniors for Peace Coordinating Committee of the College Mennonite Church of Goshen, Indiana, “Detour . . . Main Highway”: Our CPS Stories. Nappanee, IN: Evangel Press, 1995, 2000. p74-5.