Grandpa’s siblings 10

We have already met Peter and Margaretha’s sixth son and twelfth and last child: Henry P (see here). Henry was born on 20 December 1915 and moved with his parents to Upland, California, in August 1936 (see here for photographs of the family in California). Since Henry graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Bethel College in North Newton, Kansas, in 1941, his time in California was probably limited.

As noted earlier, Henry performed Mennonite Central Committee relief work in France in the early 1940s.* It was there that he met Beatrice Rosenthal, a young Jewish woman whose family had fled Germany in the 1930s to escape the rising anti-Semitism. After the Germans overran France, Henry, Bea, and 175 other Americans were imprisoned for a year in a hotel in Baden-Baden, Germany. After their release in 1944, Henry and Bea moved to Newton, where both taught in area schools.

After earning a graduate degree in psychology and counseling (University of Kansas), Henry served on the faculty of Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas (1961–1982).

Henry P Buller striking a professorial pose in 1967.

Henry and Bea had one son, René Aldo, who was born in France and adopted by the couple. Sadly, René predeceased both of his parents, as he was killed while serving as a Combat Medic in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, on 27 March 1969, only seventeen days after starting his tour.

Henry passed away at the age of seventy-seven, on 15 May 1993. Although René is buried in the Buller–Siebert/Mennonite Cemetery, apparently Henry and Bea are buried elsewhere, presumably in the Beaumont area.

Note

*  The MCC work was probably Henry’s alternative service, a government-approved means by which those who object to participation in warfare or the military are permitted to serve in a noncombatant role.