Dr. Paul Frank Peters -1928-2024

Remember to do good and share with others.  This pleases God.  – Hebrews 13:16

Dr. Paul Frank Peters passed away the morning of June 15 at the Holy Family Home in Winnipeg surrounded by his four children.   He was dedicated to helping others and spent his life working tirelessly to share his gifts and talents in order to do what he could to make the world a better place. 

He is survived by his children MaryLou Driedger (Dave), Kaaren Neufeld (Ken), Ken Peters (Harvey), Mark Peters (Kathy), grandchildren Joel Driedger (Karen), Bryan Neufeld (Amanda), Bucky Driedger (Alisa), Mark Neufeld (Morgan), Amanda Pankratz (Michael), Dylan Peters and great-grandchildren, Henri, Leo, Clementine, Nora, Hattie, Abigail, Rebecca, Catherine, Natalie, Coen, Brooks, Hudson and Hadley.  

He is also survived by his sisters Nettie Peters, Louise Friesen, Mary Fransen (Herb), Helen Loeppky (Bernie) and many nieces and nephews. 

Paul was predeceased by his wife of 61 years Dorothy Marie Peters, his parents Diedrich and Margareta Peters, his parents-in-law Peter and Annie Schmidt, his sister Margaret Peters (Dave Froese), his sisters-in-law Viola Schmidt, Leila Wiens (Art), his brother-in-law Earl Schmidt (Lenora), a niece Connie Froese, and a nephew Rodney Wiens. 

Paul was born in the village of Blumenort, Manitoba on October 12, 1928, but spent most of his childhood years in the village of Gnadenthal, Manitoba where he received his elementary school education.

Paul was awarded his high school diploma from the Mennonite Collegiate Institute in Gretna in 1947 and became a permit teacher in Silberfeld before moving to Winnipeg to begin studies at Canadian Mennonite Bible College.  He graduated in 1951.

During two years of further education at the University of Winnipeg he shared a job as an orderly at the Misericordia Hospital with several close friends which led to his interest in becoming a doctor.

He graduated from the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Medicine in 1959.  

After completing his internship at the St. Boniface Hospital and a surgical residency with Dr. Frank Isaac, Paul moved to Steinbach, Manitoba where he was a family doctor for nearly forty years.  He was the kind of physician who went the extra mile for his patients often making house calls in the middle of the night. He offered straight forward and honest medical advice routinely dispensed with a dash of humour.

Paul delivered hundreds of babies, performed hundreds of surgeries and saw thousands of patients. His medical career was one of distinction.

He served as Chief of Staff at the Bethesda Hospital and was also a Board Director for the Manitoba Medical Association. For 15 years he was a preceptor for medical students and with his colleagues planned and built a new medical clinic in Steinbach.

He was awarded a senior membership in the Canadian Medical Association in recognition of his dedicated years of service and was a lifetime honorary member of The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba. In 2021 he was given the Physician Emeritus Award from the Southern Health region.

Paul was on the board of Eden East Health Care services for eight years and did voluntary stints of medical service in Cambodia, Haiti, Paraguay, China, Thailand and Bolivia.  He was also the health care advisor on the Steinbach Settlement Committee for new immigrants.  

Paul’s Mennonite faith was very important to him and he made serving the church a priority taking on multiple responsibilities and roles at Grace Mennonite Church in Steinbach where he and his wife Dorothy were active members for many decades. He served on the Board of Directors of Canadian Mennonite University for fifteen years, the Board of Moose Lake Mennonite Camp and the Canadian Mennonite Central Committee Board. 

The Steinbach community benefitted from the eight years Paul was a Hanover School Division trustee and the decade he was on the Board of Directors for Steinbach Seniors Housing Incorporated.  He was also very interested in the work of the Mennonite Heritage Village museum and regularly demonstrated the use of old farm equipment there. 

For his volunteer work Paul received the Steinbach Chamber of Commerce Community Service Award, the Canadian Mennonite University Alumni Blazer Award and the Manitoba Premier’s Volunteer Service Award. 

Paul’s parents were accepted into Canada as refugees from Ukraine in the 1920s and as way of returning that kindness, Paul and his wife Dorothy sponsored families from Cambodia, Bosnia and Sierra Leone to come to Canada.  They stayed involved with these families for the long-term becoming their adopted Canadian parents and grandparents.

Paul and his wife Dorothy owned a cottage at Moose Lake and Paul worked tirelessly to maintain it as a haven for his children and grandchildren who spent many happy summers there. 

Paul never lost his love of the land nurtured during the years he worked as his father’s right-hand man on their family farm. Paul and Dorothy were founding members of the Steinbach Garden Club. The retirement acreage they maintained on the highway just outside of Steinbach was a veritable park with carefully nurtured flowers, plants and trees.

Their hobby farm was a wonderful natural playground for Paul and Dorothy’s grandchildren who swam in the pond, collected eggs from the chickens in the hen house, rode horseback, did yard work alongside their grandparents, hunted for Easter baskets in the grass, climbed trees and jumped on bales in the barn hayloft. 

Friends and family members annually received generous gifts of produce from Paul and Dorothy’s huge vegetable garden.  

For many years they seeded and harvested eighty acres of wheat on their farm property to be donated to the Canadian Food Grains Bank. 

Paul was a loyal husband. He looked after his wife Dorothy for six years when she developed kidney disease, supporting her during more than a thousand dialysis treatments.

He was an interested and encouraging grandparent and taught his own children the value of education, hard work, perseverance and community service.

Paul was also a great role model to his own family as they observed the way he maintained a strong and caring bond with his own parents and his five sisters. 

Paul was a generous supporter of The Canadian Foodgrains Bank and you are invited to donate to them in his name if you so desire. 

The funeral for Dr. Paul Frank Peters was held on Saturday June 22 at Fort Garry Mennonite Fellowship, 150 Bayridge Avenue in Winnipeg.

A private family burial has taken place in Steinbach.

The family would like to thank the compassionate staff at Holy Family Home who looked after our Dad with such dedication in the last years of his life and who cared for us with love and kindness as we walked with Dad through his final days.