Alfred E. Anderson Obituary (1934 - 2010)

ALFRED E. ANDERSON On January 25, 2010 Al suffered cardiac pulmonary arrest and went to be with the Lord on January 28. He was born in Forks, WA on August 3, 1934. After graduating from the University of Washington with a business degree in Foreign Trade, he went on to Dallas Seminary where he earned a Master's degree in Theology. Al and Pat were married following his graduation from seminary in 1960 and became members of Wycliffe Bible Translators the following year. They began their work in Mexico in 1965. Al was very much at home in the rain forest of Oaxaca with the Palantla Chinantec people. During the years, he had the privilege of helping to translate the New Testament, Old Testament Summary, literacy materials, a bilingual dictionary and other materials into the Chinantec language. Other projects completed were a video/CD version of Luke's Gospel and a complete audio recording of the New Testament. The family moved to Tucson in 1980. While continuing to make trips to Mexico, he served in different administrative positions in SIL. In addition, he was a member of the Catalina Golder Ranch Village Council. He thoroughly enjoyed being active both in the community as well as in the churches he attended. During Al's 47 years of active service with Wycliffe, his primary assignment was as a Bible translator and linguist. Al always felt it took the whole team to get the job done so he served in a number of service roles as well. Among those were the following: Finance office, supplies buyer for translators in rural areas, assistant to the branch director, personnel coordinator, personnel staff at Wycliffe's Quest program, associate director for administration at SIL Univ. of North Dakota, Interim Director of the UK SIL school, Center Manager for SIL Catalina, Volunteer Coordinator and linguistic publications archivist. Al is survived by his wife, son Jeffrey (Holly), daughter Jennifer (Ken) and four grandchildren Ryan, Sammy, Nolan and Amber as well as three brothers, nieces, nephews and cousins.