Daniel L. Hertzler, 97, a longtime editor of Mennonite publications during a 38-year career with Mennonite Publishing House, died June 14 in Scottdale, Pa.

From 1973 to 1990, he edited Gospel Herald, the flagship publication of the Mennonite Church and a predecessor of Anabaptist World.

Beginning in 1952, Hertzler ­edited — with “a keen mind and sharp pencil,” as former Scottdale Mennonite pastor and historian John Sharp put it — Mennonite Community, Christian ­Living, Builder, various Christian education publications and the MC denominational magazine, Gospel Herald.

As an editor of curricula and periodicals, Hertzler had a strong influence in shaping the Mennonite Church of the 20th century, said J. Lorne Peachey, who succeeded Hertzler as editor of Gospel Herald.

“Dan situated himself ‘a little left of center,’ as he put it,” Peachey said. “He was not always viewed favorably by those on either side of that fulcrum. But Dan adroitly negotiated the turbulent years of biblical criticism, draft resistance and women in leadership — to name only three of the hot-button issues of his editing years.”

Hertzler loved the church and “had a love-hate relationship with the state,” Peachey said. “The closest I saw Dan get into an argument, in the years I worked for and beside him, was when someone equated the nation-state with the kingdom of God. That would get Dan red in the face.”

Steve Shenk, managing editor of Gospel Herald during the last years of Hertzler’s tenure, said: “In his gentlemanly and humble way, he passionately loved the church and the periodical he was entrusted with. Many readers commented on his weekly editorials.”

Born Oct. 19, 1925, in Elverson, Pa., to Melvin and Susan (Shenk) Hertzler, Dan Hertzler dropped out of high school to help his father on the family farm but never lost his desire for learning. He graduated from Eastern Mennonite College in 1951, Goshen Biblical Seminary in 1955 and the University of Pittsburgh in 1966 with a doctorate in religious education.

In his editorial for the 75th anniversary edition of Gospel Herald, April 5, 1983, Hertzler reflected on the mandate of a Mennonite magazine to offer an alternative to “the selfish view that expects god to serve us rather than the other way around. . . .

“The alternative that the Mennonite Church has supported for 15 generations is the view that ‘God so loved the world’ and not just our kind of people. It is the view that the second commandment is as important as the first — that to love another whom we have seen is a way to demonstrate our love for God whom we have not seen.

“Is this such a strange doctrine that a separate denomination must be maintained with its own special institutions and its own official publication to highlight this one point? It seems odd when you think about it. It is embarrassing too when you consider how often we have failed to comprehend and follow through on this calling.

“Indeed, we Mennonites are given to flailing ourselves particularly because of our small numbers. It makes an interesting exercise, although I wonder about the value of beating our breasts about what we have not done — particularly if that is as far as we go with it.”

Hertzler edited a book celebrating the magazine’s anniversary, Not by Might: Gospel Herald Sampler, 1908-1983, featuring reprints of notable articles and profiles of the three editors who preceded him: Daniel Kauffman, Paul Erb and John M. Drescher.

His extensive writing included two memoirs, A Little Left of Center (2000) and On My Way: The View from the Ninth Decade (2013). During a sabbatical in 1979-80, he and Mary took a 13,000-mile road trip to 18 communities and 31 congregations “around the perimeter” of the United States and Canada to collect material for a book, From Germantown to Steinbach: A Mennonite Odyssey.

Sampling congregational life in Mennonite outposts distant from traditional centers of power, he found encouragement in cultural and racial diversity as well as uncertainty about whether “the historic Mennonite doctrine of peace . . . is still believed in churches which are urbanized and have brought in people to whom this teaching is new.”

When Christian Living ended in 2002 after 49 years, Hertzler wrote an article casting a critical eye on his own editorship: “The magazine was sometimes controversial, but I was never able to bring about the sort of controlled dialogue I would have wished. It may be that I was too cautious. After all, the specter of cancellations was waiting in the wings.”

A periodical may die, but “if we need to be instructed about sin and redemption, we can always read the Bible,” he wrote. “Yet at the same time we wait hopefully for discerning and courageous writers who will be able to skewer the old sins and point the way to a better life as understood in our own time and context.”

He married Mary Yoder in 1952. She preceded him in death in 2017.

Survivors include four sons, Dennis of Monesson, Pa.; Ron (Laurel) of Telford, Pa.; Gerry (Mary) of Goshen, Ind.; and Dan Mark (Christie) of Lancaster, Pa.; nine grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren; a brother, Truman Hertzler of Elverson, Pa., and a sister, Katherine Hallman of Kansas City, Mo. A sister, Martha, preceded him in death in 2021.

The funeral service is scheduled at 10:30 a.m. June 24 at Scottdale Mennonite Church. Burial will be in Alte Menist Mennonite (Pennsville) Cemetery.

Memorial gifts may be designated for Mennonite World Conference.