Sharon Wyse Miller, 79, of Harrisonburg, Va., died May 16, 2023. She was born Nov. 26, 1943, in Henry County, Iowa, to Mahlon and Frances Wenger Wyse. She graduated from Iowa Mennonite High School, pursued a nursing degree at Hesston College and graduated from Kansas City General Hospital School of Nursing.

In 1965 she married Duane K. Miller of Wellman, Iowa, and they raised their family on a rural Wellman farm. She used her nursing skills in a local doctor’s office and nursing home. Once the children arrived, she always said she upgraded to “pediatric nursing.” Her family, church and farm activities were most important, but she also involved herself in many volunteer functions such as editing a church conference periodical, Sunday school teaching, serving in leadership and speaking positions in the Mennonite conference women’s organization.

Sharon “manned” the Mennonite Central Committee hot line during the 1980s farm crisis. She served as part-time chaplain at a local nursing home for several years, served a term on the Hesston College Board of Overseers and worked as director of development at Iowa Mennonite School for two years. She journaled extensively about farm life, the children, church and current events.

Her varied activities whetted her appetite for further education. At the University of Iowa, she earned a bachelor’s degree in global studies. She yearned for mission or church work in another setting, and she and Duane transitioned from farm life to Mennonite Central Committee in Haiti. There for over three years she hosted a guest house and helped to train peasant leaders to exercise their gifts in rural leadership.

After Haiti she enrolled at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, graduating in 1998 with a master of arts in religion degree. She then pastored smaller Mennonite churches, first in Burlington, Iowa, and then in Ambler, Pa. She and Duane retired to Rockingham County, Va., to be near their grandchildren.

She is survived by her husband, Duane; her children, Annette Marie (Rick) Martin, Steven Duane (Jessica Alexander), Susan Beth (Dwight) Huyard and Jonathan Yung Jin (Katie Quayle); brothers Gene Wyse (Alice), Ronald Wyse (Barb) and sister Rebecca; 11 grandchildren and three great-grandsons. She was predeceased by a brother, Richard.

A celebration of life service was held at Community Mennonite Church, Harrisonburg.