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James Mentzer Stayer
Kingston, Ontario
March 15, 1935 - April 23, 2025
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James Mentzer Stayer Obituary
James M. Stayer
Stayer, James Mentzer - Professor Emeritus - Queen’s University Department of History. Jim died peacefully on April 23rd, 2025.
Born March 15, 1935, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Jim grew up in the picturesque small town of Denver, one of two children of Raymond and Helen Stayer. His early childhood was spent in the era of the New Deal and the Second World War.
His undergraduate experience at Juniata College, Huntingdon, PA, was formative. He was an undistinguished but persistent member of the small college football team. A student minister as an undergraduate, he ended up choosing studies in history. He earned an MA from the University of Virginia and a PhD from Cornell University. In 1958 he married Marcia Sweet, whom he met at Juniata.
Academics made up a big part of his life. In 1968 he moved to Canada and became a full professor at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, where he taught until retirement. His most important contribution to scholarship was in the study of the Anabaptists in the sixteenth-century German Reformation. Over his career, Stayer joined a number of German, American and Canadian scholars in giving a more secular direction to Anabaptist/Mennonite scholarship.
Jim was a skilled, engaging and well-liked teacher at Queen’s, leading his students in intellectual journeys of discovery about the history of ideas, modern European history, historiography, and the European Reformation. Jim’s career created exciting opportunities for European travel for him and his family, including in Freiburg (1961-62), Münster (1967-68) and Zurich (1974-75).
Jim and Marcia had three children: Elizabeth, William, and James. Jim was a loving and dedicated father who also had a great sense of adventure. He took his children on unusual adventures, such as multi-week bicycle trips through Europe as well as skating, skiing, and row-boat expeditions. During these sometimes risky and ill-advised adventures, he gave his children his undivided attention, and they all had great fun. Stories of botched “Stayer adventures” continue to horrify and delight new generations of Stayers.
In 1985 he and Marcia divorced. On May 7, 1988 he married Adrianne Sharon (Hennick) Tunnicliffe, mother of three children from her previous marriage - Dawn, Darryl and Ryan. Adrianne “Sherry” Stayer had founded the Kingston Learning Centre, a private career college, in 1982 and continued to work as its owner and director until 2009. In the 1980s both James and Sherry became members of the Reform Jewish Congregation Iyr HaMelech, Kingston, where James served on the congregational board and led Torah study. In 2010, Jim underwent formal conversion to Judaism.
Jim retired from Queen’s in 2000 but continued to teach for a decade as adjunct professor of history. In retirement he and Sherry enjoyed vacations in Europe, Bermuda, and Aruba. Jim is predeceased by his sister Martha (Alfano). He is survived by Sherry, the six children of their marriages, and seven grandchildren (Sarah, Gillian (Scott), Nathan, Kirstin, Neil, Daniel, and Adrian). Donations to Congregation Iyr HaMelech or to the Stephen Lewis Foundation may be made in his memory.
James M. Stayer
Stayer, James Mentzer - Professor Emeritus - Queen’s University Department of History. Jim died peacefully on April 23rd, 2025.
Born March 15, 1935, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Jim grew up in the picturesque small town of Denver, one of two children of Raymond and Helen Stayer. His early childhood was spent in the era of the New Deal and the Second World War.
His undergraduate experience at Juniata College, Huntingdon, PA, was formative. He was an undistinguished but persistent member of the small college football team. A student minister as an undergraduate, he ended up choosing studies in history. He earned an MA from the University of Virginia and a PhD from Cornell University. In 1958 he married Marcia Sweet, whom he met at Juniata.
Academics made up a big part of his life. In 1968 he moved to Canada and became a full professor at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, where he taught until retirement. His most important contribution to scholarship was in the study of the Anabaptists in the sixteenth-century German Reformation. Over his career, Stayer joined a number of German, American and Canadian scholars in giving a more secular direction to Anabaptist/Mennonite scholarship.
Jim was a skilled, engaging and well-liked teacher at Queen’s, leading his students in intellectual journeys of discovery about the history of ideas, modern European history, historiography, and the European Reformation. Jim’s career created exciting opportunities for European travel for him and his family, including in Freiburg (1961-62), Münster (1967-68) and Zurich (1974-75).
Jim and Marcia had three children: Elizabeth, William, and James. Jim was a loving and dedicated father who also had a great sense of adventure. He took his children on unusual adventures, such as multi-week bicycle trips through Europe as well as skating, skiing, and row-boat expeditions. During these sometimes risky and ill-advised adventures, he gave his children his undivided attention, and they all had great fun. Stories of botched “Stayer adventures” continue to horrify and delight new generations of Stayers.
In 1985 he and Marcia divorced. On May 7, 1988 he married Adrianne Sharon (Hennick) Tunnicliffe, mother of three children from her previous marriage - Dawn, Darryl and Ryan. Adrianne “Sherry” Stayer had founded the Kingston Learning Centre, a private career college, in 1982 and continued to work as its owner and director until 2009. In the 1980s both James and Sherry became members of the Reform Jewish Congregation Iyr HaMelech, Kingston, where James served on the congregational board and led Torah study. In 2010, Jim underwent formal conversion to Judaism.
Jim retired from Queen’s in 2000 but continued to teach for a decade as adjunct professor of history. In retirement he and Sherry enjoyed vacations in Europe, Bermuda, and Aruba. Jim is predeceased by his sister Martha (Alfano). He is survived by Sherry, the six children of their marriages, and seven grandchildren (Sarah, Gillian (Scott), Nathan, Kirstin, Neil, Daniel, and Adrian). Donations to Congregation Iyr HaMelech or to the Stephen Lewis Foundation may be made in his memory.