Ada Cecelia Pfautz

Life

Ada Cecelia Pfautz was born in 1899 in Summit County, Ohio. Genealogical records give slightly different dates of birth and places of death, so the exact details are uncertain. Her family farmed but moved to Akron, Ohio, in search of work. Tozer's family had come to Akron at about the same time and for the same reason. Ada first met A. W. Tozer at Grace Methodist Church in Akron.

The two married on April 26, 1918, five days after Tozer's twenty-first birthday. They had six sons and one daughter. Shortly after the wedding, Tozer was drafted into the U.S. Army during World War I, but he did not see combat. After his discharge, the couple moved to West Virginia, where Tozer began his ministry as a pastor. Tozer later served congregations in Chicago and elsewhere, and in 1959 the couple moved to Toronto, Canada, where he served as preaching pastor at Avenue Road Church. Tozer died in Toronto in May 1963.

About a year after she was widowed, Ada married Leonard Odam, a friend of Tozer's who had also lost his wife. The couple reportedly shared about ten years together. Ada died in California in 1987.

Ministry and Contributions

Ada held no official position and wrote no books. She lived as a pastor's wife, keeping a minister's household. The C&MA states that her godly life and spiritual counsel had a significant influence on Tozer. The Tozers are known to have lived frugally throughout their lives, never owning a car and traveling by bus and train.

Because Tozer was frequently away from home reading, writing, and traveling to speaking engagements, most of the work of raising their seven children fell to Ada. According to Tozer's biographer Lyle Dorsett, Ada had a gift of hospitality. During the Toronto years, after all of the children had left home, she reportedly devoted more of her time to pastoral visitation (visiting and caring for church members in their homes) and to a ministry of prayer.

Assessment

Ada's name comes up mainly in assessments of Tozer's marriage. In his 2008 biography of Tozer, A Passion for God, Dorsett relates a remark Ada made after her remarriage: she had never been happier, for while Tozer had loved Jesus Christ, Odam loved her. Drawing on letters Ada wrote to friends and other sources, Dorsett wrote that in her second marriage Ada found a joy and freedom she had not previously known.

Several commentators, including the American pastor Dave Harvey, cite this episode as a warning, presenting it as an example of a minister who neglected his family while absorbed in his work. Others, however, argue that a single sentence cannot serve as a verdict on an entire forty-five-year marriage. They contend that Tozer's recognition and encouragement of his wife's gift of hospitality should also be taken into account. The British evangelical newspaper Evangelical Times described Ada as a companion who sustained her husband with love throughout his life.