Evelyn M. Witthoff (March 30, 1912 in
Chicago, Illinois
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
, United States – February 5, 2002 in
Alhambra, California
Alhambra (, , ; from "Alhambra") is a city located in the western San Gabriel Valley region of Los Angeles County, California, United States, approximately east from the downtown Los Angeles civic center. It was incorporated on July 11, 190 ...
) was a medical doctor, missionary for the
Church of the Nazarene
The Church of the Nazarene is an evangelical Christian denomination that emerged in North America from the Wesleyan-Holiness movement within Methodism during the late 19th century.
The denomination has its headquarters in Lenexa, Kansas. and it ...
, civilian internee, and author.
Evelyn was raised in the Church of the Nazarene and felt a strong desire to be a missionary from an early age. She received her Bachelor of Science degree from the
University of Illinois
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...
and her medical degree from the
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
.
[Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America website, ''Three Years' Internment in Santo Tomas'']
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She was appointed as a medical missionary to India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
in 1941 but was taken by the Japanese and interned at the Santo Tomas Internment Camp
Santo Tomas Internment Camp, also known as the Manila Internment Camp, was the largest of several camps in the Philippines in which the Japanese interned enemy civilians, mostly Americans, in World War II. The campus of the University of Santo T ...
in the Philippines
The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...
for three years. After her release, she returned to the United States until 1947, when she was reappointed to India and began her assignment at the Reynolds Memorial Hospital in Basim. In the later years of her missionary deployment, she also engaged in medical field work by taking charge of a mobile clinic unit that carried medical supplies and instruments to more remote areas. There she would address the medical needs of the people who could not easily travel to the hospital.
Dr. Witthoff's missionary assignment ended in 1973, and she joined the faculty of Olivet Nazarene College, where she taught in the nursing program until her retirement in 1977.
Dr. Witthoff, along with Geraldine V. Chappell, a Nazarene nurse, wrote the book ''Three Years Internment In Santo Tomas'' describing her time as a civilian internee.
/ref>
References
1912 births
2002 deaths
Writers from Chicago
World War II civilian prisoners held by Japan
Olivet Nazarene University faculty
Church of the Nazarene missionaries
American members of the Church of the Nazarene
American Methodist missionaries
Female Christian missionaries
University of Illinois alumni
University of Michigan Medical School alumni
20th-century American women physicians
20th-century American physicians
Methodist missionaries in India
Methodist missionaries in the Philippines
Christian medical missionaries
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