Ruth Isabel Seabury was an American

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

and teacher.

Biography

She was born on June 2, 1892, in Bangor in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

. She was the eldest of five siblings born to George Edwin Seabury, an executive with Boston Edison Power, and Emma Augusta Hodgdon. Seabury graduated from

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts, United States. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smit ...

in 1914 and, after two years teaching, she was elected young people's secretary of the Congregational Woman's Board of Missions. Ten years later, she became educational secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, a position she held for many years. She was a delegate to the meeting of the

International Missionary Council The International Missionary Council (IMC) was an ecumenical Protestant Christian missionary organization established in 1921, which in 1961, merged with the World Council of Churches (WCC), becoming the WCC's Division of World Mission and Evangeli ...

in Madras, India, in 1938. In 1940, she received an honorary Litt.D. degree from Elon College, North Carolina. She was involved in many missionary efforts and by the time she wrote '' Daughter of Africa'', her account of the work of South Africa's Mina Soga in 1945, she had visited twenty-three countries. In 1947, Seabury became the educational advisor for

Doshisha University , also referred to as , is a private university in Kyoto, Japan. Established in 1875, it is one of Japan's oldest private institutions of higher learning, and has approximately 30,000 students enrolled on four campuses in Kyoto. It is one of Japa ...

in Kyoto, Japan. She was for many years an adviser to the

Danforth Foundation The Danforth Foundation was one of the largest private nonprofit foundations in the St. Louis Metropolitan region. It closed its doors in 2011 after 84 years of operation and more than a billion dollars in grants distributed. Background Establishe ...

which designed and implemented programs for the enhancement of religion on college campuses. In 1959, the construction of the Seabury Memorial Chapel was completed at

International Christian University is a non-denominational private university located in Mitaka, Tokyo. With the efforts of Prince Takamatsu, General Douglas MacArthur, and Bank of Japan, BOJ Governor Hisato Ichimada, ICU was established in 1949 as the first liberal arts coll ...

in Tokyo, Japan. The chapel was named in honor of her contributions to the founding of the university.Facilities and Campus Map
International Christian University website. Retrieved April 12, 2008. She was called "an internationalist by instinct" and was widely known within America and overseas as a speaker on interracial brotherhood and international fellowship, causes to which she dedicated her life. She never married and died at the age of 63 in

Muskegon, Michigan Muskegon ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Muskegon County, Michigan, United States. Situated around a harbor of Lake Michigan, Muskegon is known for fishing, sailing regattas, and boating. It is the most populous city along Lake Michigan' ...

. In addition to writing or co-writing various pamphlets and speeches, Seabury wrote Our ''Japanese Friends'' (1927), ''Dinabandhu: A Background Book on India'' (1938) and ''What Kind of a World Do You Want?'' which were published by the Friendship Press, ''Flight to Destiny!'' (1945) published by the Association Press, and ''Daughter of Africa'' (1945) published by the Pilgrim Press.

References

External links

"At A Time Like This"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seabury, Ruth Isabel People from Bangor, Maine American missionary educators Female Christian missionaries American Protestant missionaries 1892 births 1955 deaths Protestant missionaries in Japan American missionaries in Japan American expatriates in Japan