Oliver R. Avison

Life

Avison was born on June 30, 1860, in Yorkshire, England, and emigrated to Canada with his family in 1866. After graduating from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto, he practiced medicine while also teaching pharmacology as a lecturer. At the urging of Horace Underwood, who was visiting Toronto, he resolved to pursue foreign missions. The Canadian Methodist Church to which he belonged, however, had no structure for supporting foreign missions, so he volunteered as a medical missionary with the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. In the summer of 1893 he arrived in Seoul with his family by way of Busan. He went on to work in Korea for forty-two years, until he retired in December 1935 and returned to the United States. He died in Florida on August 29, 1956.

Ministry and Achievements

• Administration of Jejungwon: In November 1893 he became the fourth director of Jejungwon and also served as royal physician to King Gojong. Faced with persistent interference from officials and problems with operating funds, he negotiated with the government for about six months. As a result, in September 1894 the mission took over the administration of the hospital.
• Severance Hospital: At a missionary conference held in New York in 1900, he appealed for support for medical missions. On that occasion he received a gift of $10,000 from the American businessman Louis Severance. In September 1904 a new hospital was built outside Namdaemun (the South Gate) and named Severance Hospital after its donor.
• Medical education: In 1899 he began medical instruction at Jejungwon. Because the students were not proficient in English, he worked with Kim Pil-sun and others to translate medical textbooks into Korean (Hangul) and publish them. In 1908 the first seven graduates received medical practice licenses Nos. 1 through 7 from the government of the Korean Empire, becoming Korea's first licensed physicians. Among them was Pak Seo-yang, the son of Pak Seong-chun, a member of the outcast baekjeong (butcher) class whom Avison had once treated.
• Chosun Christian College (Yonhi College): When Underwood died in 1916, Avison succeeded him as president of Chosun Christian College, which received official accreditation as Yonhi College in 1917. Until 1934 he served concurrently as president of both Severance Union Medical College and Yonhi College. The two schools are the forerunners of today's Yonsei University.
• Support for the independence movement: During the March First Movement of 1919, he treated the wounded, protected patients from the Japanese military police, and informed American churches of the realities of Japanese colonial rule. After returning to the United States, he joined Homer Hulbert and others in the League of Friends of Korea in appealing for recognition of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea. In 1952 the government of the Republic of Korea awarded him the Order of Merit for National Foundation, Independence Medal.

Influence on the Korean Church

Avison is regarded as having laid the foundations for medical missions and educational missions in Korea through the hospitals and schools he established. The two schools he led were operated on a union basis, with the mission boards of several denominations participating jointly. One study identifies this commitment to "union" as his core value. Yonsei University records also credit him with founding Namdaemun Church.

Assessment

Avison is widely regarded as a pioneer of modern medicine and medical education in Korea. His training of the son of a baekjeong as a physician, at a time when class discrimination still persisted, is frequently cited. At the same time, Yonsei University and Seoul National University reportedly hold differing views on which institution is the present-day successor to Jejungwon, and the two institutions accordingly describe his role during the Jejungwon period in different ways.