Dr. Oliver R. Avison
Dr. Oliver R. Avison, M.D.: The Father of Modern Medicine in Korea
By Gloria Kim
This biography is based on Avison of Korea: The Life of Oliver R. Avison, M.D., 1 which was written in reference to Dr. Avison’s memoirs.
Severance Hospital is one of the highly esteemed hospitals in Seoul, Korea, and Yonsei University is one of three top tier universities in the country. Dr. Oliver R. Avison made notable contributions to these flourishing institutions and is widely recognized for his work on Korea’s medical advancement.
The “R” in his name was an addition after he noticed that many classmates had two given names. Oliver liked the look of three initials and thus experimented with the different letters of the alphabet until he found “R” to be the most aesthetically pleasing between his first and last name.
Oliver was born on June 30, 1860 in a small village called Jagger Green in West Riding of Yorkshire, England. Oliver’s father had planned to immigrate to the United States where one of his brothers was, but upon visiting another brother who was then living in Brantford, Ontario, Oliver’s father changed his mind and settled in Canada instead.
After completing high school, Oliver received a qualification to teach, and became a teacher at Smith’s Falls for three years where he met Jennie Barnes, who he eventually married on July 28, 1885. In considering more education for his teaching career, Oliver realized his passion was elsewhere. He became an apprentice to Dr. J. S. McCallum for three years and later enrolled at the College of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto. Upon graduation, he taught botany in the School of Pharmacy.
At the advice of the principal of the School of Pharmacy, Oliver attended the University of Toronto Medical School. At the school, he taught pharmacology to a group of students, who approached him for better instruction on the subject. After graduation, he was appointed to the faculty of the University of Toronto Medical School to teach pharmacology. He also opened up his practice in the city and was the family physician of the mayor. At the time, he was a local preacher and highly involved in the Medical Young Men’s Christian Association, Sherbourne Street Methodist Church, and slum work operated by the Band of Hope.
Though originally from a Methodist background, Oliver was quite comfortable departing for the mission field with the backing of the Presbyterian Board since his own denomination could not send him out. He arrived in Korea in 1893 and worked in the Presbyterian hospital for forty years. During that time, Oliver was also a personal physician to the King. “In one year Dr. Avison made 33 professional visits to the King and during the political troubles of the 1890’s went twice a day to the palace to see him.” (Clark 1979, 91)
In 1895, Oliver headed up the emergency work in response to a cholera, which was the first time “little scattered clinics and hospitals” cooperated to fight off an emergency (Clark 1979, 109). This centralized system of providing medical care aligned with Oliver’s own vision of medical progress in Korea.
In 1900, Oliver attended the Ecumenical Conference on Foreign Missions in New York where he read his paper on the topic of “Unity in Medical Missions” at Carnegie Hall. This presentation moved Louis H. Severance to follow up with Oliver on the need to establish one good hospital instead of seven inadequate ones. Severance donated $10,000 toward Oliver’s dream hospital, which had already been drawn up into a plan by architect H. B. Gordon from Toronto. As Oliver and his wife were praying for this hospital for about a year and half, Severance, too, had thought to build a hospital somewhere for about a year. Severance continued to provide the necessary funds for the successful construction of a hospital, and the resulting hospital was named in his honour. Severance Hospital opened on September 23, 1904.
At the Severance Union Medical College, Oliver raised up a generation of medical students, who could carry on the work of improving the health of their people. Clark captures how no one was better suited to take on this task (Clark 1979, 122). Oliver had hands on experience in the pharmacy business and in compounding medicines. With his previous experiences in the business aspects of pharmacy, Oliver could run a financially sound school, and with the experiences of compounding medicines and teaching pharmacology, he had the requisite skills to be a good teacher. Oliver had already started to translate books that would be useful as textbooks shortly after his arrival in Korea. With these and other books, he prepared a seven-year curriculum for Medicine and a three-year curriculum for Pharmacy.
In 1908, the first batch of graduates received their medical diplomas in a momentous event attended by almost a thousand people including the Japanese Resident-General, Prince Ito Hirobumi, President of the Privy Council, Kim Yun-sik, and other honourable guests such as the Minister of State. Oliver was the president of the Severance Union Medical College and the Chosun Christian College (also known as Yonhi College) from 1916 to his retirement in 1934. These two schools eventually merged into Yonsei University. Oliver was also instrumental in supporting the nurses’ training school founded by Esther Shields, a missionary nurse.
As Oliver and Jennie left Korea for good in 1935, Yun Chi-ho spoke on behalf of the Korean church and said these beautiful words that sum up Oliver’s contribution to Korea:
“…In bidding you goodbye we are losing two personalities in one: a great public benefactor and a great personal friend. As our benefactor, you are leaving behind you monuments of which anybody may be proud. In the first place, we have your bronze statue on the Severance compound erected by the Alumni Association. When you are gone, and we can see you no more in the flesh, we shall look at that statue with a degree of affection that none of us may realize at this moment. But a better monument than a mute statute, we shall have in your two sons, one in the YMCA and the other in the medical college, who will continue the work you have begun in these two branches of missionary enterprise. Nobler even than these monuments, you leave us three great institutions, the Severance Hospital, the Medical College and the Chosen Christian College to perpetuate your memory to the end of time. Your greatest monument, however, will be the never ending stream of graduates from the colleges who will multiply your good work a thousand-fold, and the patients who will be benefitted by the healing ministrations of the hospital.
“But as our personal friend, your departure will create in our hearts a void that nothing can fill—neither your statue nor even your sons, nor your graduates nor the beneficiaries of your hospital. As it would be a mere mockery for me to try to fill up an unfillable void with meaningless platitudes, I shall close my remarks by simply saying:
“God be with you till we meet again!” (Clark 1979, 148)
A statue of Oliver is erected in front of the Nursing School with an inscription outlining his contributions and the man that he was.
Related Links:
Medical professionalism development of Oliver R. Avison.