The Peter A. and Florence C. Friesen Memorial Scholarship Fund
Peter A. and Florence C. Friesen were missionaries serving in India under the Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities from 1923 to 1941. Peter had served two terms on the mission field prior to 1923. He and his first wife, Helena Hiebert Friesen were recruited by the MBMC from the Bruderthaler Church (Evangelical Mennonite Bretheren) in Mt. Lake, MN in 1909. Helena died in 1921 in Naini Tal where the Friesen children attended school.
Florence Cooprider of Hesston, KS, while a student at Goshen Academy, Goshen, IN was encouraged by Mary Burkhart, returned missionary from India, to consider attending medical school for the purpose of meeting the medical needs of Indian women who refused treatment from male doctors. She was the first woman in the Mennonite Church to attend medical school. She graduated from the University of Illinois Medical College in Chicago, IL, and did her internship at Women’s Medical in Philadelphia, PA.
In the fall of 1922, while Peter and his children were on furlough in the States, Florence was also back in the States for her first furlough. In the fall of that year Peter and Florence were married in Hesston, KS. In November of 1923, Peter and Florence with the children, except for the two oldest, returned to India. Peter worked as an evangelist and church planter and Florence as a medical doctor.
Florence was known by the Indian people, especially the women, as a very caring doctor friend. During her first term when yet single, she took a young beggar woman into her home. She taught the woman to do her house work and when she joined the Friesen family, she entrusted her two youngest children, Paul and Grace to the care of this woman. Florence saw in this woman the potential for being a nurse. While the Friesen family was on furlough 1931 – 1933, Florence had the woman, Dulaurin Bai, attend nursing school. Upon Friesen’s return, this “adopted Indian sister” served Florence until the Friesen’s retirement from the India mission field in 1941.
It wasn’t long after Florence started her medical work that she noticed a high incidence of Hansen’s disease, (leprosy). Peter and Florence launched a leprosy clinic which took a day and half of their time each week. For Florence’s program of treating leprosy patients, the British Government honored and attempted to award Florence the Kaiser-Hind award, which for unknown reasons, she declined to accept.
When a young ophthalmologist from Nebraska spent a week doing cataract surgery at Florence’s hospital, Dr. Foote encouraged her to learn to do cataract surgery. She took a brief course in the eastern part of India. Upon returning home, she had villagers bring in the eyes of goats they butchered on which she practiced removing the lens. During her last fourteen years on the mission field she removed many cataracts.
When the Friesens retired from the India mission field, for a short time they lived in Greensburg, KS. World War II was being fought and rationing of gasoline created a hardship for rural and small town folk in western Kansas seeking medical attention. Florence was encouraged by local people to renew her license for practicing medicine. The Friesen home became not only a clinic but also a maternity ward. Florence delivered some sixty babies in their home, at times having two and three mothers and their babies to take care of simultaneously.