Noted Missionary to South Korea Dies at 79
A noted missionary surgeon and researcher, died Nov. 20 in a hospital in Birmingham, Alabama after spending his entire career in South Korea.
A noted missionary surgeon and researcher, died Nov. 20 in a hospital in Birmingham, Alabama after spending his entire career in South Korea. David John Seel, who served 37 years as a cancer surgeon at the Presbyterian Medical Center’s Jesus Hospital in Chonju, Korea, passed away at the age of 79.
"Under his leadership, the Presbyterian Medical Center was expanded and ... he introduced the care and treatment of cancer patients (to the hospital's protocol) for the first time in the region." said Insik Kim, the PC(USA)'s area coordinator for East Asia and the Pacific. "His medical ministry hasn't stopped."
According to Kim, Seel prodded both the hospital and Korea's Presbyterians to begin sending medical missionaries to other countries, gradually commissioning nurses and doctors to serve in eight other parts of the world.
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From 1969 to 1988, when Seel directed the hospital, he trained countless physicians—many of which now serve around the world. Also, during his tenure, a new 600-bed hospital was built.
Seel received numerous awards for his work, including Presbyterians for Renewal's Bell-McKay Award, the Korean Red Cross' Humanitarian Award and the "Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award" from Tulane University. In the fall of that year, Montreat College awarded Seel an honorary doctorate.
Virginia Sommerville of Montreat, who, along with her husband, John, entered missionary service in Korea at the same time as Seel and his wife did in 1953, said “He was a surgeon, an extremely good doctor ... and he also did a lot of cancer research. That research may be one of his greatest legacies. He wrote dozens of articles for medical and scientific journals.”
"He had a wonderful sense of humor. He enjoyed a good joke. And he also enjoyed relaxing," she added.
"He focused totally on the patient, listened to their every word," said the Rev. Megan Ritchie, who as a novice missionary in the early 1970s observed Seel working with some of Korea's poorest people. "He was compassionate. Gentle. I felt like I watching the hands of Christ in action."
Called a "renaissance man" by his friends, Seel was a noted author, painter and violinist. His family intends to publish his final book, Scalpel of Truth—a collection of Seel's reflections as a surgeon—posthumously.
Seel is survived by his wife, Mary; his brother, Bob Seel of Tucson, AZ; and his sister, Betty Peterson of Hampton, VA; one son, David John Seel Jr. of Dallas, TX, and his wife, Kathryn; two daughters, Jennifer Seel Cromartie of Arlington, VA, and her husband, Mike, and Christine Seel Ritchieof Birmingham, AL, and her husband, Tim; and eight grandchildren.
A memorial service has been set for Nov. 27 in Montreat Presbyterian Church in North Carolina to celebrate his life.
