Oliver R. Avison

Avison was always involved in missionary work. He worked as a lay-preacher in Toronto, and by 1885, had helped found the YMCA at the University of Toronto, where he served as its president. Avison was also the chief editor of the Medical Missionary, a Toronto-based publication first published in 1890. Avison's missionary service experience was inspired primarily through his relationship with and admiration for Horace Underwood, his role model. Underwood was the first American Presbyterian Missionary to work in Korea in 1885.[5] In November 1892, Avison extended an invitation to Underwood to visit him in Toronto and discuss his missionary work. Inspired by Underwood's tales, Avison contacted the Methodist Church of Canada in the hopes of being sent to Korea. His proposal was rejected. In response to this, Underwood applied on behalf of Avison to the American Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions in New York without his permission. Frank Ellinwood, the Secretary of the Board, invited Avison to New York to discuss the application Underwood had submitted.[5]

Despite the fact that Avison was originally a member of the Sherbourne Street Methodist Church, he decided to work with the Presbyterian Board. By 1893, he was appointed as an official medical missionary. Avison was also inspired by the poor state the Korean health system was at the time, as well as the inefficiencies of the lacking collaboration between missionaries of different denominations.[5]

Avison packed up his bags and arrived in Pusan, South Korea, with his family in June 1893. By August, the family had moved to Seoul. Avison began working at Chaejungwon, the Royal Hospital. He was first appointed as a private physician to King Kojong, whose trust Avison earned upon successfully diagnosing and treating him for lacquer poisoning. Through this post, Avison was seen as governmentally endorsed by the Koreans.[1]

The hospital in which Avison was working at was highly regulated, as the Department of Diplomatic and Commercial Affairs would send Korean government officials in to supervise. However, this was resulting in an overcrowding of the facilities. Avison petitioned for control over the hospital's operations completely independent from the government. In his demands, he expressed the desire to remodel the hospital with sole funding from the Mission Board. Through this, Avison hoped that the Korean government's intervention would cease. Only two years after his arrival to Seoul, Avison's proposal was eventually accepted. This kickstarted a new era of privatization in Korea's medical scene.[1]

Upon Avison's arrival to Seoul, he was highly distressed by the lacking medical awareness throughout the population. At the time, there was a great discrepancy in knowledge about the causes of disease, as superstitious beliefs ran wide. Avison's first intervention involved the public health issue of cholera. Avison and his team, appointed by the Korean Minister of Home Affairs, set out to erect educational shelters around Seoul. These facilities' purpose was to educate the population on how cholera was spread, as there was a pervasive misconception that it had to do with spirits. Avison also designed and printed over 50,000 posters with the same educational message, all in the hopes of bringing a modern medical perspective to Korea. Avison perceived these efforts to be one of his greatest achievements.

At the time, there were a variety of American missionary organizations organizing for medical missionaries to enter the country. These medical missionaries would go on to open small clinics from which they would work out of under their own supervision. There was no collaboration between the highly dispersed and independent work being done by missionaries stationed in Korea. Avison, dismayed by the lack of collaboration for reasons he did not believe to be valid, desired to resolve this conflict.

By 1899, the Avison family temporarily moved back to Canada, as both Avison and his wife fell ill. While back in Canada, Avison met with the architect Henry B. Gordon to discuss the design of blue prints for a new hospital Avison wanted to build in Korea. Upon recovering from his illness, Avison made his way to New York to speak at the Ecumenical Conference on Foreign Missions in Carnegie Hall. Louis H. Severance, a member of the audience, approached Avison and became a large financial contributor, enamored by his vision. Upon returning to Seoul, Avison purchased a 9-acre sized plot in the Todong district. Henry Gordon, the architect, arrived to Korea in June 1901 to oversee the construction site. His presence was needed due to the lack of awareness among local contractors about Western building requirements. On September 23, 1904, Avison's hospital, Severance Hospital and College, first opened its doors.[6]  

By 1934, thousands of patients had been treated in Severance Hospital. Avison also expanded the Hospital to include the first modern medical school in Korea, which is now known as Yonsei University College of Medicine.[7] He was the principal of Severance Union Medical College and Chosen Christian College for eighteen years and integrated them to be one university.[8] This medical education in Korea began during construction of the hospital when Avison ordered the translation of medical textbooks to Korean, and within ten years Avison saw the graduation of the nation's first seven medical students. These students also received Korea's first licenses to practice medicine.[3] Avison's approach to providing a medical education to the local population through the hospital was exceptionally revolutionary at the time. The Severance Hospital was regarded as the "headquarters" of medicine in Korea.[6]

Severance Hospital in 1904

While serving as director of the House of Universal Helpfulness for six years, Avison developed a new medical mission theory. Through his speech entitled "Comity in Medical Missions," Avison presented his theory in Carnegie Hall at the 1900 Ecumenical Missionary Conference, where notable figures such as President Benjamin Harrison were in attendance. His theory consisted of three components: cooperation, the simultaneous development of a hospital and medical school, and transferring the hospital to the natives. His talk covered the necessity for increased collaboration between the missionaries stationed in Korea, arguing that the medical work being carried out ought not to be a denominational enterprise. Instead, Avison's vision was to open a hospital in which joint efforts of all missionaries would take place. It was this idea of a united medical mission that led Severance to fund the hospital.[8] By 1913, six differing denominations were collaborating within the hospital, sending missionaries to work there.

The Avison family left Korea for the last time on December 6, 1935. Although his son Douglas Avison wanted to take over his position, Avison passed on his role to Dr. Keung Seon Oh, the representative of the Southern Presbyterian Mission Board for the Severance Medical College.[8] Upon return, Avison relocated his family to Florida, U.S.A. Avison's wife, Jennie, died on September 15, 1936. Avison outlived her by twenty years, passing away on August 28, 1956. Both Avison and his wife were buried in Smiths Falls.[1] In 1943 Dr. Avison remarried Agnes Gertrude Pope (nee Rennee) who died on June 2, 1958.[9]