Mary Pauline Jeffery
Mary Pauline Jeffery (1893 -1974, OC 1916) was an educator and physician. She was born and raised in India by missionary parents working under the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. She graduated from Oberlin College in 1916 with a B.A. in philosophy and psychology. She continued her education at Chicago University where she completed a M.A. in religious education in 1917.
Jeffery returned to India after finishing her academic coursework, and in 1917 she became the principal of the Capron Hall High School in Madura, India. She held this position until 1920 when she entered the Medical College of Columbia University. After interning at the Buffalo City Hospital from 1925 to 1926, Jeffery once again returned to India to practice medicine. She was the head of the anatomy department and an assistant surgeon at the Vellore Medical College between 1926 and 1931. Working in India, Jeffery found that there was a need for ophthalmologists to conduct eye surgeries and teach about ophthalmology.
In 1931, she returned to the United States to attend the New York Post-Graduate School and specialize in eye work, which she completed in 1932. Jeffery’s later career included work as a medical missionary in Vellore and The Nilgires in India, where she performed over 800 cataract surgeries. She then moved to Kotagiri where a small medical dispensary with an operating table had been established by Monica Sutton and Vera Nowell in 1937. Jeffery worked with these women to expand the medical facilities in 1941. The small dispensary became the Kotagiri Medical Fellowship Hospital, which was registered as a mission hospital and focused mainly on ophthalmology. However, the hospital soon expanded to include general medical services. With help from the Church of South India, the hospital performed outpatient clinical work to tribes living in the Nilgiri Hills.
In 1954 a clinic was started in Gudalur and the hospital later founded other clinics. By 1955 the Kotagiri Medical Fellowship Hospital had ten buildings. Donations enabled the institution to build wards, a laboratory, an X-ray department, an outpatient department, operation room, pharmacy, chapel, and staff quarters. The hospital continues to serve the local community today. In 1966, Jeffery retired from her work to spend her remaining years in India.
Sources:
“India - South (Arcot).” Danmission. Danmission, August 19, 2018. https://danmission.dk/photoarchive/area/arcot-south-india/?lang=en
Kotagiri Medical Fellowship Hospital. Kotagiri, India: Kotagiri Medical Fellowship Hospital. http://ravensnest.in/kmf.pdf
Student File (Mary Pauline Jeffery), Alumni & Development Records, O.C.A.
Thiagarajan, Shantha. “From cowshed to clinic, the saga of a Nilgiris hospital.” The Times of India. (India) August 31, 2017. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/coimbatore/from-cowshed-to-clinic-the-saga-of-a-nilgiris-hospital/articleshow/60303879.cms