Portrait of a Faithful Servant

Dr. Marilyn P. Birch

On a sizzling hot day, March 24, 1921, Marilyn P. Birch was born, the second of twins, in a rented house at 29 Garrison St. in Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Africa. Her brother Marion had preceded her by three hours, and both, by God's grace, followed in the path of their parents, Frank and Zola Kinnison Birch, becoming career missionaries for The Wesleyan Church in Sierra Leone.

Academic Achievements

Academically gifted, Marilyn graduated magna cum laude from Houghton College, and was a member of both the Phi Beta Kappa Society and the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society upon her graduation from the University of Michigan Medical School. Following an internship and surgical preceptorship, Marilyn served at Kamakwie Wesleyan Hospital in Sierra Leone from 1950 to 1975. She played a key role in designing and building a new facility there, completed in 1959, and in training the hospital's national staff. During Dr. Birch's tenure, as many as 110 thousand patients were seen and some 800 surgeries performed each year.

Personal Connections

Marilyn was beloved by patients and had a singular ability to focus on the individual in front of her, giving that person her full attention. Having been raised in Sierra Leone, she spoke Krio, Temne, and Limba and could also "pull a little Susu and Fullah" when needed. An accomplished photographer, Marilyn took thousands of pictures documenting her treatment of numerous tropical diseases, the lyrical beauty of the West African savannah, the bold colors of tropical flowers, and the winsomely attractive people of Sierra Leone. Missionary colleagues affectionately tell numerous stories of Marilyn: breaking scrub during eye surgery in a room with natural light to photograph a sunset, planting a palm tree on her way to the afternoon doctor's clinic, seeing outpatients "until the cock crowed" the following morning, and misplacing her passport by using it as a bookmark in a magazine.

An astute clinician with an unusual sensitivity to others, Marilyn was well known for the time she spent with patients. On the eve of a district Wesleyan church conference, the nine-month-old son of Rev. Brima Turay, district superintendent and conference chairman, became ill with a strange breathing disorder that may have been bulbar polio. During the desperate hours of little Richard's illness, Marilyn sat with the family for nearly two full days and tried every possible medical treatment while Pa Brima rocked Richard back and forth on his knees, finally releasing the child, in prayer, from his struggle and thanking God "for lending Richard to us for a little while."

International Honors

A captivating storyteller, Dr. Birch engagingly related the work of The Wesleyan Church of Sierra Leone and Kamakwie Wesleyan Hospital during her various furloughs. In recognition of her service, Dr. Birch was designated by Queen Elizabeth II, in person, as Member of the British Empire and in 1967 was honored as Houghton College's first Alumna of the Year. She received an honorary degree from Houghton in 1977 and was named to the college's Centennial 100 in 1983. Following her retirement from the mission field, Dr. Birch practiced at the ECCO Family Health Center in Columbus, Ohio. In 2000 she moved to Florida to be near the family of her cardiologist brother, Dr. Larry Birch. She peacefully entered the Lord's presence on August 6, 2005, at the age of 84, from complications of advanced Parkinson's disease. Thousands of lives have been touched by Marilyn Birch's exceptional abilities and humble service. Those who knew and loved her are compelled by her life to say, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

Evvy Hay Campbell is associate professor of intercultural studies at Wheaton College, Wheaton, Ill., and a former Wesleyan missionary at Kamakwie Wesleyan Hospital.