author
John Scudder
1793–1855
A pioneering doctor-missionary, he helped open medical mission work in South Asia and spent much of his life combining practical care with evangelistic work in Ceylon and India.
1 Audiobook
Dr. Scudder's Tales for Little Readers, About the Heathen.
by John Scudder
About the author
Born in Freehold, New Jersey, in 1793, John Scudder Sr. trained first at Princeton and then in medicine in New York before beginning what looked like a promising medical career. After a religious turning point, he chose missionary service instead and became one of the earliest American physicians to take medicine overseas for missionary work.
He served in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), where he is widely described as the founder of the first Western medical mission in Asia, and later worked in India, where he became the first American medical missionary. Alongside preaching and teaching, he used medical care as a practical way to reach communities, and his work helped shape a long family tradition of missionary and medical service in South India.
He died in 1855, but his influence continued through the Scudder family, whose later generations remained active in education, medicine, and mission work for many years. He is remembered not only for going first, but for linking healing and service in a way that left a lasting mark.