Unruh, Rudolph T. (1900-1959)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1959 Feb 26 p. 6

Birth date: 1900

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— Relatives from Newton attended funeral services at the Methodist church in Kinsley on Monday for Dr. Rudolph T. Unruh, 59, physician and surgeon who had practiced in the Kinsley community since 1946. Dr. Unruh suffered a heart attack Feb. 17 and died in Edwards County Hospital Friday morning, Feb. 20. A native of Marion County, he served for a time as a missionary in the Belgian Congo and had practiced at Halstead before moving to Kinsley. He is survived by his widow, Bertha; a sister, Mrs. Sarah Frey of Newton; and two brothers, Rev. W. F. Unruh of North Newton and Henry Unruh of Reedley, Calif.

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Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1959 May 7 p. 8

text of obituary:

DR. R. T. UNRUH

Dr. Rudolph T. Unruh, the first missionary doctor of the Congo Inland Mission, was buried on Feb. 23, 1959. He suffered a heart attack on Feb. 17 and died on Friday morning, Feb. 20, 1959.

Many will remember Dr. Unruh as having been the first missionary doctor to be sent out under the Congo Inland Mission, and sponsored by the Christian Endeavor Union of the Central Conference of Mennonites.

Dr. Unruh sailed from New York on Sept. 11, 1931, on the S. S. Pennland with the Rev. F. J. Enns family and Rev. and Mrs. Vernon J. Sprunger. It being necessary to take a tropical medicine course to be allowed to practice medicine in the Belgian Congo, Dr. Unruh went to London where he spent eight months at the Tropical Medicine School. He then spent five months in Brussels learning French before continuing his journey to the Belgian Congo.

After spending about six weeks at Mukedi Station it was decided at the Annual Field Conference in January, 1933 that the doctor then spend about six months at each of the four stations at that time he was to evaluate the needs of each station and thus decide where the first hospital of the Congo Inland Mission was to be built. In 1934 the hospital was built at Mukedi Station where Dr. Unruh served until March of 1936 when he returned to America for furlough.

In spite of the fact that he had no missionary nurse to help him, and with a minimum of equipment at his disposal, Dr. Unruh built an outstanding reputation during his short years in Africa.

Having suffered a sun stroke in 1933, Dr. Unruh was very careful about exposure to the sun in the following years and felt he could not stand another term in the tropics and therefore never returned to the Congo.

The Congo Inland Mission then had no doctor on the field from March of 1936 until the arrival of Dr. and Mrs. M. H. Schwartz in November 1942, who will return to the Congo in July of this year for a fourth term of service.

During World War II Dr. Unruh served in the South Pacific but the tropical sun forced him back to a temperate climate. He was assigned to a German Prisoner Camp in the States. He was registered as a non-combatant in the Navy and it is on record that he refused to accept and use arms. Since 1945 he had been a practicing physician and surgeon at Kinsley, Kansas.

He is survived by his widow, Bertha; a sister Mrs. Sarah Frey of Newton, Kansas; and brothers, Rev. W. F. Unruh of Newton, Kansas and Henry Unruh of Reedley, Calif. (Written by Rev. Vernon J. Sprunger.)