Smucker, Ernest Edward (1919-1982)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1982 Oct 14 p. 11

Birth date: 1919 Jun 3

text of obituary:

ERNEST EDWARD SMUCKER

Dr. Ernest Edward Smucker, 63, a surgeon on the staff of Goshen General Hospital, died June 24 at his home in Goshen, Ind. He had been ain ill health due to cancer for one and one-half years.

Ernest was born in Goshen on June 3, 1919. His parents, Ralph R. and Alma (Albrecht) Smucker were missionaries and sailed for India when he was nine months old. He attended Woodstock School in India and received a B.S. degree from Goshen College in 1941. He was baptized at Sankra Mennonite Church, India by P. A. Friesen in January 1932.

Ernest was married to Mary Irene Liechty on Aug. 30, 1941. They lived in Chicago where he attended Northwestern University Medical School, receiving his M.D. in 1945. The war manpower commission suggested a needy area to begin practice. World War II ended, but the Smuckers followed through with their plans and he was in general practice at Fisher, Ill for 12 years. In 1957 the family moved to Evanston, Ill., where he returned to Northwestern University for a residency in general surgery. The family moved to Goshen, Ind. in August 1961 where he practiced general surgery until his death.

In 1965 the Mennonite Medical Association recommended him to MCC to teach surgery at Kibunzi, the Belgian Congo, now Zaire. It was the time of the Stanleyville uprising and the European doctors had left. In 1969 the Smuckers went to Nav Jrvan Hospital, Bihar, India to help with surgery for several months. In 1976-77 they served with the Mennonite Board of Missions in India training doctors to do surgery.