Brown, Sophie L. Schmidt (1924-2010)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2010 Sep 20 p. 7

Birth date: 1924 Apr 19

text of obituary:

Four-decade Taiwan missionary dies

By Mennonite Mission Network staff

NORTH NEWTON, Kan. — Sophie L. Brown, a teacher who served 40 years as a mission worker in Taiwan, died Sept. 4 at her home. She was 86.

"Sophie is fondly remembered for her fun-loving, optimistic nature and her gracious hospitality to many," said Sheldon Sawatzky, Mennonite Mission Network East Asia director.

For four decades beginning in the early 1950s, Brown and her husband, Roland, served in Taiwan with the Commission on Overseas Mission, an MMN predecessor agency. They helped develop the Mennonite Christian Hospital in Hualien.

In addition to serving at the hospital and raising three children, Brown counseled unwed mothers and was instrumental in starting Hualien Christian School. She worked for nearly 10 years at New Dawn Developmental Center, a school for developmentally challenged children in Hualien.

The Browns retired from mission service and returned to the United States in 1990. They returned to Taiwan for another mission term from 1993 to 1995.

Sophie L. (Schmidt) Brown was born April 19, 1924, in Goessel to Simon F. and Margaret (Unruh) Schmidt. She graduated from Bethel College in North Newton and continued her education at Arizona State University and Wichita State University, specializing in counseling and special education.

In 1948 she married Roland P. Brown. He survives. Also surviving are two sons, Clifford of Tulsa and G. Keith of Taipei, Taiwan; a daughter, Carol Ann Fynan of Montgomery, Ala.; a brother, Randolph Schmidt of Goessel; a sister, Alda M. Wedel of Hesston; five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by a brother, Lester F. Schmidt.