Graber, Lena (1910-2003)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2003 Feb 3 p. 9

Birth date: 1910 Apr 28

text of obituary:

Mission nurse in India, Nepal dies at 92

By Mennonite Mission Network

GOSHEN, Ind. — Lena Graber, who served more than 30 years as a missionary nurse in India and Nepal, where she helped establish nursing schools, died Jan. 18 in Goshen. She was 92.

Graber first went to work in Dhamtari, India, as a nurse in 1944 with Mennonite Board of Missions, a predecessor agency of Mennonite Mission network. Frustrated by the shortage of skilled nurses, Graber and other Mennonite nurses founded a school that continues today as one of India's most reputable colleges of nursing.

After a decade of ministry in India, Graber was denied permission to return.

"Certain people felt that she was being accused of converting too many nursing students," said John Lapp, MMN's director for West Asia and the Middle East.

In 1957, Graber went to Nepal, where she helped found another nursing training school. Graber served in Nepal until just before her retirement in 1979, when she returned to India for a year.

In a tribute to Graber, Lapp said: "When I visit her old haunts in Dhamtari and in Kathmandu, it is as though she continues to give guidance to the young students and nursing instructors of today. Her picture is on public display in both cities, and her name is invoked nearly every time I visit the nursing schools. Graber had the capability to crate something superior. She modeled missionary technique for her generation and later generations."

Born April 28, 1910, to Daniel and Fanny (Conrad) Graber in Washington County, Iowa, Graber was one of nine children. Thirteen nieces and nephews survive.

She graduated in 1935 from the Mennonite School of Nursing in Bloomington and in 1942 from Goshen College. She was a member of Mennonite Nurses Association and of College Mennonite Church in Goshen.