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Schwartz, Merle (1911-2002)
Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2002 Nov 11 p. 11
Birth date: 1911
By Jim Bertsche
For AIMM and MMN
NORMAL, Ill. — Merle Schwartz, who served 37 years in the Congo as a missionary doctor, died Oct. 21. He was 91.
Schwartz and his wife, Dorothy, served from 1941 to 1977 as missionaries with Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission in the Belgian Congo (later called Zaire) with the Commission on Overseas mission of the former General Conference Mennonite church.
A 1933 graduate of Bluffton (Ohio) College, Schwartz earned his medical degree at the University of Illinois medical School in Chicago. There, he met his future wife, Dorothy Bowman, who was studying to be a nurse at nearby Bethany Hospital. They were married in June 1940.
The couple studied tropical medicine at Tulane University before embarking for the Belgian Congo to do mission service.
Their journey was fraught with wartime peril. After their freighter was attacked by a Nazi warship, the Schwartzes were rescued by a German vessel and eventually landed in occupied France, from where they made their way back to the United States.
In the meantime, erroneous reports of their deaths at sea filtered back to central Illinois, where a memorial service was held at Carlock Mennonite Church. Only later did the congregation learn that the Schwartzes were still alive.
The couple eventually made their way to the Congo in 1942, where they established basic medical services with only rudimentary resources.
During the 1960s the Schwartzes were caught up in the Congo's political and social upheavals, leading to their departing the country for a time.
After retiring in 1977, the Schwartzes commuted from their retirement home in Normal to provide medical services for the Mennonite Retirement Community at Meadows.
After Dorothy Schwartz died in 1997, her husband worked as a volunteer at Bro-Menn Hospital in Bloomington.
A memorial service was held Oct. 25 at Carlock Mennonite Church.