by Margaret Patton, Bryn Mawr Class of 2004

Edwin Chester Jones was born October 6, 1880, in Flushing, New York. His father was a Methodist minister. His mother passed away when he was 5 years old. In 1898, he graduated from the Wilbraham Academy in Massachusetts. In 1904, he graduated from Wesleyan as a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Directly after his graduation from Wesleyan, Jones left for China to serve as a missionary under the auspices of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Methodist Church. He taught science at the Anglo-Chinese College in Foochow. During his first furlough, he completed graduate study in chemistry at Yale and returned to Foochow to teach chemistry at the Anglo-Chinese school. He continued as a teacher until 1915 when he became the first president of Union College, later named Fukien Christian University when it incorporated Union Theological School and Union Medical School. The Wesleyan Alumnus described the founding of this school as a "stirring dream come true." The organized effort to establish an institute of higher learning began in 1911, and in 1914 the committee that had been meeting in Kuliang resolved to found a university. On May 25, 1915, Jones was elected president of the university.

He served as president until 1923, when he fell ill from encephalitis lethargica and resigned. He returned to America, and nearly recovered during his several months of rest, but developed acute bronchial pneumonia and died May 30, 1924. On Jan 15, 1927, the Edwin Chester Jones Memorial Science Hall at Fukien Christian University was officially opened and dedicated to his memory.

 

biographies
collections | about the project | colleges | links
home | search

The American Context of China's Christian Colleges project is based at Wesleyan University.
For more information, please contact the Project Director or Website Coordinator.
http://www.library.yale.edu/div/colleges/
Last updated:

design by reedsparrow.com