Susan Wealthy Orvis Papers

Susan Wealthy Orvis was born in Atlanta, Illinois, on 20 December 1873, the daughter of Clarkson Finney (1847-1914) and Mary Ellen Phelps Orvis (1847-1915). She had numerous siblings - Mary Ellen (1872-1936), Harriet Ann (1876-1948), Emma Gertrude (1878-1951), Julia Edith (1880-1960), Anne Reed (1882-1946), John Gurney (1884-1958), Clarkson Edward (1887-1888), and Clarkson Frederick (1891-1940). She graduated with the Ph.B. from Grinnell College in 1900 and received an M.A. from the University of Chicago in 1915. She spent the year 1923-24 at the Oberlin College Graduate School of Theology, returning during the years 1934-35 and 1937-39 to complete work for the B. D. degree, which she received in 1939. After graduating from Grinnell College, Miss Orvis taught high school for two years in Charleston, Illinois. From 1902 to 1933, she was missionary in Turkey under the auspices of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. She taught in China and Japan from 1917 to 1919 and was engaged in relief operations in Baku, Russia during the Bolshevik revolution (1917-18). After 1932, Orvis remained in the United States on furlough. She taught Christian missions at the Schauffler School (later the Schauffler College of Religious and Social Work) in Cleveland from 1935 to 1937. She died of a cerebral hemorrhage on 10 January 1941 in Earlville, Iowa, at her sister's home. She was 67 years old.