Shi Meiyu

Shi Meiyu Chinese: 石美玉 (May 1, 1873 – 30 December 1954), also known as Mary Stone, was a doctor of medicine graduated from the University of Michigan.^[1]

Life

Shi Meiyu was born on May 1, 1873 to a Chinese Christian family^[2] in Jiujiang, where she spent her childhood. She attended Rulison-Fish Memorial School, established by American missionary Gertrude Howe, in Jiujiang for ten years.^[2]

In 1892, she was brought to Ann Arbor, Michigan by Gertrude Howe, together with Kang Cheng, for professional training in the west, where she and Kang Cheng became "not only the first Asians to earn degrees at the University of Michigan, but they were also among the very first Chinese women ever to become Western-trained physicians" ^[1] in 1896.

In the Fall of 1896, she and Kang Cheng returned to Jiangxi, China. Two years later, with donations from Dr. I. N. Danforth of Chicago, they established Elizabeth Skelton Danforth Hospital in Jiujiang, named after Dr. Sanforth's wife, which later became the Jiujiang Women and Children's Hospital.^[1]

Shi Meiyu was not only well known as a medical professional, but also for her Christian missionary work. Between 1920 and 1937, she was involved in starting multiple hospitals, schools and churches in China.^[2]

She returned to California after World War II, where she later died on December 30, 1954, in Pasadena at the age of 81.^[2]

References