Edward Leo Krumpelmann

Edward Leo Krumpelmann, MM (, January 30, 1909 – June 23, 1975) was an American Catholic priest, missionary, relief worker, medical aid worker and educator in Kongmoon (now Jiangmen), Guangdong Province, China and in Hong Kong in the mid 20th century. He was a member of the Maryknoll Society.

Early life Krumpelmann was born on January 30, 1909, in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He graduated from St. Thomas Military Academy in St. Paul in 1926, with training in electrical and mechanical engineering, Until his studies away from St Paul, he had been a parishioner in the Church of St Mark.

Missionary

Diocese of Kongmoon Together with the priests Warren Brennan, Winkels, and Sibert, Krumpelmann arrived in Hong Kong on October 15, 1941, aboard the Pan-Am Clipper from Manila. He was immediately sent to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jiangmen in the city of Kongmoon. He stayed in China throughout the Second World War.

Vice Rector of Mountain View Shortly after the war ended, Krumpelmann suffered from tuberculosis, and had to return to the United States in April 1947. He continued to serve as a Maryknoll priest after his return to the States, and was Vice Rector at Mountain View between 1949 and 1958.

For two years, Reilly and Krumpelmann lived in a cramped single, tiny room adjacent to the clinic in the first housing estate on Ngau Tau Kok Road and so developed a strong bond of friendship, respect and mutual understanding with the residents of the apartment blocks.

In 1959 Krumplemann, aware of the demand for medical service in the poor neighbourhood, asked for assistance of the Maryknoll Sisters in running a clinic in the Kwun Tong area. He hoped the Sisters’ clinic would replace the existing one managed by the Reilly and himself. In Nov 1959, Monica Marie Boyle and Helen Kenny opened the clinic in Room number 1, first floor of Orchid House. The local Precious Blood Sisters once helped them with their initial needs. While the Hong Kong Government had planned to erect factories and housing for 300,000 people in that area, the government requested the clinic to provide emergency treatment to injured workers in factory accidents.

Shortly before the present building of St John the Baptist Church at the junction of Yee On Street and Tung Ming Street was completed, the chapel in Orchid House was temporarily moved to 1/F of Hing Tat Mansion, 336-351 Yee On Street.

St John the Baptist Parish initially covered all of Kwun Tong, and was subdivided into three parishes in 1967. Both the parish and the school were established to meet demands caused by the rapid population growth of Kwun Tong in the 1950s and 1960s. Kai Liu has been re-developed and is today called Tsui Ping Estate.

Between 1966 and 1975, Krumpelmann worked as Auxiliary Chaplain in the Servicemen's Guides' Association, an organisation which supported United States Navy servicemen in Hong Kong