Stanley Gordon Sturges

Stanley Gordon Sturges (October 14, 1929 – July 12, 2019) was an American physician and missionary. He and his wife Raylene Sturges were the first Seventh-day Adventist medical missionaries to Nepal in 1957. They founded the Scheer Memorial Hospital in Banepa, which is the only Western hospital in Kavre District and serves half a million people. In 1961, the US Junior Chamber of Commerce named Sturges one of Ten Outstanding Young Americans.

Sturges came from a strong tradition of medical missionary work in his family, and his goal was to minister to the needs of the sick and needy disregarding their social or economic position. It was illegal to openly speak and preach Christianity in Nepal at the time, so patients would come into contact with Sturges’ religion through the hospital.

Family, education, and early life Sturges was born in Congo on October 14, 1929, to medical missionary parents. His father, Dr. J. Hubert Sturges had a medical practice for the Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Congo. He had an older brother, Dr. Hubert F. Sturges who opened a missionary practice in Ethiopia and a younger brother, Dr. Keith W. Sturges who eventually took over the Scheer Memorial Hospital. His sister, Elizabeth Taylor was also a medical missionary in Kenya. Later, he enrolled at Loma Linda University Medical School as a medical student. While in medical school, he met and married Raylene Duncan, a nurse who shared his interest in missions.

Volleyball Sturges played for the 1955 Loma Linda university volleyball team that went on to win second place at the national championship. It was the only organized sports program the university ever had. After beating big-name universities in the Los Angeles area and qualifying for the National Tournament, his team came within 2 points of winning the national championship against Florida State University. Sturges was named to the 1955 All-American team for the Collegiate Division.

Medical mission

Banepa practice Having completed his internship, Sturges, his wife, and their three children, left for the mission field in 1957. First they went to India to study the language, and then went on to Nepal.

The first clinic was opened in a run-down second-floor rented room. Problems plagued the practice, such as the shortage of medicine supply and reluctance of people to come in. Sturges hired more staff and eventually started treating up to 100 patients daily. His wife often helped out and filled in for Sturges when he wasn't around.

A local pressed charges against Sturges and the hospital, insinuating that the hospital blocked a nearby holy water source, destroyed a path connecting Banepa to Chandeswori, overcharged for services, preached the Christian religion openly, and that Sturges was guilty of malpractice. The village people, however, rebuked his charges and laughed him out of court.

Sturges received the American Academy of Achievement Golden Plate Award in 1965 and the Pacific Union College Honored Alumnus Award in 2016.

Upon returning to the United States, Sturges was an instructor in psychiatry at the University of Cincinnati before retiring in Portland, Oregon. During retirement, he was affiliated with the Adventist Medical Center-Portland, and Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center.

Following the death of his wife in 2018, he moved to a Portland, Oregon retirement home. He died on July 12, 2019