Glen R. Eschtruth, M.D. (April 19, 1928 – April 19, 1977)[1] was a Methodist medical missionary who operated a mission hospital in Kapanga, Zaire (now Congo-Kinshasa) from 1960 with his wife, Lena Eschtruth.
Eschtruth graduated from Wayne State University in Detroit, USA[2] with a degree in medicine. He went on to become Chief of Surgery in the US Air Force at Cape Kennedy;[3] he then established and pastored the United Methodist Church at Cocoa Beach in Florida, before going to England to study Tropical Medicine.
Eschtruth and his wife Lena travelled to Congo in 1961 with their three young daughters.[4] By 1970, they were running the hospital and had also set up 23 rural clinics.[3][5]
In early 1977, the Congolese National Liberation Front (FNLC) launched an offensive into Zaire from neighboring Angola, known as the Shaba I incursion. Along with a number of other missionaries and aid workers in the Kapanga region, Glen and Lena were placed under house arrest by the FNLC militants. When Zairian forces, with Western assistance, successfully repelled the invasion, Glen, on or about 15 April 1977, was seized by the FNLC as they evacuated Kapanga. He was accused of hiding and using ham radios.[6] He was shot dead and his body was found in a shallow grave not far from Kapanga. Eschtruth was the only foreign national to be killed in the course of the invasion.[7]
Lena Eschtruth married a missionary mechanic, Herbert Ellinger, in 1997.[8]
Their daughter, Caroline Rush Eschtruth, was briefly married (1976–78) to American researcher Steven Hatfill.[9]
References
edit- ^ "Newspapers.com website, Missionary Knew That He'd Be Killed, article published in the Detroit Free Press, dated June 8, 1977". Archived from the original on March 26, 2024. Retrieved March 26, 2024.
- ^ "Wayne State University website, School of Medicine section, Class of 1953 - 70th Reunion". Archived from the original on 2024-03-26. Retrieved 2024-03-26.
- ^ a b Newspapers.com website, ‘’Missionary Doctor will visit Area’’, article published in the Ironwood Daily Globe, dated March 11, 1970
- ^ "Newspapers.com website, Missionary Pair set for work in Congo, article published in the Anniston Star, dated July 25, 1960". Archived from the original on March 26, 2024. Retrieved March 26, 2024.
- ^ "Augusta University website, African Reflections, by Jim Beecham, published in MCG Today, Volume 4, Number 1 (Spring 1974) page 22". Archived from the original on 2024-03-26. Retrieved 2024-03-26.
- ^ Denyer, Taylor Walters (26 June 2020). Google Books, Decolonizing Mission Partnerships: Evolving Collaboration between United Methodists in North Katanga and the United States of America: 47, by Taylor Walters Denyer (2020), page 117. Wipf and Stock Publishers. ISBN 978-1-7252-5911-9. Archived from the original on 2024-03-26. Retrieved 2024-03-26.
- ^ Pluchinsky, Dennis A. (23 March 2020). Google Books website, Anti-American Terrorism: From Eisenhower To Trump - A Chronicle of the Threat and Response: Volume I The Eisenhower through Carter Administrations by Dennis A Pluchinsky, page 576. World Scientific. ISBN 978-1-78326-874-0. Archived from the original on 2024-03-26. Retrieved 2024-03-26.
- ^ Life Story website, Herbert Ellinger: Obituary, published May 2017
- ^ "Mail and Guardian website, Murky past of a US bio-warrior, article by M Burger, dated August 17, 2002". Archived from the original on 2024-03-26. Retrieved 2024-03-26.