G. Thompson "Tommy" Brown (April 30, 1921 - January 21, 2014) was the Professor Emeritus of World Christianity at Columbia Theological Seminary, a missionary, author, and the Director of the Division of International Mission for the

Presbyterian Church in the United States The Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS, originally Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America) was a Protestant denomination in the Southern and border states of the United States that existed from 1861 to 1983. That y ...

(PCUS).George Brown
/ref> He spent much of his life in Korea focusing on strengthening the Presbyterian Church there. His daughter is

Mary Brown Bullock Mary Brown Bullock is an American academic who served as the seventh president of Agnes Scott College in Decatur, GA from 1995 to August 1, 2006. She was the inaugural executive vice chancellor of Duke Kunshan University. Early life As a child, ...

, who was President of

Agnes Scott College Agnes Scott College is a private women's liberal arts college in Decatur, Georgia. The college enrolls approximately 1,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The college is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church and is considered one of the ...

and a foundation executive in developing exchange with China.

Education

G. Thompson Brown (1921-2014) was born in

Kuling Kuling (), now called Guling, was a summer European missionary resort located on top of Mountain Lu, Jiujiang, China. Now it is the tourist and administration center in the Mountain Lu National Park, a World Heritage Site. , it has 5 residenti ...

(now Lushan) Jiangxi province, China. His parents, Frank A. Brown and Charlotte Thompson Brown, were both Presbyterian missionaries, so he attended school and grew up in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, China until he graduated high school. He then moved back to the United States and attended

Davidson College Davidson College is a private liberal arts college in Davidson, North Carolina. It was established in 1837 by the Concord Presbytery and named after Revolutionary War general William Lee Davidson, who was killed at the nearby Battle of Cowan� ...

, where he graduated with a BA in 1942. After a brief time in the army, he then attended Union Theological Seminary, where he earned a BD in 1949 and a Th.D. in 1963. In 1950 he also earned a Th.M. from

Princeton Seminary Princeton Theological Seminary (PTSem), officially The Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church, is a private school of theology in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1812 under the auspices of Archibald Alexander, the General Assembly of ...

. Later in 2012 he was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from Honam Theological Seminary, the school he helped create.

Life

After Brown graduated from

, he served in World War II as a U.S. Army Signal Corps officer until the end of the war. Then after his graduation from

, he served as the pastor at Adams Memorial and Linwood Presbyterian Churches in Gastonia, NC for two years. He was then appointed as a missionary for the

Presbyterian Church Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

to Korea in 1952. During his time there he worked with churches in southwest Korea. He later founded the Honam Theological Academy in

Gwangju Gwangju () is South Korea's sixth-largest metropolis. It is a designated metropolitan city under the direct control of the central government's Home Minister. The city was also the capital of South Jeolla Province until the provincial office ...

(now the

Honam Theological University and Seminary Honam Theological University and Seminary is a private university located in Gwangju, South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsu ...

), one of seven seminaries in Korea. After its establishment he worked there as Professor of New Testament in 1955 and later as president from 1960 to 1967, while still serving his role as PCUS missionary. From 1967 until 1973, Brown was Area Secretary for East Asia, and later Field Secretary for Korea while lecturing in New Testament at the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Seoul, Korea. In 1973, he returned to Atlanta as Director of International Missions for the Southern Presbyterian Church. He held this position until 1981, when he began teaching World Christianity at Columbia Theological Seminary, where he retired. Brown was the first president of Chinese Connection, a Christian-centered organization that provided medical and public health services in China. One of his largest projects he help coordinate was the outfitting of two mobile surgical clinics for use in mountainous areas. Brown was married to Mary (Mardia) Alexander Hopper for 70 years. They met while attending Pyeng Yang Foreign School, a now defunct mission school in Pyongyang, Korea.

Works

*''Christianity in the People's Republic of China'' (John Knox Press, 1983) *''Mission to Korea'' (and Korean Translation, Presbyterian Church of Korea, 1984) *''Presbyterians in World Mission'' (CTS Press, 1995) *''Earthen Vessels and Transcendent Power: American Presbyterians in China, 1837-1952'' (Orbis Books, 1997) *''Face to Face: Meditations on the Life Everlasting'' (Geneva Press, 2001) *''How Koreans are Reconverting the West'' (Xlibris Corporation, 2008 and Korean Translation, 2009)

References

External links

*Internet Archive,
Korea for Christ
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, G. Thompson 1921 births 2014 deaths American Presbyterian missionaries American theologians American expatriates in South Korea Children of American missionaries in China Presbyterian missionaries in South Korea