Moffett Korea Collection 2

Samuel Hugh Moffett was born in Pyongyang, Korea, April 7, 1916, to Samuel Austin Moffett and Lucia Fish Moffett, pioneer missionaries to Korea. He was educated at Wheaton College (B.A. 1938), Princeton Theological Seminary (Class of 1942), Yale University (Ph.D. 1945), and the Center for Chinese Studies in Peking (1947-48). He was ordained by the Presbytery of Connecticut Valley on September 19, 1943, and served Presbyterian churches in Connecticut while completing his doctoral studies. He entered into a distinguished career as a missionary after a year as director of youth work for the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church, located in New York City. His first assignment was to China, where he served on the faculty of Yenching University in Peking from 1948-1949, and on the faculty of Nanking Theological Seminary in 1949-50. He was eventually arrested and expelled by the Chinese communist government when it took power. After the death of his first wife and a brief period of teaching at Princeton Theological Seminary, he married Eileen Flower. Eileen Flower Moffett (born in Spokane, Washington, March 12, 1928) was educated at the University of Washington at Seattle (B.A. 1950) and at Princeton Theological Seminary (M.A. 1955). She served briefly as the director of Christian Education at the First Presbyterian Church in Caldwell, New Jersey. She also spent a year teaching at the Beirut College for Women in Lebanon. Following her marriage to Dr. Moffett in 1956, she joined him as a Presbyterian (UPCUSA) missionary to South Korea, where they served together for over twenty-five years. Eileen Moffett served as an assistant professor at the Presbyterian Theological College and Seminary in Seoul from 1960 until 1981, and as director of the Korean Bible Club movement from 1976 until 1981. Samuel Hugh Moffett served as Principal of the Kyungan Higher Bible School in Andong from 1957 until 1959. He served as professor and Associate President of the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Seoul from 1960 until 1981 and Dean of the Graduate School from 1966 until 1970. He was President of the Asian Center for Theological Studies and Missions from 1974 until 1981. The Moffetts returned to Princeton in 1981, where Dr. Moffett served as the Henry W. Luce Professor of Ecumenics and Mission from 1981 until 1986 and as a guest professor in 1986-87. Dr. Moffett was named a Distinguished Alumnus of Princeton Theological Seminary in 1977 and Eileen Moffett was named a Distinguished Alumna of Princeton Theological Seminary in 1997. Samuel Hugh Moffett died on February 9, 2015, at the age of 98.