January 9, 1897 – February 13, 1973
by Charles K. (Ken) McCotter, Jr., Christ Episcopal Church, New Bern, NC, 2016
Lula Marjorie Disosway, M. D.
Few New Bernians have exemplified Christian charity more than Dr. Lula M. Disosway, who served as a medical missionary in China and Alaska, the medical director of the Good Shepherd Hospital, and the operator of a maternity clinic at the Craven County Hospital.
Lula was born in 1897 to Reginald Justice Disosway and Lula M. Stanley Disosway, a family dedicated to Christian service. At age 5, she almost died from spinal meningitis. Her parents conducted a prayerful vigil at her bedside. When Lula was miraculously spared, her parents felt that God had a plan for Lula’s life.
Lula attended Women’s College, now known as UNC-Greensboro, earning a degree in teaching in 1918. She served as a teacher and high school principal for one year. At age 21, Lula decided that she “could reach the poor, the lame and blind through Medicine.” With financial help from the Episcopal Church and Diocese of East Carolina, she began her study of medicine. She attended Johns Hopkins University, receiving a received a degree in medicine from Women’s Medical College in Philadelphia in 1925. She then became the first woman intern at the James Walker Hospital in Wilmington, NC.
After her internship, the Episcopal Church sent Dr. Disosway to China in 1926 as a medical missionary. After learning Chinese at Sochow University, she was assigned to head a 150-bed hospital in Shanghai. Proficient in all medical specialties, she found her calling in obstetrics. She taught at St. John’s Medical School from 1926, receiving a Professorship in Obstetrics in 1938. While in Shanghai, Dr. Disosway delivered approximately 10,000 babies. She experienced the Anti-Foreign War of 1927 and the Sino-Japanese War in 1932 and 1937. She was at Shanghai at the time of the bombing and capture of the city in 1937. World War II forced Dr. Disosway out of China in 1941.
Dr. Disosway continued her medical missionary work in Alaska. She served as the physician-in-charge of the Episcopal Church’s Hudson Struck Memorial Hospital in Fort Yukon, at the Indian village above the Arctic Circle. Fort Yukon is the oldest English-speaking settlement in Alaska and the first Anglican mission in the area. She was the only doctor within a radius of 100 miles.
In 1948 Dr. Disosway returned to New Bern and cared for her mother. In 1954 the Episcopal Church called Dr. Disosway to become the Medical Director at the Good Shepherd Hospital in New Bern. Good Shepherd was a hospital that served the black community and was operated by the Episcopal Diocese of East Carolina.
In 1967 Dr. Disosway ran a maternity clinic at Craven County Hospital. The unit was known as “Stork Haven.” In 1968 Dr. Disosway received the Alumnae Service Award from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She was named “Woman of the Year” in New Bern in 1971.
Dr. Disosway died on February 13, 1973. In 1977 an all-faith chapel was established in the Craven County Hospital named “The Dr. Lula M. Disosway Chapel.”