Paul E. Carlson (March 31, 1928 – November 24, 1964) was an American physician and medical missionary who served in Wasolo, a town in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

[1] After finishing medical school, he completed five years of internship and then surgery residency in Redondo Beach, California, during which time he met and married nurse Lois Lindblom of Menominee, Michigan.

[4] In July 1963, along with his wife, son Wayne, and daughter Lynette, he returned to the Ubangi region of the African nation known at the time as the Republic of the Congo.

In August 1964, rebels captured Stanleyville, now Kisangani, and the Carlson family crossed the Ubangi river to seek refuge in the Central African Republic.

This final return placed him in the middle of the political unrest of the time, and he soon fell into the hands of the communist-inspired Congolese rebels of the Simba Rebellion.

[2] Under the unstable leadership of Christophe Gbenye, the rebels accused Carlson of being an American spy and took him as a hostage to Stanleyville.

The Paul Carlson Partnership[11] is a Chicago-based nonprofit organization with a mission that focuses on investing in health care, economic development, and education in Central Africa.