Phillips Foster Greene
Phillips Foster Greene (May 30, 1892 – April 11, 1967) was an American doctor who, in collaboration with the Yale-China Association, pioneered medical missions to China from 1923 to 1943, and to Burma from 1951 to 1953.
Greene was most known for his contribution to the Chinese health system through his leadership of the Hsiang-Ya Medical School,[1][2] and as Director of the American Red Cross in China.
[3][4] In addition to evangelical motives, he focused especially on sustainability and collaboration with local groups, a concept not to be widely considered until decades later.
[10] Phillips Greene and his three younger brothers, Joseph, Edward, and David, were raised in Upper Montclair, New Jersey, under significant Christian and missionary influence.
[3][4] Following the Allied Peace Terms of World War I, Turkish authorities aimed to minimize foreign influence; American doctors were no longer welcome.
[2][3][4][11] In an early letter home, Greene described this assignment as an opportunity "to give good medical training with Christian character while the profession in China is still young," and added that "great things are at stake" in his work there.
He was also met with opposition from Changsha townspeople who thought the foreigner to be a bad omen, a possible cause of the flooding and the Cholera outbreak that were affecting their town.
Due to a new policy of aiding only Chinese-administered programs, the Rockefeller Foundation withdrew funding from Greene's medical work, and the Hsiang-Ya hospital was closed for the summer of 1924.
[5] This led Greene to further revise his staffing: he wrote, "The medical school will be reorganized with only such foreign personnel as are necessary for the efficient running of the hospital."
At this time, many established missionaries to China were evacuating permanently, but Greene soon returned to work in the hospital despite threats to his life.
In the fall of 1925, a northern province's drought and famine caused refugees to inundate Changsha and Greene's hospital, which was followed by an epidemic of Cholera.
When the Southern army reached Changsha, Greene began to interact with Nationalist leadership in a medical capacity, as well as with other key figures.
[5] When Communism gained currency in Changsha in the fall of 1926, servants and nurses went on strike, leaving the Hsiang-Ya hospital with few staff.
Despite the imprisonment of many fellow doctors and the closing of other schools by the growing Communist regime, Greene kept the Hsiang-Ya campus running.
Coordinating with the Chinese government, Greene also saw Hsiang-Ya's public health program expand to regions beyond Changsha, using the buildings of closed mission hospitals as dispensaries for education and treatment.
Phillips and Ruth Greene spent this year raising American awareness of the social, political, and religious climate of China.
Despite his train being bombed, Greene successfully brought medicine from Shanghai to Changsha and continued to treat outbreaks of disease there.
[11] In 1951, Phillips Greene accepted a position as staff member in the Rangoon, Burma General Hospital and Medical School, where he remained until 1958.
