VALLEY FORGE, PA (ABNS 10/10/06)-Gertrude Martha Waterman, former missionary to East China and Japan for 37 years, died October 2, 2006 in Claremont, CA. She was 97 years old.
Gertrude was born in Crafton, Pennsylvania, on October 20, 1908. She received her B.S. degree in Home Economics from the Connecticut State College and an M.A. degree from the California College in China (College of Chinese Studies) in Berkeley, California. She also studied at the Kennedy School of Missions in Hartford, Connecticut, and the Merrill-Palmer School in Detroit, Michigan, specializing in mothercraft courses. On subsequent furloughs, she studied child development courses at Cornell University (1951), Japanese language (1952), and Nursery School Administration and Supervision at Pacific Oaks College (1965).
In 1939, Gertrude M. Waterman was appointed a missionary for service in China under the Women's American Baptist Foreign Mission Society. She was commissioned and sailed for China the same year. Because war had already begun between China and Japan, she proceeded to Peking for language study. In 1941, she was evacuated to Shanghai where she continued her study under a tutor recommended by the language school. Because of the war she was not able to serve at the Memorial Mothercraft School in Huchow to which she had been appointed, but she began to teach at the Christian Cooperative Middle School in Shanghai.
After World War II, Gertrude returned to East China where she served from 1946 to 1948 at the Union Girls School in Hangchow. The political situation in China forced her departure, and she accepted appointment to serve at the Mead Christian Center in Osaka, Japan. Beginning in 1959 she taught at the Shokei Girls School in Sendai, Japan, until her retirement in 1976.
Upon returning to the states, Gertrude became a resident of Pilgrim Place in Claremont and a member of the First Baptist Church. For the last thirty years she enjoyed leading and participating in the many programs and events in both locations.
Gertrude is survived by her brother, Lawrence Waterman, and his wife, Jessie, of Santa Fe, New Mexico, nieces and nephews, and many friends at Pilgrim Place in Claremont, California.
A memorial service will be held on Friday, October 13, 2006, at 10:30 a.m. at the First Baptist Church of Claremont, 472 North Mountain Avenue, Claremont, CA 91711. Monetary gifts may be sent to The Book of Remembrance at Pilgrim Place, 660 Avery Road, Claremont, CA 91711 or to the First Baptist Church of Claremont, 472 North Mountain Avenue, Claremont, CA 91711.
Andrew C. Jayne American Baptist Churches, USA Mission Resource Development http://www.abc-usa.org/