Ernest Millard Steury (January 3, 1930 – April 4, 2002) was an American
physician and Christian
missionary to
Kenya.
Steury was born in
Berne, Indiana to David and Mary Habegger Steury.[1] In 1948, while attending a church service in his hometown, Steury became a Christian. Though he didn't know it at the time, that decision set his life on a course that would lead him far from the rural Indiana life he'd known.[2] Steury's first step outside Indiana took him to
Asbury College in
Wilmore, Kentucky. He graduated from Asbury in 1953 and the following year married Jennie Sue Groce.[3] Steury obtained a medical degree from
Indiana University School of Medicine in 1957 and began an internship in
tropical medicine at Gorgas Hospital, Panama.[4][5][6]
In 1956, while still a medical student, Steury signed on with
World Gospel Mission and in 1959 was sent to the organization's mission station at
Tenwek Mission Hospital, Kenya. Begun in 1935 as an aide station, the
Tenwek facility had grown into a medical dispensary and clinic, but Steury was the station's first physician.[7][8] With Steury's leadership, the clinic developed into one of Kenya's largest missionary hospitals[9][10] with outlying clinics that brought healthcare to the surrounding community.[11][12] The facility attained a global reputation for its work.[13][14][15][16]
Steury died at Avon Park, Florida, in 2002. In 2003 Dr Steury Memorial Primary School was built in Tenwek, Bomet County Kenya in his honour.[17]
Further reading
Miracle at Tenwek: The Life of Ernie Steury, Gregg Lewis, (2007, Discovery Books)[18]