Eileen Flower Moffett, missionary and archivist of Korean Presbyterian Christian history, dies at 97
Eileen Flower Moffett, a longtime missionary who worked to preserve one of the most important archives of early Korean Presbyterian Christian mission history, died Nov. 25 in Princeton. She was 97.
Moffett spent decades in ministry alongside her husband, Dr. Samuel Hugh Moffett, a prominent scholar of Christianity in Asia and the son of missionary Samuel Austin Moffett, a pioneering figure in Korean Presbyterian mission.
The couple mentored students, missionaries, and pastors for decades, and will be remembered always by many for their warmth, hospitality, and steady encouragement.
Born March 12, 1928, Eileen Moffett was commissioned as a missionary to Beirut in 1955. She married Samuel Moffett the following year in Seoul and began her life’s work in Korea. The couple served in the Andong region from 1956 to 1959 before moving to Seoul, where they ministered for more than 20 years.
In Seoul, Moffett supported her husband’s work as a professor and dean at the Presbyterian University and Theological Seminary and took part in mission work of her own.
After retiring from Korea in 1981, the Moffetts settled in Princeton, where Samuel Moffett served as the Henry Winters Luce Professor of Ecumenics and Mission at Princeton Theological Seminary. There, Eileen Moffett undertook a major archival project to organize, digitize, and preserve the extensive early mission materials of her father-in-law, Samuel Austin Moffett, who served in Pyongyang from 1890 to 1936.
Her decade-long effort in the 1980s and 1990s produced a significant collection of documents, photographs, books, and periodicals related to Korea and the Presbyterian mission movement that were donated to the Special Collections at Princeton Theological Seminary.
This project was considered one of her most lasting contributions, safeguarding rare materials for use by scholars and church historians around the world.
After her husband died in 2015 at the age of 98, she continued to live in Princeton.
Thank you for this wonderful tribute. This couple stewarded their time and lives well. Inspiring!
And she was a truly lovely human being!
An inspiring and eventful life
Thank you for this beautiful obituary for my Aunt Eileen Flower Moffett. Her work with the Korea Bible Club Movement, service on the boards of Latin America Mission and Friends of Korea, and dedicated service to the growing South Korean Church in its incredible expansion period (1956-1981) were deeply influential.