The International Mission Board’s oldest emeritus missionary, Howard McCamey, was honored in a memorial service in Dallas Dec. 5. He died Nov. 26 at age 102.
Missionary dentist Howard McCamey, left, spent almost three decades serving among the people of Nigeria. (File photo)McCamey and his late wife Georgia were commissioned by the former Foreign Mission Board April 10, 1940 – one day shy of Howard’s 34th birthday. Born April 11, 1906, Howard served as a missionary dentist in Nigeria for nearly three decades.
The McCameys’ careers as missionaries started when they felt the Lord calling them to work at a hospital in Nigeria. They set sail in 1940, one year after World War II started.
The war presented many problems, especially for travelers. The voyage from the United States to Cape Town, South Africa, took a month. Once the couple arrived in Cape Town, they boarded another boat for Nigeria. Frequent detours to avoid German U-boats slowed their progress. Another missionary met them in Lagos, Nigeria, and from there they drove 176 miles to the hospital in Ogbomosho.
The couple’s calling outweighed their exhaustion. Howard found himself in charge of a 46-bed medical hospital, 12 leper colonies and two medical dispensaries. Georgia, a nurse, helped staff the hospital, kept the books, taught new nurses, delivered babies, conducted a well-baby clinic, and was qualified to administer anesthetics.
After nearly eight years on the mission field, the McCameys returned to Texas so Howard could update his dental skills. They went back to Nigeria in 1954 to run the Baptist Dental Clinic in Ibadan.
Perhaps the McCameys’ greatest legacy is the young men they mentored. They taught them to clean teeth and make dentures, encouraged them to go to school, and helped provide them with clothes, shoes and food. Most importantly, they shared their faith in Jesus.