Robert Samuel Maclay

Robert Samuel Maclay (Chinese: "麥利和"; Foochow Romanized: "Mĕk Lé-huò"; February 7 1824 - August 18 1907) was a member of Methodist Episcopal Church who spent most of his missionary life in Far-Eastern countries like China, Japan and Korea.

Robert Samuel Maclay was born on February 7 1824 in Concord Township, Pennsylvania, into a family of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Maclay entered Dickinson College in 1841. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1845, received his Masters in 1848, and later was honored with a Doctor of Divinity from his "alma mater". One year after his graduation, Maclay was ordained in the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1847, Maclay was appointed as a missionary to Foochow, China.

On April 12 1848, Maclay arrived in Foochow, where he spent 23 years learning the local vernacular Fuzhou dialect, establishing schools and churches, and preaching the Gospel. While in China he published two books: " [http://books.google.com/books?id=HLJO4_FSwlYC Life Among the Chinese with Characteristic Sketches and Incidents of Missionary Operations and Prospects in China] " (1861) and an " [http://books.google.com/books?id=3wwvGgAACAAJ Alphabetic Dictionary of the Chinese Language in the Foochow Dialect] " that he completed with Rev. C. C. Baldwin (1870).

In 1871, Maclay returned to the United States and was appointed superintendent of the newly-founded mission in Japan. Maclay arrived in Yokohama on June 12 1873 and immediately set about learning the Japanese language and seeking converts. He became an integral part of the Wesleyan mission in Japan, helping to found and serve as first president of what is now the Ayoma Institute in Yokohama. While serving in Japan, Maclay was asked to travel to Korea to survey the possibility of a Methodist mission there. In June, 1884, Maclay made a brief visit to Seoul, where he acquired the permission of the king to begin medical and educational mission work. He declined leadership of the mission, though, and returned to Yokohama.

Maclay retired from the mission field in 1887 and returned to San Fernando in California. He became the dean of the Maclay School of Theology (named for his brother Senator Charles Maclay), and spent the rest of his life as an educator. Maclay had been married twice. He died on August 18 1907 in Los Angeles, California.

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