Paul Carlson was an American missionary medical doctor in the Belgian-Congo. Born in Culver City, California, Carlson did his medical studies at Stanford University. After a time in private practice he volunteered with his wife, Lois, for short-term medical ministry, which led to a career commitment beginning in 1963. He was assigned by the Evangelical Covenant Church to a mission station in Wasolo, a remote area of the Ubangi Province, where he worked in a primitive hospital serving some 200 patients a day. In 1964 this “forgotten corner of the Congo” was infiltrated by Simba rebel soldiers. He was taken captive and shot to death while trying to escape. Soon after his death the Paul Carlson Medical Foundation was established.

Ruth A. Tucker

Bibliography

Lois Carlson, Mongana Paul: The Congo Ministry and Martyrdom of Paul Carlson, M.D. (1966); James and Marti Hefley, By Their Blood: Christian Martyrs of the 20th Century (1979).

This article is reproduced, with permission, from Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, copyright © 1998, by Gerald H. Anderson, W. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan. All rights reserved.