Dr. Mija H. Coles

Mija Coles was born in Wonsan, Korea on May 4, 1932. She was the fourth of six children. Her mother, Tong Ry-on Kim, was a teacher, and her father, Tae Young Ham, was also a teacher, and later a dentist.

Mija’s growing up years were marked by the immense cloud of global conflict. The Korean homeland was dominated by the oppressive and often brutal occupation of the Japanese Empire from 1910 until the end of World War II in 1947. Her father was imprisoned by the Japanese for three years as an anti-occupation activist, and decades later was honored as liberation hero.

Her family were twice war time refugees, leaving their homes with just the the possessions they could carry, moving to the south while under threat by Russian soldiers, before the divide at the end of World War II. Then again, further south for safety at the beginning of the North Korean invasion in 1950, which began the three year long Korean War, a war which caused an estimated 3 million deaths, over 2 million being civilians. It was a dangerous time.

In the midst of wartime disruptions and displacements, Mija was able to maintain her focus on school, and she was perpetually a stellar student. She was accepted to study science and medicine out of high school, at a time it was very competitive, especially for women. She graduated with the Medical Doctor degree in 1955, at the top of her class from Seoul National Medical School, while, at the same time adding English to her native language of Korean, and the occupation language she knew fluently, Japanese.

Soon after, she was accepted for further training in the United States, and as a young 25 year old physician, in 1957, she began her internship in Trenton, New Jersey. She also continued the friendship and eventual courtship that she began with a young American army officer she had met in Korea the year before. His name was Jack Coles.

In 1958, Mija pursued continued medical training at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and also got engaged. A year after that, she was accepted for a residency in Minneapolis, where Jack was to start graduate school. On June 13, 1959, Jack and Mija got married. Their first son, Stuart, was born the next year, in 1960.

With graduate school and residency complete by 1962, Jack and Mija contemplated their future path. Acquiring a taste of travel while in the military, Jack was intrigued by the idea of a foreign service career, and Mija was supportive. Jack applied to the State Department, and once accepted, he began what would become a twenty five year international career as an adviser in agriculture and livestock management. This adventurous work would take the young and growing family to many Asian countries, and eventually to East Africa.

Their daughter, Tina, was added to the family in 1963, and the younger sons, Scott and Woody were born in 1966 and 1968 respectively. Raising children in these diverse cultures, especially at those times, proved to always be very interesting, and more than often, quite challenging.

Mija worked itinerantly, and part time in these different countries, but when the kids were grown, and Jack’s career was tapering down in the mid 80’s, Mija began her full time medical work, first in Connecticut, and later at the Veterans Hospital in Temple, Texas, from where she retired in 1999.

She and Jack then embarked on a missionary effort to serve people in Tanzania, at a hospital in Machame, at the base of mount Kilimanjaro. There, they did medical work, offered hospitality and discipleship to students, initiated outreach to the rural Maasai tribe, and facilitated numerous construction projects for the hospital. That work kept them busy until finally taking a rest in 2012.

Mija was universally well known for her endearing charm, her immense compassion and kindness, and her love for God and her family. She loved to give dinner parties with delicious Korean food, to talk on the phone for hours with her many friends and family members, and to laugh about all kinds of funny events in the past.

She was preceded in death by her husband Jack, her infant son Kelly, her parents, three of her four sisters and her brother. She is survived by her children, Stuart (Bethany), Tina, Scott (Julianna), and Woody, her grandchildren, Sean (Jennifer), Garrett (Shannon), Kelly Marie, Jordan, Ayanna, and Gabriel, her great granddaughters, Maeve and Mia, and her sister, Sue Calderon, as well as many nieces and nephews.

Memorials may be directed to Temple Bible Church Missions, Temple, TX.