Robert William Hockman (1906-1935) was born in China of missionary parents with China Inland Mission. He graduated from Northwestern Medical School, Chicago, in 1932. The following year he was accepted by the Foreign Mission Board of the United Presbyterian Church and appointed surgeon at the George Memorial Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. When the Italo-Ethiopian War broke out in 1935 he volunteered his services to head up a Red Cross unit. Prior to this his wife, Winifred, who was expecting their first child was evacuated to Egypt. In December Dr. Hockman was killed while trying to defuse a bomb which had been dropped near his station.

For more information about the Hockmans and the letters they wrote during the two years they were in Ethiopia see the guide to Collection 200 - Papers of Robert William and Winifred Thompson Hockman.

Below are excerpts from three letters Dr. Hockman wrote.

Missionary endeavor at time is very hard. I find it very difficult to love some of these people at times. So many have nothing attractive about them, full of disease and filth and covered with lice. And yet I take courage in the fact that Jesus must have seen similar sights and yet he had a message for every one of them. The physical appearance repulses me, but the mental picture of what they would be if only in Christ Jesus allures me, & gives me new courage, new zeal. It is hard to love dirt but after all dirt is superficial and God looks on the inside. Our desire is to be missionaries to the inside and we find that the outside will automatically take care of itself. June 30, 1934.

It is time to stop and put this in its envelope. Your continued prayers are needed in the days to come. What the future holds for us is unknown and fortunately so. All that is required of us is that we be found faithful. October 28, 1935.