SPU Honors Special Graduate

At its June 12 commencement Seattle Pacific University (SPU) awarded 90-year-old Zhou Enying (Class of ’43) an honorary doctorate of humane letters.

Abandoned as an infant in China, adopted, raised by pioneer Free Methodist missionary Edith Francis Jones and given the English name Lora Jones, Enying (who prefers to use her Chinese name) came to the United States at age 24 to attend Seattle Pacific. After graduating with a degree in religion, she declined an offer to chair the Chinese department at the University of Washington and returned to China to be with her mother and serve in church ministry.

Enying helped care for orphans and adopted three children of her own, but during the communist takeover she came under suspicion because of her American connections. She was imprisoned for 20 years and released in 1979, exonerated of all charges. Enying then taught English at Lanzhou University until her retirement in 1993 and today continues to serve the church in China.