Norman and Dorette Copeland papers, 1949-1983

Collection

Identifier: MSS-Miss-7

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Norman and Dorette Copeland papers span two boxes and date between 1949 and 1983.

The dated folders mostly contain correspondence, as well as some financial information.

The Newsletters date between 1954 and the early 1980s. These newsletters were sent donors and supporters of their mission work. They were written in Ethiopia, Thailand, and Benin.

Dates

1949 - 1983

Creator

Copeland, Norman, Dr. (1919-1999) (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for researcher use.

Biographical / Historical

Norman B. Copeland was born in 1919 in Superior, Wisconsin. He graduated from Superior State Teacher's College in 1941, then enlisted in the Army, serving in the Philippines, New Guinea, and Australia. After World War II, Norm attended Bethel Seminary, then medical school at Marquette in Milwaukee, interning at St. Mary's Hospital in Duluth. He left to become a doctor at Door of Life Hospital in Ambo, Ethiopia, in 1953.

Dorette Haglund was born in 1925 in Alberta, Canada. She trained as a nurse in Edmonton. She traveled to Ethiopia in 1952 to nurse at the new Door of Life Hospital in Ambo. Norman and Dorette married in 1954, having five children, Steven, Philip, Donald, Ruth (Loudon), and Russell. They worked in Ambo and Bokogi until 1979. In 1980, they moved to Thailand to assist with Cambodian refugees. From 1981 to 1984, they worked in Benin. Norm died in 1999 and was buried in Mallaig, Alberta.