The Lewis family papers depict the lives of a Presbyterian missionary family working in Thailand, China, and Malaysia between 1932-1975. Material consists of personal correspondence to and from family members, as well as a large collection of slides and photo albums depicting the family's lives and travels in Asia. Also included Ralph Charles Lewis' 1972 diary.
Roberta Nina Taylor was born in California in 1905 to mother Helen Taylor. She had two sisters, Ruth and Margaret (Peggy), and two brothers, Lowell and Robert (Bob). She attended Polytechnic High School in 1923, and graduated from Occidental College in 1928. Roberta additionally may have studied music at the San Francisco Theological College Seminary.
Ralph Charles Lewis was born in California in 1903. He attended Santa Ana High School in 1922, and graduated from Occidental College with his Bachelor's Degree in 1926. He continued with his education in 1927 at the University of California, where he received a Master of Science degree, then went on to medical school at Stanford University and received his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1933.
Ralph and Roberta were married in 1930, while Ralph was pursuing his education. Within a year of receiving his M.D, Ralph was appointed to a position at the Hugh O'Neil and Grace Talcott Hospitals in Hengchow (modern Hengyang), in the Hunan province in China. Both Ralph and Roberta were devout Presbyterians, and viewed their placement as an opportunity for mission work. During their time in China and eventually Thailand, Ralph and Roberta raised four children in the Presbyterian faith. The children, Harry, Cecile, Ralph Charles Jr. (Charles), and Wendy, lived the majority of their childhoods in China and Thailand. The family was briefly separated during World War II, when Ralph was imprisoned in a Japanese Concentration camp in Northern China. Roberta and the children moved to the United States, where they were reunited with Ralph in 1943. Soon after, the family returned to China, and then relocated to Thailand, where Ralph began work at the Bangkok Christian Hospital in 1954.
Deeply rooted in the Presbyterian faith, the family maintained connections to either church or missionary specific work, and remained active in writing letters to one another. As the children grew up and had families of their own, they stayed in nearly constant contact. Harry married wife Sue Amos, Cecile married husband Woody Bagwell, Ralph Charles married wife Edna King, and Wendy married husband Darrell Thompson, with each family providing Ralph and Roberta with grandchildren. Of all the children, R. Charles continued to do missionary work with his wife and family as a reverend abroad.
In 1972, Ralph and Roberta moved to Malaysia, where Ralph functioned as a school physician at the Chefoo School, which functioned as a boarding school for missionary children. The two eventually moved back to the United States, and lived in Mount Hermon, California.
