This is a photograph of Maryknoll missioners, old and new. Left to right, Frs. Cairns, Ford, Dietz, O'Melia, Meyer, Bro. Michael, Frs. Fletcher and O'Shea. Fr. Cairns was born in Glasgow, Scotland and became a Maryknoll Missionary in 1918 at the age of thirty-four. He spent many years in China in Yeung Kong [now Yang-Chiang], Fachow [now Fahsien] and eventually Sancian Island. During WWII he was captured by the Japanese on Sancian Island and killed. His presumed date of death is December 14, 1941 -- Born in Brooklyn, New York, Bishop Ford was the first student to enter the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America. He was ordained to the priesthood on December 5, 1917 and the following year he accompanied Fathers Price, Meyer and James E. Walsh to China. They began working in Yeungkong and the Kongmoon territory of South China. In 1925, Fr. Ford was assigned to the Kaying diocese. Ten years later, in 1935, Bishop James Anthony Walsh, founder of Maryknoll, consecrated Msgr. Francis Ford as the first Bishop of Kaying. He remained in China throughout World War II. In 1950 Bishop Ford was placed under arrest with his secretary Sr. Joan Marie, MM, placed on trial and sentenced to prison. After a year in prison, Bishop Ford died on February 21, 1952. Sr. Joan Marie confirmed his death when she was released the following September. -- Born in New York, Fr. Dietz came to Maryknoll in 1915 and was ordained to the priesthood on September 11, 1916. He took his Perpetual Oath to the Society in 1930. He was assigned to Kongmoon in 1920 and in 1930 he became the Society Superior of the mission. He was a delegate to the first General Chapter of the Society in 1929. In 1932 he was named to the Synodal Commission in Peking. In 1937 he became Procurator General in Rome. He was active in teaching until his death. -- Rev. O'Melia was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, England. His family moved to the U.S. in 1903 and he became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1912. He entered Maryknoll in 1914 and was ordained in 1923. He was assigned to Kongmoon. In 1934 he was assigned to direct the Maryknoll language school in Hong Kong, and returned
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