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Virginia "Jennie" M. Atkinson (1861-1941) was a Methodist Episcopal Church, South, missionary in China from 1884-1940. After graduating from Lagrange Female College in Georgia, she went to China in October 1884 with Laura Haygood. Working primarily in the Shanghai and Soochow regions, Atkinson taught, was instrumental in establishing several schools, and involved in women's work.

In Soochow, she was placed in charge of the city day schools under the Woman' s Board and later established a center in the western part of the city which accommodated four of the schools. She founded the Atkinson Academy for Boys in 1896 and the Davidson Girls' School. When the Boxer Rebellion erupted, she took many Chinese Christians to Japan where they were refugees for four months. In 1901 Atkinson returned to Soochow and continued her work with the day schools. During this period of her work another center, the Embroidery Mission, was opened, providing evangelistic work, teaching, and housing for many Chinese women.

Atkinson also purchased land, with the approval of the Women's Board, to provide buildings for the Davidson Girls' School, the Louise Home for Missionaries, the Moka Garden Embroidery Mission, and the Kindergarten and Kindergarten Training School. She then moved to Changshu to work with Chinese teachers and Bible women (evangelist/teachers for women). With the assistance of her Alabama Conference, Atkinson again purchased land near the Center at Moka Garden, on which the Dowdell Church was built for the Embroidery Mission and the women's work of the church.

Upon her retirement in 1927 with emeritus status she received special permission to stay in China near Soochow, remaining through the Japanese invasion, ministering to the Chinese. Due to poor health and the growing threat of war, Atkinson eventually left China in 1940. She was later buried in China.

John Gordon Howard (1899-1974), American bishop, college president and editor, was born to missionary parents in Tokyo on December 3, 1899. His father, Alfred Taylor Howard, was a bishop of the Evangelical United Brethren Church. He graduated from Otterbein College in 1922 with an A.B., Bonebrake Theological Seminary in 1925 with a B.D., and New York University in 1927 with an M.A. Licensed by the Miami Conference in 1924 and ordained in 1925, Howard served as Youth Director in the Church of the United Brethren in Christ for thirteen years (1927-1939).

Howard then spent five years as editor of Sunday School literature. In 1945 he was elected president of Otterbein College. During the next twelve years, he greatly strengthened that institution. On August 1, 1957, Howard was elected a bishop of The Evangelical United Brethren Church and assigned to the East Central Episcopal Area. After the merger with the Methodist Church he was assigned to the Philadelphia episcopal seat. He had two daughters with his first wife, Rhea McConaughy, who died in 1965. In 1967 he married Katherine Higgins Shannon. Howard died on December 24, 1974.

Gertrude M. Feely (1903-1996) was a Methodist Episcopal Church, South, missionary in Japan. Feely received her B.S. from the University of Missouri in 1927. She earned an M.A. from Scarritt College in Tennessee in 1930 and a Ph.d. in education from Columbia University in 1950.

Feely was a missionary for more than forty years, and worked in several Japanese cities. From 1931 to 1933, she taught English and language study at the Kure Naval Station and at Kobe. While in Oita from 1933 to 1941, Feely was involved with youth work and taught English.

In 1941, she went to the Philippines and during the Second World War was interned by the Japanese. She spent time on the Santo Tomas and Los Banos Camps and stayed with a group of Methodist missionaries at Harris Memorial Training School for some time before she was finally interned in Los Banos. She served as an interpreter for two and a half years of the war.

Upon her liberation on February 23, 1945, Feely was furloughed to the United States, where she remained until 1949. Feely returned to Japan later in 1949 and became the director of the Kobe Christian Youth Center, which opened in 1953. She continued to teach, working at the Night School, at the Palmore Institute and at Seiwa Junior College, where she was an instructor in the Old Testament. In 1954, Feely was ordained by the Church of Japan. She retired in 1972.

Arthur R. Clippinger (1878-1958) was a Church of the United Brethren in Christ minister and bishop. He was a public school teacher and a Sunday School superintendent at the age of eighteen. Clippinger enrolled in Lebanon Valley College in 1900 and graduated in 1905. While he was a student he received a ministerial license and probationary membership from the Pennsylvania Conference in 1903.

As a student he served in Greencastle and New Cumberland, Pennsylvania. In 1907 he married Ellen Mills (1882-1955) and enrolled in Yale Divinity School, from which he graduated in 1910. During his studies there he served Congregational churches.

In 1910 he became pastor of Summit Street Church in Dayton, Ohio. A year later, he was ordained in that church. Under his direction, the congregation grew, and built a new church on Dayton's Euclid Avenue, and renamed Euclid Avenue Church. In 1918, the Miami Conference elected him superintendent, and in 1921 he became a bishop of the Central Area of Ohio, where he served until retiring in 1950. He was a strong force in bringing together the Evangelical Church and the Church of the United Brethren in Christ in 1946.

Clippinger served on nearly every board or department of the various agencies of his denomination. He was a member of the Federal Council of Churches. During World War II he served on the National Chaplains' Commission. As a bishop he visited mission fields in China, Japan, the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Santo Domingo. He was also present at the first assembly of the World Council of Churches in Amsterdam in 1948.