A Humble Man

 

Born on January 14, 1875 in a town near Strasbourg, Germany (now France), Albert Schweitzer was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952 for his commitment to serve humanity through thought and action. No one in his time furnished more evidence of the possibilities of altruistic reach and human potential. And no one provided more inspiration as words from his autobiography reflect:


While at the university and enjoying the happiness of being able to study and even produce some results in science and art, I could not help thinking continually of others who were denied that happiness by their material circumstances or their health. Then one brilliant summer morning there came to me, as I awoke, the thought that I must not accept this happiness as a matter of course, but must give something in return for it. Proceeding to think the matter out at once with calm deliberation, while the birds were singing outside, I settled with myself before I got up, that I would consider myself justified in living til I was thirty for science and art, in order to devote myself from that time forward to the direct service of humanity. 

What would be the character of the activities thus planned for the future was not yet clear to me. I left it to circumstances to guide me. One thing only was certain, that it must be directly human service, however inconspicuous the sphere of it. 


In 1912 after raising funds principally through organ concerts he established a hospital in Gabon, 200 miles upstream (14 days by raft) from the mouth of the Ogooue at Port Gentil where he examined and treated 2,000 patients in the first nine months of his arrival. The natives, some of whom traveled many days and hundreds of kilometers to reach him, suffered from injuries, heart disease, sores, dysentery, leprosy, fevers, necrosis, abdominal tumors, yaws, malaria, and other tropical diseases. After using a former chicken hut for a clinic, he built his first hospital consisting of a consulting room, operating theatre, dispensary, and sterilizing room. The hospital would continue to grow through the years.

Schweitzer traded a passive life of service as an organist, writer, professor, theologian, philosopher, and historian for an active life of service by caring for the neglected and downtrodden in French Equatorial Africa.