Accession 2001-8 - Florence A. Kirk

Florence Kirk was a Canadian missionary and member of the English Department at Ginling College in Nanjing China. She, and her sister Lillian, were both on the staff at Ginling College, which was the first Christian women’s college in China. Florence was there before and during the Second World War, as well as the civil war that followed and the Communist takeover. She completed her Ph.D. in English at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

In 1991 at age 89, Kirk self-published her memoir entitled Sunshine and Storm; a Canadian Teacher in China, 1932-1950.

Florence Kirk was also the author of a short story “One Hundred Dollars”, 1975, co-author with W. Gordon Kirk for the Kirk Family Tree: from Scotland to Ireland to Canada: An Account of One Branch of the Kirk Family from the 18th Century to the Present; 4 articles in the Islander (Time-Colonist) Heigh-Ho, the Holly, 1983; Mistletoe – All Healer or Tree Thief; 1984, The Ginko Tree – a Living Fossil, 1984 and The Metasequoia - a Living Fossil, 1986; and 2 articles in Prime Time Organize Christmas to Recapture Joy, 1984; and China After Thirty Years, 1985.

She was also the final editor of The History of West China University, Chengtu, Szechwan, China in the early 1970’s and the author of a sonnet called A Walk in Nanking, 1984.