Harry W. Wilcke | Medical missionary, 81

Harry W. Wilcke, 81, formerly of Abington, a medical missionary in Africa for 16 years and an anesthesiologist, died of cancer Saturday at Dock Woods Retirement Community in Lansdale.

Dr. Wilcke graduated from Hatboro High School. During World War II, he served in the Army in Europe and in the Philippines, where he felt the call to missions.

After his discharge, he earned a bachelor's degree from Houghton College in New York, where he met his future wife, Wanda Williams. He graduated from Temple University School of Medicine, and completed an internship at Abington Memorial Hospital and a surgical residency at Frankford Hospital.

In 1956, he completed studies in French and tropical medicine in Belgium, and with his wife sailed to the Belgian Congo, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He treated patients and trained native nurses and midwives, and she ran a pharmacy.

When political unrest interrupted their work in the 1960s, Dr. Wilcke completed a residency in anesthesiology at Temple University Hospital.

He and his wife returned to Africa in 1967 and stayed until 1972. Dr. Wilcke then was an anesthesiologist at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and later at Abington Memorial. He retired in the 1980s.

For the last 14 years, he was a Sunday school teacher, elder, treasurer, and chairman of the missions committee at Bethany Bible Fellowship Church in Hatfield. Previously he had been a longtime member of Faith Community Church in Roslyn.

In addition to his wife, Dr. Wilcke is survived by a daughter, Karen S. Cornelius; a son, Keith; and five grandchildren.

A memorial service will be at 11 a.m. today at Dock Woods Community Chapel, Woods Drive, Lansdale. Friends may call at 10 a.m.