Early Days
Once upon a time, in a land far far away, a baby girl named Daw-Say was born. Her father had died before her birth, and her mother was desparately disappointed that she did not turn out to be a son.
In another small village in the mountains in the Fukien province of China there was a small boy named Joo-mook. His family was living in poverty, and his parents both died by the time he was five years old.
Each of them encountered Christian Missionaries who changed their lives by making it possible for them to have an education and to come to the United States for more advanced studies. It was two chance encounters – one in Chicago and one in Moundsville, West Virginia – that brought the two together.
Each receieved new names in America. He became James Cheng and she became Dorothy Lee.
The full stories of their early lives are written in a book called Life Has No Ceiling, by Dr. Frank T. Cutright. Although written as fiction, all of the stories and details have been vouched for by both Dorothy and James and by major people in their lives.
This book includes a great story in the Prologue which takes place in Agnes Howard Hall.
Prologue
If I don’t get a letter by tomorrow night, I am going to call Detroit by long distance and ask him what is the matter — and the charges will be reversed. I’ll teach him to economize on postage stamps!
A group of amused and interested seniors gathered around Dorothy Lee, their Chinese classmate, as she made her spirited threat. The whole student body of West Virginia Wesleyan College had been enjoying their occasional glimpses of this developing Oriental romance. Many of them had seen photographs of the slender, sober-faced Chinese man who was now being threatened with mild revenge. Dorothy’s naive descriptions of him and her comments about him had whetted their appetite for more intimate knowledge.
At supper time that night one of the girs asked, “Has your letter come from Detroit, Dorothy?”
“No, it hasn’t,” she replied indignantly, her usually merry face assuming sterner lines.
“Are you going to telephone him, then?”
“Why, of course. I said I would, didn’t I?”
“We’ll be listening in,” threatened another senior gaily. “I wouldn’t miss the dressing down you’re going to give him for any amount of money!”
“Neither would I!” exclaimed a dozen voices, as the dean arose, signaling that it was time to leave the dining room.
Dorothy tried to escape her tormenters, but they escorted her relentlessly to the telephone booth, insisting that she must leave the door open for ventilation, and then settled themselves comfortably on the stairway outside to await the fun.
Dorothy, seeing that she could not shake off the laughing group, put in her number. She heard the calls along the way–“Long distance…” “Route for Detroit, Michigan…” “Thank you…” “Pittsburgh calling Cleveland…” “Thank you…” –each call punctuated by the buzz or click of connecteions made or broken. And at last the voice of the operator–“Here’s you party. He says he will take the charges.”
“Is that you, James? she said, and at the sound of her voice the huddled girls crowded forward eagerly. They were about to hear the “dressing down.” Then, with a mischievous gleam in her eye, Dorothy went on, “James, I want to know–nu sie-noh-iong-go ci sioh la-bai mo sia pie gie nguai.” And the flow of Chinese was halted only when the operator told her that her three minutes were up! As she walked out of the booth with a demurely innocent face, her disappointed audience eyed her in chagrin.
“We might have known you would fool us,” one girl declared ruefully. “But, what did you tell him?”
Dorothy giggled at their discomfiture and disappeared up the stairs in tantalizing silence. And they never did find out what Miss Lee said to her fiance, Mr. Cheng.
Married on Graduation Day
The couple returned to China to fulfill their childhood dreams of teaching and of helping to reduce suffering among people there. James became a very influential physician – and at one point treated Chiang Kai-Shek, the leader of the Republic of China from 1928-1975. Dorothy and James were invited to his home with a small group of about 18 people to celebrate Chiang Kai-Shek’s return from being held hostage during a regional uprising.
The Dorothy Lee Scholarship Fund for Overseas Students
As conditions grew difficult through the Japanese occupation of China and the Second World War, the Cheng family lost nearly everything. A group of people from West Virginia Wesleyan College and the West Virginia Methodist Conference Women’s Society for Chrisitan Service went into action to help bring Julia B. (by then ready for college) to West Virginia Wesleyan. The group included such Giants as:
- Roy McCuskey (S1905, 1908, College President 1931-1941)
- Wallace B. Fleming (College President 1915-22; College Vice President 1938-44)
- Edna Jenkins (S1902; Trustee 1943-56)
- Lewis H. Chrisman (Faculty 1919-56)
- Dr. Thomas M. Zumbrunnen (1919; Trustee 1931-59)
- Julia Bonafield (the Missionary who had been the Champion for Dorothy)
- Mary Scott (at whose home Dorothy and James had started their courtship)
- and Dorothy’s college friend Laura Rector Hedrick (1930 – who became Julia B.’s American Mother).
Julia graduated cum laude from WVWC in May, 1950 and went on to receive her Master’s degree in social work from Columbia University. She became a generous contributor to the Dorothy Lee Fund in order to help other students have the same opportunity that she had been given.
The dreams of Daw-Say and Joo-mook came true thanks to the Missionaries who were there when they were most needed, and to the love and generosity of caring Christians from far away. Their dreams were not for themselves, but rather to prepare themselves to help others.
Many other students have benefitted from the Dorothy Lee Fund for Overseas Students since its beginning in 1946. Nearly 100 of them from countries all over the world.
UPDATE: A special edition of the Emeritus Club Newsletter in February 1983 provided information about Dorothy Lee Cheng as well as requested more information. Word had reached WVWC, through Julia Cheng Kurz, that Dorothy died the week after Thanksgiving 1982 in a nursing home in Los Angeles, CA. Here is a link to that newsletter.