Dr. J.T. Vincent Lou Honoring a Great Father and Humanitarian

Dr. J.T. Vincent Lou (1907-1988) grew up in Shanghai. Recognizing the studious young man’s keen mind, his Jesuit teachers began tutoring him. Choosing medicine as a way to serve his country, he studied at the world-famous Quinze-Vingts National Ophthamology Hospital in Paris. A brilliant clinician and inspiring teacher, by age 33 Dr. Lou was Department Chair of Hospital Sainte Marie and full professor at Shanghai’s Aurora University. His love for China led him to accept the dangerous post of Minister of Health in Nanking during the war with Japan.

After the Communists took over China, carrying only a cloth satchel, Dr. Lou escaped to Hong Kong where he became a Catholic. His fellow refugees paid for his passage to Canada where he received a medical license from the British Commonwealth. By God’s grace, he was eventually able to get his family to Hong Kong and continue practicing medicine.

A true humanitarian, he was always kindest to the poor. Admiration between the priests, Sisters, and Dr. Lou was mutual. The Sisters said that he was “charity personified”; and he said that, if he could build a hospital, he’d want the Sisters to run it because they were God’s most selfless people.

Dr. Lou’s daughter, Marie Noelle (a psychiatric social worker), married Dr. Kuo York Chynn, a neuroradiologist. Dr. and Mrs. Chynn wished to perpetuate Dr. Lou’s legacy by establishing the Dr. J. T. Vincent Lou Fund which will enable the Sisters to provide education, in perpetuity, on issues of social justice through lectures, conferences, and seminars. The first Dr. J. T. Vincent Lou Lecture took place at Sparkill in 2018. Check our site often for upcoming seminars which are free and open to the public.