Guide to the Florence Helen Ray Boyes Papers

Florence Ray was born in Detroit in 1889. She graduated from Detroit Business University in 1909 and spent the next ten years working in offices in the city. In 1919 she and her fiance, Dr. Henry R. Boyes, applied to the Board of Foreign Missions (PCUSA). They were assigned to the Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Tripoli. They were married in September and departed shortly thereafter for Syria.

Over the next thirty-seven years, Dr. and Mrs. Boyes made great changes in the hospital, expanding and modernizing the facilities. Dr. Boyes was administrative director of Kennedy Memorial, as well as a surgeon, and Florence Boyes served as a manager and administrator. In 1935 the Boyes started a training school for nurses, which became an accredited four-year program. They retired from service in 1959.