Lewis S. C. Smythe
Lewis Strong Casey Smythe was a sociologist and an American Christian missionary to China who was present during the Nanking Massacre.
The son of Lewis Strong Smythe and Annie Amelia Casey, Smythe spent most of his early life in Great Falls, Montana where he finished high school and worked on a cattle ranch. During his undergraduate studies he met Margaret "Mardie" Lillian Garrett, an American born in Nanking, China, to missionary parents; the couple married in 1924 and had two daughters – Margaret "Peggy" Ann and E. Joan. Smythe enrolled at Drake College in 1918, where he received his Bachelor of Science in Law and BA degrees in 1923. In March 1927, he earned an MA for his dissertation "The Social Background of the Shanghai Incident and Its Influence Upon Christian Missions in Chicago". In August 1928, he earned a Ph.D. for his dissertation "Bibliographic Details Changes in the Christian Message for China by Protestant Missionaries". He was also influenced by and affiliated with faculty from the University of Chicago's prestigious Chicago School, notably Ernest Burgess and Robert E. Park.
In 1928, the Smythes were dispatched to Nanking by the United Christian Mission Society. Smythe served as Professor of Sociology at Nanking University while his wife, a physician at The College of the Bible, he served as the Assistant to the President of Silliman University and instituted a local, rural development program.
In the documentary film Nanking, Smythe was portrayed by actor Stephen Dorff.
