Guide to the Florence Helen Ray Boyes Papers
Open for research.
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.
Record Group 311 consists of "Dear Friends" letters, articles on the history of Kennedy Memorial Hospital and the Boyes' contributions to it, and a photograph of Florence Ray at the time of her marriage. The "Dear Friends" letters are illustrated with photographs.
Related collections include Record Groups 90 and 115, official records of the Syria Mission.
Collection processed and finding aid prepared: September 1992
Stephanie Muntone, Processing Archivist
| Box | Folder | Description | |
| 1 | 1 | Finding Aid to Record Group 311 | |
| 1 | 2 | Articles--Kennedy Memorial Hospital, 1946-57, undated | |
| 1 | 3 | Nursing School, 1953-54, undated | |
| 1 | 4 | "Dear Friends" letters, 1953-55 | |
| 1 | 5 | Photograph, 1919 |