The DunmoreanCemetery Chronicles: Marjorie Gugger, a pioneering surgeon
Born in 1921, Marjorie Elise Gugger grew up on West Pine Street, graduated from Dunmore High School and became a surgeon who spent years as a medical missionary in India.
Born in 1921, Marjorie Elise Gugger was the eldest of four daughters born to A. Edward and Kathryn Gugger. Residing on West Pine Street in Dunmore, Marjorie was educated in the Dunmore school system, attending Abraham Lincoln and later Dunmore High School.
Marjorie was a brilliant student who was also active with the Girl Scouts of America and the religious community of the Dunmore Presbyterian Church. During her scouting years, Marjorie attained the rank of Golden Eaglet and eventually worked on staff at Camp Archbald.
Through her high school years, she was a frequent participant in the WGBI radio station Spelling Bee. In the 1938 competition, Marjorie was declared the winner of that scholastic event. She was a graduate of the academic course in the 1939 class of Dunmore High School.
Following graduation, Gugger attended Maryville College in Maryville, Tennessee. There she majored in chemistry and biology.
By 1942, Gugger had attained the highest two-year grade average at Maryville College. Quite a feat considering that, in addition to her studies, she supported herself and paid for her college education by working as a waitress in a local Maryville restaurant and as a clerk in the school offices.
She was also a member of the Maryville Student Volunteer Movement, the college “A” Capella Choir and a lab assistant in the chemistry department. Following her time at Maryville, Gugger attended the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania.
As in her years at Maryville, Gugger worked to support herself and fund her education by working as a research chemist for E.I. duPont Nemours in Philadelphia.
Following completion of her education at the Women’s Medical College, Gugger interned at Misericordia Hospital in Philadelphia.
She completed her surgical training at Fitzgerald Mercy Hospital in Darby, PA.. She would later earn a degree in ophthalmology from the University of Pennsylvania.
In the autumn of 1954, under the auspices of the Board of Foreign Missions of the United Presbyterian Church, Dr. Gugger went as a missionary to India. There she served as a surgeon in the Francis Newton Mission Hospital in Ferozepur, Punjab.
While information on Dr. Gugger’s time in India is scant, evidence suggests she devoted 17 years working as a surgeon, repairing severe corneal ailments that afflicted the residents in her region. These ocular disorders were the result of severe nutritional deficiencies.
Following her return from India, Dr. Gugger lectured at various Presbyterian churches throughout Pennsylvania, discussing her experiences in India.
It should be noted that in December 1960, while on furlough from her ministries in India, Dr. Gugger spoke to the congregants of the Dunmore Presbyterian Church about her life in India.
Dr. Gugger died at the age of 53 from the effects of multiple sclerosis on February 7, 1974.
At the time of her death she resided in Darby, PA. She was laid to rest in Section Seventeen of the Dunmore Cemetery.
See it as it ran in printOpen the October 2026 Dunmorean →