Gertrude Simon was born in 1900, in Zachow, Wisconsin. She graduated from the Lutheran Hospital School of Nursing in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1926. After graduation, she accepted a position to serve in China. She arrived in Hankow in 1927 and began to study Chinese. In 1929, she was assigned to Shashi, and in 1931, she went to reorganize and manage the Lutheran medical clinic and orphanage in Enshih. While there, she opened a school for midwives. Later she took graduate courses from Washington University in Saint Louis, attended deaconess school in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and was consecrated as a deaconess in 1940.

After the Japanese invaded China, life in Enshih became dangerous, and in 1943, Gertrude decided that they needed to leave. The older orphans were sent to live with families in the community, however, there remained 22 children under 2 years of age, most still in diapers. Gertrude, the matron at the orphanage, and two nurses volunteered to take the children overland to Wanhsien, a journey of over 200 miles. They “planned to have them travel in their cribs, with a pole put on each side” so they could be carried like a sedan chair. “The small babies were tied in each corner of a crib, four to a bed, so that when they went up or down a hill they would not roll around. The older ones were tied two to a bed. The extra cribs were piled up with extra clothing and food needed for the journey.” The journey went over very mountainous terrain, from 1,000 to 6,000 feet high, the path barely wide enough to walk. “Think of the difficulty of providing food for ten days of travel for the orphan girls and their carriers. Now add the difficulty of drying clothes for 22 little orphans forced to travel those treacherous paths in rainy weather”. Miraculously, all survived this journey in good health and found safety at a new orphanage in Wanhsien.

In 1950, the communist takeover forced Gertrude to flee to Hong Kong. She continued her passion for nursing and teaching by starting projects such as the Haven of Hope Sanatorium, Rennie’s Mill refugee camp, roof-top Sunday schools, Bible classes, boys’ and girls’ clubs, and publishing Graceletter, through which she kept those in the U.S. informed about her projects and solicited financial support. At one time, almost all of the Chinese Lutheran pastors serving in Hong Kong were products of her Bible training classes. She also had the opportunity to work with Deaconess Martha Boss in 1949. She remained in Hong Kong until falling ill and returning to the United States shortly before her death in 1966.

Gertrude had a dream to train 500 workers to be ready to return to China to continue missionary work after the communist regime ended. She began a training school at the Rennie’s Mill camp, where 107 students graduated over 5 years. In 1979, the Gertrude Simon Lutheran College was dedicated in Kowloon, Hong Kong, where 840 students at a time were educated, with the special intent to “train some of them to return to mainland China to continue the Lord’s work”. A remembrance from former LCMS President Oliver Harms said, “the lives of many in far off places of the world have been blessed with her willingness to sacrifice herself completely, that she might bring her knowledge of Jesus’ love to those who have never known His name.”