JoongAng Daily talks with Dr. John Linton.

The JoongAng Daily talked with Dr. John Linton, director of the International Health Care Center at Severance Hospital and descendant of some of the first Americans to live in Suncheon and Jeollanam-do.

John Linton was born and raised in Suncheon. In his office at Severance Hospital, hangs a picture of him and his friends, looking mischievous with dirt on their faces. “These are my friends. I still keep in touch with them. They give me comfort,” said Linton. He talks in the southwestern regional dialect to people back home. That is how comfortable he feels with them. He claims that his hometown Suncheon is the center of the universe.

Linton is a fourth generation descendent of Eugene Bell (1868-1925), the first U.S. missionary who came to southwest Korea in 1895. Linton’s grandfather was William Linton, who founded Hannam University in Daejeon, and became a son-in-law of Bell. The Bell and Linton families since then have worked closely together in Korea in various fields, including education, missionary work and medical services. The families established the Eugene Bell Foundation to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Bell’s missionary work in 1995. Linton and his brother have followed in the family’s footsteps by providing medical services to North Korea to eradicate diseases such as tuberculosis.