Obituary: George Verwer, mission pioneer, 1938–2023

Verwer was born 3 July, 1938. His parents were Eleanor Caddell Verwer and George Verwer Sr., a Dutch immigrant and electrician. They lived in Wyckoff, New Jersey, outside New York.

Verwer ‘was an athlete and boy scout, but spent a lot of time chasing girls and getting into trouble,’ as US magazine Christianity Today reported. This included starting a fire in some woods and breaking into someone’s home.

The OM website takes up the story from there: ‘When he was 14 years old, a woman named Dorothea Clapp gave him a copy of the Gospel of John. Mrs Clapp prayed for 18 years for the students at George’s school to become passionate Jesus-followers and take His message to the ends of the earth.