Motorcycles, Missions, & Medicine
An Interview with Dr. Richard Furman
From the Archives: The Journey Summer 2017
When Will Graham told me his child-hood perspective about growing up in Boone, I was intrigued to hear of the role that Drs. Lowell and Richard Furman played in the founding of World Medical Mission and the growth of Samaritan’s Purse. Therefore, I pursued an interview with Dr. Richard Furman who is still very active with the ministry.
40 years ago, Drs. Lowell and Richard Furman were already well known in the community before World Medical Mission was founded and before Samaritan’s Purse was moved to Boone. Through their medical practice, church associations and citizenship of Boone, they interacted with hundreds of us locals. Though I knew and interacted with Richard and Lowell and was aware of their history with Samaritan’s Purse, my interview with Dr. Richard connected the dots for me in a that fits perfectly with our local roots perspective on Billy Graham’s High Country legacy.
What follows is a recap of my interview with Dr. Richard Furman:
Ben: Dr. Furman, please tell me what you can remember about the events that led to World Medical Mission and Samaritan’s purse being founded.
Dr. Furman: When Franklin Graham was a senior at ASU, we were introduced to each other through a mutual friend who knew of our common interest in riding motorcycles. So, we began to develop a motorcycle riding relationship that has endured for 40 years now.
In that same period, 1977, my brother and I were invited by a friend of ours, who had transplanted from Boone to Asheville, to be his guest at a Billy Graham Crusade being conducted in Asheville. Much to our surprise, we were invited to sit on the stage with others, which was quite an experience. After the meeting we were asked if we would help with a medical need in India that the Grahams were aware of. Of course, we said yes.
In conjunction with our trip to help with the India mission, Franklin invited us to meet him in Papua, New Guinea on our return trip to the states. That’s when we first met Bob Pierce, who was the founder of Samaritan’s Purse.*
Following that life-changing trip is when Lowell and I asked Franklin if he would use his Samaritan’s Purse connections to help us begin an organization that encourages doctors to serve short-term at overseas mission hospitals. He said he would look into it and contacted 29 mission hospitals to gauge their interest. 28 of the hospitals responded affirmatively and asked Franklin if he could send doctors immediately! With the need confirmed and the Holy Spirit’s guidance, we all knew it was time to move forward with the medical mission. Little did we know that the relationship which began with motorcycle rides on the Blue Ridge Parkway, would lead to us co-founding World Medical Mission with Franklin Graham.
1977 was a significant year because Lowell and I had also begun building our own office space for our surgical practice. Our original plan was to have a flat roof on the building, but when the medical mission plan came to fruition, we redrew the plans to build office space above our practice for World Medical Mission. 2 years later, when Franklin was chosen as Bob Pierce’s successor, he moved Samaritan’s Purse from its headquarters in California to Boone and that office space.
Many of us who live in the High Country have had reason to visit the Samaritan’s Purse campus, or at least see it when we’re driving around Boone. When you compare that to the 2nd story of Watauga Surgical office building at 965 State Farm Road in Boone, one gains a deeper appreciation of the significance of what the Lord has done. In fact, Dr. Furman told me that plans are being made now for a 40-year anniversary celebration of God’s faithfulness and favor to World Medical Missions as the medical arm of SP.
