Miriam Paul Fountain was born October 21, 1934 at Rethy in the old Belgian Congo. She spent her childhood in the Upper Congo with her parents, Austin and Betty Paul, career missionaries with the Africa Inland Mission. She graduated from high school at the Wheaton Academy and entered Wheaton College in the class of 1955 where she did two years of pre-nursing studies. She graduated from Columbia University College of Nursing in 1956 with a bachelor of science in nursing and taught nursing for three years in Philadelphia and then in Birmingham Alabama. She married Dan Fountain in 1958, and they were appointed by ABFMS in 1959 for career medical mission service in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
During the Fountains 35 years of service at Vanga in the Congo, Miriam balanced her career between being a wife and mother of three children, teaching nursing in the Vanga Nursing School, managing the central pharmacy that served the 11 Baptist hospitals in the Congo, did the daily intermission radio broadcasts, and handled hospitality for the many visitors who came to Vanga. Her consistent witness and life style brought salvation to some and much encouragement and joy to many. She was very active in the life of the church, the women’s ministry, and the Bible Reading League among the young people.
The Fountains returned to the US in 1996 and served in a community in southwest Michigan. They spent three years in Bristol TN. Since 2005 they have lived in the Shell Point Retirement Community in Fort Myers, FL.
Miriam is survived by her husband, Dan, a daughter Katherine (Wayne) Niles, American Baptist missionary in the Congo and their children: Christopher Austin and Jonathan Wesley Niles, son Paul (Jackie), a former missionary engineer in the Congo and now living in the UK and their children: Joshua, Steven, Christie and Isaac Fountain, and son Larry (Lisa), an informatics specialist in Rockford IL and their son Trent Alexander Fountain.
A celebration of Miriam’s life will be held in the Village Church at Shell Point in Fort Myers, Florida on Monday April 25, 2011 at 11:15am. Condolences may be sent to the family at: 1805 Turban Court, Fort Myers, FL 33908 or by email at:dfountain2@king.edu
A Miriam Fountain Fund is being established with the International Ministries of the American Baptist Churches to up-grade nursing education through the graduate-level nursing school at Vanga. This will facilitate the construction and equipment of the Miriam Fountain Center for nursing arts. Those who wish to participate in this may send a contribution designated for this fund to International Ministries, PO Box 851, Valley Forge, PA 19482.