William M. Baird

Who is William M. Baird?

William M. Baird was an American Presbyterian missionary who founded Soongsil University in Korea.

Baird was born in Indiana on June 16, 1862. He was educated at Hanover University and McCormick Theological Seminary. Baird sailed to Korea to do missionary work, arriving in 1891, less than two months after marrying Annie Adams. His first missionizing was in Busan in September of the same year.

Beginning with a "Sarangbang" class in Pyeongyang in 1897, Baird's efforts grew into the Soongsil School in 1900 and eventually into an institution of higher education, graduating its first students in 1908. He died in 1931. Baird Hall on the Soongsil campus is named after him, and there is a bronze bust of him there as well.