The best we can do to change the world is to keep celebrating great men and women who made great and positive impacts while on the planet earth. I was fortunate this afternoon to come across a great and distinguished woman, who served humanity with all that God bestowed her.
Though she died about four years ago, her good works are living after her and Christians, especially Baptists are still remembering and celebrating Mama Alma Hazel Rohm, a beloved Southern Baptist emeritus missionary who served for more than half a century in Nigeria till date. Rohm finished her mission on Oct. 17, 2016 at the age of 90, when she went to spend eternity with her God and Savior. She was buried in Iwo, Osun State, Nigeria.
“Chief (Dr.) Mama Alma Hazel Rohm, as she was affectionately known in Nigeria, gave her entire life serving and leading others to the knowledge of Jesus Christ,” said Rohm’s cousin, Sam Holland, B.S. Ed. ‘75.
Alma (which means to foster growth in others) Hazel (which means one who looks to God) Rohm was born Nov. 11, 1925, in Waco, Texas. She felt the call to missions at an early age.
“Not long after I was saved at age 9, the Holy Spirit told me I was to be a single woman missionary teacher in Africa,” Rohm said in a 2004 article in the Baptist Standard. “I objected vehemently. I wanted to get married, have a lovely home and four children.
“When I could not escape the voice of the Holy Spirit, I finally told God I would be a missionary if I could go to China or Japan and serve as a doctor or a nurse. But that was not the task God had for me. When he kept repeating the same call, I stubbornly told God I would not be a missionary.
“When I was 12 years old, our church choir sang an Easter cantata on the seven last words of Christ on the cross,” she said. “Between each anthem, the lights were dimmed except for a lighted cross in the baptistery, and the choir director read one of the seven last sayings of Jesus on the cross.
“As I heard those words, my heart was touched, and I said to myself, ‘If Jesus could die for me, surely I should be able to live for him.’”
Rohm earned her bachelor’s degree with honors in education, English and biology from Baylor in 1947. She graduated from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1949, taught for a year at Buckner Orphans Home and then was appointed a missionary to Africa in 1950, Nigeria precisely.
She spent the next 54 years ministering to the people of Nigeria. She briefly taught at Yaba Baptist School, Lagos, then was sent to Ìré (in today’s Osun state) for 3 months to give company to a missionary nurse who was serving there alone and to learn Yoruba. In 1951 she was transferred to Baptist Teacher Training (men’s Teacher Training) College Iwo now Bowen University, the first and largest Baptist University in Africa, The college choir she trained and led became very famous at the time. When Nigeria gained its independence from Britain in 1960, her choir was asked to Lagos to sing the new Nigerian anthem as its flag was raised over the capital for the first time. She later worked at primary and secondary schools in the towns of Iwo and Oluponna, Nigeria. She was designated “Chief” by King S.O. Abimola II, and also received an honorary doctorate of divinity from the Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminary.
In 1982 she was given the traditional title ‘Iya N’isin Ilu’. Apparently the original title was to have been Iya N’isin, a reference to her religious service. But the Moslem community objected, saying they would like to be involved and that the latter title was more inclusive. Alma Rohm Baptist Primary and Secondary School, Iwo and Alma Rohm Baptist Church are named in her honour. In 1992, the school erected a statue of the diminutive missionary in front of its library.
The magazine, Organ and Music, described Rohm as a “woman of many virtues, a music icon in Nigeria especially in the Nigerian Baptist Convention, an epitome of a faithful missionary… an author, teacher and educationist, philanthropist, playwright, administrator, visionary, versatile musician, just to mention a few.”
Rohm retired in 2004 and returned to the United States after serving the fourth longest tenure among missionaries with the International Mission Board in Southern Baptist history. However, “her love of the people of Nigeria and the desire to continue the mission of leading others to Jesus Christ led her to return to Nigeria in 2008. She wanted to live out her life among the people she had come to love,” even using her Social Security checks, Holland said, to start and support a kindergarten in Iwo.
In 2009, Rohm was honored by the Baylor Alumni Association as a Distinguished Alumna of the University. That same time, the Baylor University Libraries honored six graduates, including Rohm, who served as international missionaries with the special exhibit “So Great a Cloud of Witnesses.” Baylor’s Crouch Fine Arts Library holds Rohm’s book, “306 Hymn-Writers,” published in 2001.
People throughout the world have taken to social media to remember and celebrate Rohm’s life, Holland said.
“Too many quotes to share,” Holland said, “but the people of Nigeria who loved her spoke of her.
Another friend wrote, “The angels are having a party now that Alma is Home! But we who remain are sad to lose her presence.”
“All who knew her would agree that the most fitting Scripture would be 2 Timothy 4:7-8. She indeed fought the good fight and has received her crown of righteousness,” Holland said.
Rohm was preceded in death by her father, Noah Rohm; mother, Ollie Pauline McNamee Rohm; sisters, Kathlyn Maxwell and Margaret Nichols; brothers, L.V. McNamee, Professor Emeritus and retired dean of Baylor’s School of Education, and Ralph Rohm.
She was survived by nephews, Gary McNamee of Granbury, Texas, and Robert Elton Maxwell Jr. of Houston; nieces, Barbara Tomaja and Linda Fehrle, both of Spring, Texas; and cousin, Sam Holland of Waco.
