EDITOR’S NOTE: Molly Holt ’64 died on May 16, 2019, shortly after this article was written.

Often called the “Mother Teresa of Korea,” Molly Holt ’64 remembers the precise moment she committed her life to Korea’s orphans.

It was December 1954, and her parents had just seen a World Vision documentary chronicling the tragic state of Korea’s war orphans. Inspired by their recently renewed Christian commitment and the survival of Molly’s 45-year-old father from a near-fatal heart attack, the couple vowed to help.

“I told my mother that I would spend my life caring for the orphans of Korea, and I have not thought of any other work since,” recalls Molly, who in 2000 was elected chairperson of Holt Korea Children’s Services in Seoul.

Founded in 1956 by Molly’s parents, Holt Children’s Services has grown into one of the world’s largest adoption and child welfare agencies, having united more than 100,000 orphaned or abandoned children with adoptive families since its inception.

Molly has dedicated her life to the Holt Ilsan Center in Korea, caring for its more than 200 children with special needs. 

Molly entered Wheaton College in 1958. Arriving from the loving yet austere setting of the Korean orphanages was, she recalls, “sort of like going to heaven.” 

She loved how the chimes called her to chapel, teachers prayed aloud, and the Bible was taught in class. On the other hand, she found the dining services so overwhelming (one serving of meat equaled a week’s portion in Korea) that she received permission to eat elsewhere.

Molly completed her B.S.N. at the University of Oregon and earned a master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling and special education from the University of Northern Colorado. 

Now 83 and in declining health, Molly continues to champion orphans and all those with special needs worldwide, perpetuating her parents’ legacy by living out the exhortation captured by her mother’s favorite saying: “All children are beautiful when they are loved.”