Hollis and Ruby Abbott

Hollis and Ruby Abbott met at Chicago Evangelistic Institute (now Vennard College) in 1939, yet they came from similar home lives. Hollis was born in 1918 in Pine River, Minnesota, and grew up in a Methodist parsonage. Ruby Koteskey Abbott grew up in the faith and was born in Michigan to a holiness preacher in 1915.

The Abbotts were appointed in 1939 to India with WGM while they were still students at Chicago Evangelistic Institute. A year later, they married and moved to pastor a church in Michigan.

The Abbotts left for India in December of 1941, where Hollis taught classes, pastored a church, served as principal for many years at the South India Biblical Seminary, and was field director for India. Ruby served alongside him as a teacher at SIBS, pastor, village evangelist, and trainer for many classes.

They spent a collective twenty years in India before they were invited to return to the United States, and in 1960, Hollis took on the role of vice president of field ministries. Hollis settled into his role and Ruby served in the editorial department, authoring several articles for The Call magazine while in her role.

Hollis voluntarily stepped down as president in 1979, and served as a teacher at Kenya Highlands Bible College. The Abbotts retired to Fairhaven Retirement Center in Sacramento, California several years later and continued visiting Kenya, India, and Japan for another decade.

Hollis went to be with the Lord on December 2002, and Ruby followed him home in 2003. Today, their legacy lives on at the very site Hollis moved WGM’s headquarters to fifty years ago. WGM’s guesthouse, the Abbott Center, has fourteen rooms and has hosted missionaries, donors, and WGM visitors from countries all over the world, providing respite and hospitality to all who walk its halls.