A funeral service will be held today for Dr. Thomas Welty, an American missionary who served for 25 years with the Cameroon Baptist Convention. The funeral will be livestreamed at the CBC Resource Center at Mvan, Yaounde, CNA has learned.
Dr. Welty’s work was primarily in neonatal and maternal health and in the areas of HIV prevention and treatment.
Dr. Welty and his family also donated medical supplies and finances to the CBC Health Services while committing a few weeks every year for short-term medical trips with the CBC.
Dr. Welty’s legacy includes the newly announced CBC pediatric hospital, which will be built in Mutengene in the SWR, thanks in large part to a financial donation from Dr. Welty’s family. The pediatric hospital is the first specialized hospital of its kind in Cameroon and all of West Africa, and will be funded to the tune of hundreds of millions of CFA.
Dr. Thomas Welty equally pioneered the Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics (ALSO), Women’s Health Program (screening and prevention of cervical and breast cancer, family planning, and treatment for reproductive tract infections), which has saved the lives of thousands of Cameroonian women.
Dr. Welty passed away on 14 November 2025 from metastasized prostate cancer.
