William Cameron Townsend

WILLIAM CAMERON TOWNSEND

1896-1982

William Cameron “Cam” Townsend was born in California in 1896 to a poor farmer and his wife. Cam was not a good student in school, but after a near drowning incident, he decided to focus on his studies and did very well. After finishing college, Cam decided he wanted to be a missionary and headed to Guatemala, a country in Central America, to hand out Spanish Bibles.

When Cam was just 21, he felt called to take the Bible to the peoples of South America. But there he discovered something that shaped the rest of his life’s work: he’d brought Spanish Bibles to give to the people he met, but often they didn’t speak Spanish. Indeed, when he tried to give these Spanish Bibles to people who only spoke their own mother-tongue language they asked Cam something that really made him think – why didn’t God speak their language? Was he only the God of English and Spanish speakers?

Cam thought everyone should be able to read God’s word in their own language. So within a few years, he and his new wife, Elvira, were living with the Cakchiquel people of Guatemala, studying their complex language, creating an alphabet and helping them to translate the Bible so they could understand it.  Elvira seemed to be the perfect wife in every way, visiting the sick, playing the organ, teaching the women how to sew and sing.  But Cam was shocked to learn Elvira had a violent temper which could be set off by the slightest thing and she would throw objects as she ranted.  He eventually came to learn it was a mental illness for which they had no treatment.  

He became ill, and had to return to the US, but that didn’t stop him. In 1934, he had a vision to teach others how to understand and write the languages of the poor who’d never been taught and who had no written language.  He created and ran the first Wycliffe Summer School, a school named after John Wycliffe, the man who first translated the Bible into English. Camp Wycliffe trained missionaries in language learning, translation, and in rugged living, since most missionaries had to live without basic comforts. Within 10 years, this had become the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL), one of Wycliffe’s key partners, and Wycliffe Bible Translators.

After Elvira’s death, “Uncle Cam” (as he came to be called) married Elaine Miekle, a missionary in Mexico who was 19 years his junior. They worked well together and traveled the globe instituting more Wycliffe work. Cam refused to be limited by any closed door. He’d learned in his very first mission to approach the mayor or chief of the region to gain their confidence in his plans.  It was because of this that Cam & Elaine we’re invited behind the Iron Curtain to do linguistic work.  

In all, Cam founded three ministries: Wycliffe Bible Translators, the Summer Institute of Linguistics (Camp Wycliffe became part of this), and the Jungle Aviation and Radio Service. He saw how missionaries in remote jungles needed an airplane to travel to what would take a week to walk.  He had amazing vision and incredible energy to accomplish his vision. These ministries are still making an impact today. Because of Cam’s efforts, and the work of the ministries he founded, the entire Bible has been translated into hundreds of native languages. Over 1,000 people groups have a New Testament in their own tongue, and translators are working in every region of the globe on nearly 2,000 language projects. By 2025 Wycliffe hopes to have started a translation project in every language group around the world.

Cam served for over sixty years in Latin America, working in many countries. He knew everyone, including more than 40 heads of state. He was invited to the White House by President Nixon, who supported his work. He received an honorary doctorate, was decorated by five Latin American governments and was declared ‘Benefactor of the Linguistically Isolated Populations of America’ by the Inter-American Indian Congress.