Roger L. Youmans, MD grew up in Kansas City, Kansas and attended the University of Kansas with a Summerfield and was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa fraternity for "excellence in scholarship." He married Mary "Winkie" Stewart after his first year in the University of Kansas School of Medicine. Following his graduation and internship he became a resident in General Surgery, but after one year he took his family with him to Congo where he staffed a rural hospital for six months during the riots that followed Congo's Independence from Belgium. He completed his surgical residence at the University of Kansas Medical Center, passed his Surgical Boards, Missionary Orientation Course, and studied French and completed the course in Tropical Medicine in the Princess Astrid School of Tropical Medicine in Belgium, with distinction, before returning to Congo with his family under the Board of Missions of the United Methodist Church. He spent his adult life practicing and teaching surgery and tropical medicine in various medical schools in America and Africa. He was named the outstanding teacher at the Oral Roberts University School of Medicine in 1972 and again in 1974, and received the Distinguished Service Citation from the University of Kansas in 2008.