Retired global personnel Eileen Thorpe died September 17, 2026, peacefully at home. She was 93.
Eileen Marie Adell was born to parents Vivan Udd Adell and the Rev. Arvid Adell on November 7, 1932, in Greeley, Colorado. She spent her childhood in Osage City, Kansas; Mead, Nebraska; and Essex, Iowa. Eileen attended North Park Junior College, earning an associate’s degree in 1952 and graduating as class valedictorian. She earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Michigan in 1956. She also studied for a year at North Park Theological Seminary.
Eileen met Roger Thorpe at North Park, and they married on December 21, 1953. Together they had four children: Charles (Chuck), Douglas, Christine, and Lauren (Laurie).
Eileen and Roger were commissioned as Covenant missionaries at the 1965 Covenant Annual Meeting. After a year in Brussels, Belgium, studying French, the Thorpe family arrived in what was then Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, in 1966. They served primarily at Karawa, where Roger worked as a surgeon.
Over three decades Eileen served as station hostess, station bookkeeper, short-term missionary coordinator, piano teacher, and music teacher and band director for the missionary school and community. When most Covenant missionaries evacuated in 1991, the Thorpes stayed to help with the transition before leaving for the United States, then returned in 1992 and served four more years. Eileen and Roger were honored with the Commander of the National Order of Zaire and, in 2001, with North Park University’s Distinguished Alumni Award. The Thorpes left the field in 1996, and Eileen retired from missionary service in 1997, then moved back to Chicago and worked in the headquarters of the Department of World Mission for about ten years before fully retiring.
Eileen loved music and shared it with generations of students, from piano lessons to school bands and orchestras. Later she played piano for the early worship service at North Park Covenant Church, where she and Roger were members. Her hospitality was just as well known: the station guesthouse and the Thorpe table welcomed short-term missionaries, travelers, and neighbors, and she was known as a mother to many. She was legendary for making something beautiful and/or delicious out of very little.
Eileen was preceded in death by her husband, Roger, and her son-in-law Jim Hosek. She is survived by her children, Chuck Thorpe (Leslie), Doug Thorpe (Mary), Christine Olfelt (Joel), and Laurie Thorpe; six grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
A memorial service was held October 17, 2026, at North Park Covenant Church in Chicago. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be given to North Park Covenant Church or to the Paul Carlson Partnership.
Peace be to her memory.
