Background
Gulick was born on June 10, 1828, in Honolulu, Hawaii, the eldest of the eight children of Rev. Peter Johnson and Fanny Hinckley (Thomas) Gulick.
Gulick was born on June 10, 1828, in Honolulu, Hawaii, the eldest of the eight children of Rev. Peter Johnson and Fanny Hinckley (Thomas) Gulick.
Gulick's boyhood was spent in Hawaii, but he was sent to the United States for his education and was graduated from the Medical College of the University of the City of New York in 1850.
While a medical student Gulick engaged in city mission work and was ordained to the Congregational ministry at the Broadway Tabernacle in October 1850. In November 1851, Gulick sailed from Boston for Micronesia as a medical missionary under the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. He did not reach the Caroline Islands until 1852, having stopped in Hawaii to act as chief organizer for the Hawaiian Mission Children's Society. He was stationed at Ponape and Ebon for some years, during which time he published A Sermon on the Foolishness of Preaching (1853) and a useful compilation of Notes on the Grammar of the Ponape Dialect (1858), reprinted in the Journal of the American Oriental Society, volume X (1872). From 1863 to 1870 he was secretary of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association, with general superintendence of its missions. In this capacity his economy of administration and ability as an organizer so impressed the American Board that he was chosen to inaugurate the Board's missions in the Roman Catholic Latin countries of southern Europe (1871). In Spain (1871-1873) he recommended establishing the line of mission posts in the northern part of the country that is still maintained by the Board. In Italy (1873-1874) he found conditions so unfavorable that upon his suggestion the Board withdrew its missions. He then inspected the stations in Turkey and Bohemia and returned to the United States to aid the Board in arousing interest in missionary work. In 1875 the American Bible Society sent Gulick to the Far East as its agent for the publishing and distribution of Bibles. He founded the Bible House at Yokohama, then turned his attention to China, where he enormously increased the circulation of Bibles by use of colporteurs working under missionary supervision. He edited the Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal (1885-1889) and founded the Medical Missionary Journal. He died at Springfield, Massachussets, at the age of sixty-two, after forty years of missionary service, the most distinguished member of a great missionary family.
On October 29, 1851, Gulick married Louisa Lewis, of Brooklyn, New York. The Gulicks had eight biological children and adopted one child.
He was an American political scientist, Eaton Professor of Municipal Science and Administration at Columbia University, and Director of its Institute of Public Administration, known as an expert on public administration.
He was an educator, author, and missionary who spent much of his life working to promote greater understanding and friendship between Japanese and American cultures.
He was an American physical education instructor, international basketball official, and founder with his wife of the Camp Fire Girls, an international youth organization now known as Camp Fire.