Peter Lerrigo was born in Birmingham, England in 1875 and came to the U.S. as a boy. At the age of fifteen, while in Topeka, Kansas, he decided to become a medical missionary and went to New York to study medicine, graduating in 1898. He spent two years interning in Alaska, and in 1902, with his wife Edith, he sailed for the Philippines. His work embraced many branches of missionary service, including preaching, teaching and translating, as well as the sole responsibility for the medical work. In 1908, the first hospital was building Capiz. The Lerrigos returned to the U.S. in 1913 due to failing health. Lerrigo served for three years at the district secretary of New England, Later he was Executive Secretary of the Five Year Program, and later candidate secretary of the ABFMS. In 1920 he was appointed medical service director of the society and foreign secretary of the Belgian Congo Mission, and he visited there in 1921 to grasp the situation and prepare for next steps. Edith passed away in 1941 and Lerrigo married Mabel Hannah Brown in 1944. Prior to that time, Mabel served as a missionary of the Methodists in Peking, China, from 1920 to 1927 and then continued service in China under the Foreign Missions Conference of North America until the time of her marriage. In 1950, she went to the Philippines with Dr. Lerrigo where he served as interim president of Central Philippine University until April 1952.