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The Reverend David Stanton Tappan II was born in 1880 in Oxford, Ohio and attended Miami University in Ohio and Princeton Theological Seminary. Between 1906 and 1949 he was a missionary to Hainan, China. His wife, Luella Rice Tappan, accompanied him to China where they shared duties in their various jobs and experiences. While in Hainan, Rev. Tappan founded Hainan Christian Middle School. He served as Executive Secretary to the Presbyterian Mission there, and was an advisor to the Hainan synod.

In their efforts to serve the Christian community around them, both Rev. and Mrs. Tappan learned the Chinese language and culture, dealt with the terrain and weather, and got tangled up with pirates, bandits, and corrupt government figures. During their stay, the Tappans experienced the Japanese invasion of Hainan Island on February 10, 1939. They immediately provided a sanctuary for Chinese refugees during the course of the crisis, transforming their compound into a mixture of residence, feeding-house, church, and barn.

In September 1941, Rev. Tappan was interned by the Japanese and brought to Canton. Upon the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941, he was placed under house arrest in Hackett Medical Center (in Canton). In February 1943 he was freed from arrest, and his internment under the Japanese ended in September of that year. He returned to the Hainan mission where he and his wife remained until 1949, when the island was turned over to Chinese Communist rule. The Tappans then turned to the United States. Reverend Tappan died in April 1968 and Mrs. Tappan died in January 1980. They had two children, Ruth Tappan Bauer and David Stanton Tappan III, and seven grandchildren.