cAdventist shiertage Contributors

Randall Mackie, of Stoneham, , is a sophomore English and psychology major at Atlantic . Editor-in-Chief Ileana Douglas is associate professor of history and chair of the history department Dorothy Minchin-Comm at . She received her BA degree from the University of Puerto Rico in 1969; an MA from the University of New York, Center for the Advanced Studies of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, in 1975. She is a PhD candidate at the University of Associate Editors Valladolid, Spain, and has taught at AUC since 1991. Ronald D. Graybill Jocelyn Fay, guest editor, is alumni and public relations director at Atlantic Union College and editor of Accent La Sierra University on AUC, the college's alumni journal. Since graduating from AUC in 1967, she has worked at the Lake Union Conference; the Far Eastern Gary Land Division; the , where she was managing editor; and the Southeastern California Conference, where she was communication director. Joan Francis, a 1973 graduate of Atlantic Union College, joined its history Quest Editor department in 1989. She earned her MA from Andrews University in 1974 and her DA Jocelyn Fay from Carnegie Mellon University in 1990. She has taught World History, Urban Atlantic Union College American History, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Women in History, as well as resurrecting African American History after an absence of almost two decades. She Managing Editor received a Zapara Award for excellence in teaching in 1991 and was named a Black Gary Chattier Scholar of New England in 1992. La Sierra University Lawrence T. Geraty is President of La Sierra University, where he also serves as Professor of Archaeology. Married to the former Gillian Keough, he came to La Sierra Assistant Managing Editor in 1993 after heading Atlantic Union College for over half a decade. W. Kent Rogers David W. Knott, professor of English at Atlantic Union College, specializes in American literature. He is noted for the area tours he leads for visitors to the campus and La Sierra University annually for new faculty and staff. A native New Englander, he graduated from AUC in 1951. He earned his MA degree from Syracuse University in 1958. He has taught at Layout 5 Design Editor AUC since 1965. He earned a Zapara Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1992. Lori Gulley Neal Norcliffe is a 1992 graduate of Atlantic Union College. He teaches English at AUC's English Language Institute and at Clinton High School, Clinton, Massachusetts. Office Staff Clio Prescott is a pseudonym. Kulreet Grewal, Joel Sandefur Alberto Sbacchi, professor of history at Atlantic Union College, was born in Palermo, Italy. He earned a BA from Columbia Union College in 1962; an MA from Circulation Manager in 1963; and a PhD from the University of Illinois in 1974, the Ronald D. Graybill year he came to AUC. In January of 1994, the Government of Italy conferred upon him the highest honor it awards to civilians—a Knighthood of the Order of Merit of the Managing Board Italian Republic. He is an authority on Italian colonialism in Ethiopia and on the state Gary Charter of the Italian government before the Second World War. (He spent five years in the mid- Steven G. Daily '60s as head of the history department and librarian of Ethiopian Adventist College.) He is the author of several books and numerous articles and is listed in the 1981 edition of Lawrence T. Geraty the Directory of Scholars and Specialists in Third World Studies. Fritz Guy Lawrence E. Smart came to Atlantic Union College in 1977 as alumni and Frederick development director, after a career as an educator in the Atlantic and Canadian union conferences and the Far Eastern Division. Now retired, he still volunteers his time to the AUC alumni office and serves as a consultant. In his travels around the Far Eastern Division, he became acquainted with many of the alums about whom he has written in his article about AUC's Asian connection.

,Adventist Wait:we

Volume 16, Number 2 Spring 1994

The Editor's Stump 2 Jocelyn Fay Lawrence T. Geraty

History 4 The School by the Nashua Clio Prescott

Architecture 10 AUC's Architecture

Europeans 15 European Students at AUC Alberto Sbacchi

Asians 20 To Asia and from Asia Lawrence E. Smart

Hispanics 23 The Hispanic Exchange Ileana Douglas

African Americans 26 Yet With a Steady Beat: Blacks at AUC Joan Francis

Childhood 35 South Lancaster Childhood Jocelyn Fay

History 39 Living Peaceably: David Knott AUC in Its New England Religious Context

Women 43 Four Influential Women at AUC Randall Mackie and Neal Norcliffe

Adventist Heritage is published by La Sierra University, 4700 Pierce Street, Riverside, CA 92515-8247. Bulk postage rates paid at Riverside, CA. Copyright 1994 by La Sierra University, Riverside, CA 92515-8247. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $12 for three issues ($18 overseas surface, $25 overseas air). Available back issues are sold at $4 each. Subscription orders, change of address notices, editorial correspondence and manuscripts should be sent to: Adventist Heritage, La Sierra University, Riverside, CA 92515-8247. Adventist Heritage invites manuscripts. Each will be considered, but no responsibility will be assumed for unsolicited materials. Adventist Heritage is indexed in the SDA Periodical Index, and is available from University Microfilms International. All pictures and illustrations used in this issue are courtesy of Atlantic Union College unless otherwise designated. ISSN 0360-389X. THE r DITO STUMP

Accepting Dorothy Comm's invitation to edit cultural community. During the first term of 1882, an all-Atlantic Union College issue of Adventist all but one of the first 19 students were from New Heritage was easy. Putting it together wasn't. The England. "They were white, earnest, and with pro- challenge was to tell—even to begin telling—AUC's nounceable names," she wrote. story in only 48 pages? After all, it took Myron "However, as the school grew, it soon lost its Wehtje 255 pages just to narrate the events of the homogeneity," she continued. "I think it is safe to say school's first 50 years in And There Was Light, the that through most of its 100-year-old history, this book he write for our centennial in 1982. campus has had a student body more diversified in There's ever so much more we would love to have race, cultural background, and national origin than been able to tell you about our college. For instance, we has any other Adventist campus in North America. feel that one of our strengths is our location in literary "Perhaps coming to terms with that diversity, and historic New England. Just a half hour's drive from becoming an accepting and accepted part of a school Concord, an hour from Boston, and an hour and a half family so oddly—so frighteningly—different from from Cape Cod, AUC offers students and faculty one's own family is as important a part of AUC's members hundreds of choices for enrichment, enter- educational heritage as are its academic programs." tainment, and recreation. And so, I hope you enjoy reading about AUC Another strength is the variety of opportunities and its people. In addition to the authors, two other we offer nontraditional students, such as our Adult people have made major contributions to this issue: Degree Program and our Center for Innovative Edu- our former president, Lawrence T. Geraty, who cation, which offers certificate and diploma courses planned the issue with me as he was on his way out by computer. AUC's door, headed for La Sierra Univeristy, and We'd also like to boast about what some of our Myron Wehtje, professor of history, who answered academic departments are doing these days. But we innumerable questions and verified facts so that this can't do everything! So we've narrowed our focus to issue would be as accurate as possible. what we feel makes us what we are and sets us apart Unless otherwise noted, photos are from the from our sister Seventh-day Adventist colleges our Oscar R. Schmidt Heritage Room at the G. Eric diverse, creative, colorful, wonderful, often chal- Jones Library or the alumni and public relations lenging people. office. In Then, Now, and Tomorrow: Perspectives on Education at Atlantic Union College, Ann Parrish, —Jocelyn Fay professor of English, wrote about AUC as a multi-

2 ADVENTIST HERITAGE Spring 1994 As the new chair of the Adventist Heritage man- English, who is serving as assistant managing editor. aging board, it is my privilege to alert readers to a Most importantly, the board wishes to thank transition that is taking place with this issue. Ronald Dorothy Minchin Comm (PhD, University of Graybill (PhD, Johns Hopkins University), Associ- Alberta), longtime Professor of English and ate Professor of History and chair of La Sierra specialist in writing, who, as editor-in-chief, University's Department of History and Political sometimes almost singlehandedly kept the jour- Science, will again assume the editorship of Adventist nal going through difficult times. We are Heritage. This is especially appropriate because of pleased she has agreed to stay on as assistant Ron's dual interests in nineteenth-century Ameri- editor following the completion of this, the last can cultural and denominational history as well as issue for which she is responsible as editor-in- his newly honed skills in photography (which he is chief. It was she who arranged with Jocelyn employing this summer as chief of photography for Fay, guest editor of this issue, fora retrospective on the Madaba Plains Archaeological Project in Jor- Atlantic Union College, Dorothy's alma mazer and dan). the denomination's oldest college that continues to The journal's new half-time managing editor is function in its original location. Given my own long Gary Chartier (PhD, University of Cambridge), and recent history of involvement with that institu- whose special interests revolve around contempo- tion, I am especially pleased to help play a part in rary Christian theology and ethics, as well as political bringing its fascinating story to a wider audience. theory, and who is currently completing a book on In January of 1994 La Sierra University's trustees the idea of friendship. His commitment to La Sierra reviewed and approved in concept an organizational University during the last few years—demonstrated document for the new Adventist Heritage, thus giving by largely volunteer assistance to the School of it a new lease on life—though it is expected to Religion, the Student Association, and other cam- become more self-sustaining as the months go by. It pus entities—has been exemplary. We are pleased will continue to be a journal of Adventist history and that his abilities as a wordsmith along with his broad life, as Dorothy defined it. One can expect articles knowledge of Adventist history and theology can that are rigorous and accurate, analytical, contex- now be put to work on Adventist Heritage, the con- tual, and interpretive. If you have ideas or sugges- tinuing publication of which we believe is one of the tions, please communicate them to the editors. We important commitments La Sierra has made to both look forward to participating in the Adventist dia- scholarship and solidarity with . logue fora long time to come and remember that, like Both of these editors are La Sierra University Frederick the Great, we "love an opposition that has alums, who are now giving back to the institution convictions," rather than the merely tolerant, whose that helped shape their intellectual development. peak "is most readily achieved by those who are not They are assisted in this endeavor, of course, by a burdened with convictions" (Alexander Chase). talented staff and board whose names you will find listed elsewhere. I note particularly the name of Kent —Lawrence T. Geraty Rogers, a graduate student in the Department of

THE EDITOR'S STUMP 3 I-1 S T 0 R Y

The School by the Nashua

By Clio Prescott

As early as the 1870s, the the dream of establishing a school to train of the Battle Creek College faculty, to town of Lancaster, Massachusetts, young people to serve the denomination teach at the new school. Bell, one of the emerged as the center of Seventh-day in New England. That dream finally be- most prominent Adventist educators at Adventism in New England. Situated in came a reality in 1882. the time, would also serve as principal. the Nashua Valley of central Massa- The new institution, essentially chusetts, the attractive, semi-rural an elementary school, opened on town was accessible to Adventist April 19, 1882, in a former carriage believers from all directions. The house across Sawyer Street from the town was also home for a relatively Village Church and a short distance large and growing Adventist con- behind Haskell's house on Main gregation that moved in 1878 into a Street. Nineteen students attended newly constructed church building on the opening day, but by the end of at the intersection of Narrow Lane the spring term on June 28, the en- and Sawyer Street in the village of rollment had risen to 24. Half of the South Lancaster, which lay between students were from Lancaster, and the north and south branches of the most of the others came from other Nashua River. Most importantly, locations in the various New En- perhaps, Lancaster was the home- gland states other than Connecti- town of Stephen N. Haskell, the presi- At a "quarterly meeting" of the New cut. dent of the New England Conference. England Conference, held in the Village Although the enrollment had not After his ordination to the ministry Church in South Lancaster in early Feb- quite fulfilled expectations, Haskell and and election as conference president in ruary, 1882, Haskell gained formal ap- the other boosters regarded the opening 1870, Haskell became the preeminent proval for the founding of a school. In term as a success. During the summer of figure in New England Adventism. An succeeding weeks he and his wife Mary, 1882 the leaders made plans to conduct a energetic leader and skillful organizer, Pastor Dores A. Robinson of the Village fall term. When the enrollment doubled the former soap-maker was determined to Church and his wife Edna, and Maria L. during that term and then kept climbing, do everything possible to advance the Huntley were foremost in promoting the the confidence of the founders seemed to Adventist cause in New England. Among project. Haskell recruited Goodloe Harper be justified. In November, Haskell wrote, other things, he increasingly nurtured Bell and Edith Sprague, former members "The blessing of God has accompanied

4 Ai:NEN-rim- HERITAGE J Spring 1994 our school so far, and we consider this a additions to the faculty included Sara about the spiritual life of the school fam- clear indication that advance steps should Jane Hall, a woman of commanding pres- ily. Most of the lingering suspicions were be taken." ence, who would have a profound influ- dissolved by early 1889, when Ellen White The continued growth and prosper- ence on hundreds of students in her En- and Alonzo T. Jones preached to the ity of the school obviously required larger, glish classes over the next quarter cen- students about righteousness by faith dur- permanent facilities. In 1883 the con- tury. ing a revival series conducted in the Vil- stituents of the school decided to pur- Robinson's caretaker term ended in lage Church. chase property and construct new build- 1885, when Charles C. Ramsey arrived Under the steady leadership of ings. That decision made it necessary to from Healdsburg College in California to Caviness, the school gained renewed sup- place the school on a firmer legal basis, assume the principalship. Confident, en- port and grew in enrollment. The ex- and so on December 12, 1883, it was ergetic, and visionary, Ramsey set out to panding enrollment made it necessary to incorporated under the name of South transform the little school. Among other enlarge Academy Hall and to construct a Lancaster Academy. Contributions from things, responding especially to the needs large, new dormitory on Main Street, a "stockholders" soon made it possible to of a young Vermonter named Rowena short distance from the east of the class- begin construction on two tracts of land Purdon, he introduced a secondary cur- room building. Before the new building to the north of the school site and west of riculum that included courses in Latin. could be completed (to accommodate Main Street. He also labored to convince the academy's young women, young men, and at least Chapin Henry Harris was the fore- supporters of the need to enlarge its mis- some of the faculty), Caviness left in man of the work crew that constructed a sion in another sense. Ramsey believed 1894 to become president of Battle Creek classroom building on the more northerly that the school should do more than train College; his successor, Joseph Haughey, parcel of land. Known for many years workers for the denomination. In his view, oversaw the completion of the project. simply as "the Academy," it remains in education was important for its own sake. Haughey, influenced strongly by dis- use today as Founders Hall. On the more There was resistance to some of Ramsey's cussions in 1891 at a denomination-wide southerly parcel of land, a short distance initiatives, and he left, disillusioned, in educational convention in Harbor from the Village Springs, , Church, the builders came hoping to carry erected a residence out various reforms hall known at first as - -44% ;•41:1741- that would make edu- "the Students' Home" cation at the academy 7;'10 't0 :Dr414$ • (and eventually, after more distinctively its enlargement, as Adventist. Increas- East-West Hall). Un- ingly, however, he was fortunately, the new distracted by the finan- buildings were not cial problems confront- ready by the time of ing the school as a re- the scheduled open- sult of the national de- ing of school in 1884. pression of the mid- The fall term did not 1890s. Declining en- begin until after the rollments and mount- dedication of the new buildings on Octo- 1888—but not before presiding over the ing debts finally forced the sale of the new ber 17. first secondary-level graduation, in which dormitory to a group that was planning to Because Goodloe Harper Bell had Rowena Purdon and three other young open a sanitarium in Lan-caster. In 1899, returned to his home in Michigan, a new women received their diplomas. principal greeted the students in the fall Although George Caviness, the next of 1884. Dares Robinson accepted a tem- principal, was a classicist like Ramsey, he Opposite Page: The dormitory, later to become porary appointment as Bell's replacement was an ordained minister, and so his ap- West Hail when East Hall was added to it. while the school board searched for an pointment inspired renewed confidence Above: East and West Halls, which lived their whole educator to take the principalship. Other among those who had become concerned lives as dormitories before being razed in the 1960s.

HISTORY 5 Haughey returned to Michigan, and school in 1907 and remained strong for charges for student meals and in pay for Frederick Griggs, a promising young mem- many years. Religious enthusiasm contin- teachers, among other things. Undeterred ber of the faculty of Battle Creek College, ued at a high level. Much of it was harnessed by such developments, students demon- became the new principal of SLA. to an upsurge of interest in foreign missions. strated their patriotism in a variety of ways, Serving from 1899 to 1907, Griggs Student activities became more varied and including knitting sweaters (even in classes ) provided exceptional leadership during the interesting. Some extracurricular energy and baking cookies to send to those serving earliest years of the new century. In addi- went into the publication of a student pa- in the armed forces. When an influenza tion to rebuilding the academy's enroll- per, The Student Idea, which made its first epidemic struck central Massachusetts late ment, expanding its curriculum, and reduc- appearance in 1907 and soon claimed 700 in the war, public-spirited students also ing its indebtedness, as well as adding a west subscribers. A fire in Academy Hall in 1907 went out into surrounding towns to care for wing to the old dormitory near the Village and a smallpox quarantine in 1912 were the ill. Church and providing new work opportu- among the big stories covered by the paper. Meanwhile, dozens of students were nities for students, he cultivated high mo- So was the completion in 1913 of a new drafted into military service, and others rale among students volunteered in an- and faculty alike. As ticipation of being a result of Griggs' ef- drafted. After the forts, South Lan- war it was calculated caster Academy was that at least 76 a flourishing institu- former SLA stu- tion when Benjamin dents had served in F. Machlan became the armed forces principal in 1907. during World War The former I. At least three of principal of an acad- them died during emy in Indiana, the war. Many oth- Machlan was des- ers experienced se- tined to head the rious difficulties, school during three separate periods—from building located to the west of Academy sometimes including imprisonment, be- 1907 to 1909, again from 1912 to 1916, and Hall. Named in honor of the brother of a cause of their noncom-batancy and Sab- finally from 1921 to 1927. His 12. years of New York donor, the Browning building bath observance. The armistice of Novem- service would make him one of the two became the new home of the teacher-train- ber 11,1918, meant even more to them, of longest-serving principals/presidents in the ing department and the elementary-grade course, than to the students back in South history of the institution. His personal classrooms. Lancaster, whose classes were canceled so warmth and engaging manner made him Following a term of service in Austra- that they could celebrate. one of the most beloved. lia, Machlan was back at the helm of the The end of the war was not the only During Machlan's first two terms of school when World War I began in 1914. source of excitement in South Lancaster in service and the intervening principalship However, he transferred to Washington the fall of 1918. During that same season of Charles S. Longacre, the academy main- Missionary College in 1916, a year before the academy was transformed into Lancaster tained much of the momentum generated the United States entered the war. William Junior College. When Machlan returned in the Griggs era. The enrollment reached G. Wirth succeeded him; M. E. Olsen led in 1921, therefore, he became a junior a new high of 225 on the opening day of the school through the remainder of the college president. The veteran educator war period and into the postwar era. Then was not content with that status, however. Otto John and George Lehman headed the He soon won approval for the upgrading of school briefly before Machlan's return in Lancaster junior College to a four-year col- Many students paid their way through school by 1921. lege. In 1922 the institution was renamed uvrking at the E. E. Miles Company, manufac- Atlantic Union College. In the fall of 1922 turer of diaries, pocket dictionaries, and scrap- Steep inflation resulting from the war books. Miles established the company on the west effort caused serious difficulty for the school. there was an encouraging 25 percent in- side of the campus in 1903. Unusual adjustments had to be made in crease in enrollment, but there was disap-

6 ADVENTIST HERITAGE I Spring 1994 pointrnent when the Massachusetts legisla- back away from their recommendation that war the old mansion was the site of admin- ture authorized the school to grant only the the school revert to junior-college status. istrative offices and classrooms. Other im- Bachelor of Theology degree and not the Another accomplishment was the consoli- provements included the construction of a hoped-for Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of dation of the campus through the purchase gymnasium across George Hill Road from Science degrees. of the land tying between the classroom the center of the campus. Before leaving in Other important organizational devel- buildings to the north and the dormitories 1948, Jones also saw the beginning of work opments occurred in the 1920s. In 1920, to the sou th. The physical plant was signifi- on a modern administration complex south- shortly before Machlan's return, the stu- cantly improved by the construction of a west of the intersection of Main Street and dents formed an association called the "Stu- science building on a part of the newly George Hill Road. His successor, Lewis N. dent Movement." In 1926 that organiza- acquired land. Donated by E. E. Miles, a Holm, brought the main part of that com- tion replaced The Student Idea with a new- local entrepreneur who for decades had plex to completion; Lawrence M. Stump style school paper that has carried the name employed large numbers of students in his was president when Machlan Auditorium of The Lancastrian ever since. (A few years bindery adjacent to the campus, the new was ready for use in 1954. later, after the Machlan era, the student building was expected to improve the The improvement of the college 's physi- organization began sponsoring a yearbook, school's chances of winning regional ac- cat plant helped to make possible the great- known after 1931 as The Minuteman.) Dor- creditation. Although John did not secure est achievement of the Jones administra- mitory clubs, complete with Greek letters, accreditation during his presidency, he did tion: regional accreditation. After historian were also formed during the 1920s. gain authority for the college to offer the Godfrey T. Anderson became the college's Yet another important organization, BA degree. At the spring commencement first academic dean in 1943, he led the formed in 1926, was the school's alumni in 1933 he awarded Atlantic Union faculty in a concerted effort to remedy vari- association. The alums chose Rowena College's first BA to Rowena Purdon. ous academic deficiencies. That effort was Purdon as their president. Since her gradu- In 1936, midway through the Great rewarded on December 7, 1945, when the ation from the old academy in 1888, she Depression, G. Eric Jones took office as New England Association of Colleges and had served intermittently on the faculty president of the college. Presidential in Secondary Schools voted to accept Atlan- (most recently as a mathematics teacher). appearance and manner, he was a popular tic Union College as a member institution. After a brief stint as principal of Greater leader for the next dozen years. One of his Accreditation came just in time for the New York Academy, she came back in aims as president was to improve the college to benefit from the return of World 1928 to stay. For the next 26 years, Purdon college's relations with the surrounding War II veterans, who could receive GI Bill would serve the school in various capaci- communities. He accomplished this goal of Rights benefits if they attended accred- ties, including that the institution's pioneer at least partly through his participation in ited institutions. About a dozen former AUC historian. the Rotary Club. Among Jones's other key students had died in the war, but scores of Machlan became seriously ill in the objectives were the enlargement of the others returned during the postwar era and fall of 1927, left the college in December, college's facilities and the beautification of boosted the college's enrollment to unprec- and died the following May. Nelson H. the campus. In 1938 he announced a col- edented levels. As they came back to the Saunders served as acting president until lege expansion program, and in spite of the campus, they felt a special rapport with Otto John arrived in 1928 to assume the depression—and, later, the outbreak of Jones and with Rochelle Philmon Kilgore, a presidency. Soon after John took office, the World War II—he pressed forward with it prominent English teacher, who had been secondary program gained a principal of its until the end of his administration. especially active in mustering support for own and began to reemerge from the shadow Anew women's dormitory facing Main them while they had been in uniform. Kilgore of the college. As a result, John was able to Street was ready for occupancy in the fall of was then at the peak of an AUC career that devote most of his attention to the needs of 1940. Preston Hall, the college's first major would last for more than 50 years. the collegiate program. As it turned out, brick building, also provided new space for The college made a further academic that was fortuitous, for the college struggled the cafeteria. Midway through World War advance in 1954, when the Commonwealth to remain afloat during the depression of II, the Jones administration took another of Massachusetts authorized it to offer the the 1930s. One of the most important important step in the expansion program Bachelor of Science degree. One of the new achievements of the John administration by acquiring the Thayer estate, located BS degrees was in nursing. The new nursing was to persuade the leaders of the General several hundred feet north of the campus, program involved close cooperation between Conference of Seventh-day Adventists to along Main Street. Before the end of the the college and the New England Sani- tarium and Hospital in Stoneham, Massa- to a new building on unbalanced budget chusetts. A student seeking a four-year de- George Hill Road, and an alarming gree in nursing would spend his or her first west of the college. debt. With the crest year at AUC, the next two years at the Reynolds left to his of the baby boom "San," and the final year back at AUC. successor, Herbert E. past and enrollment One of the most important develop- Douglass, another subsiding, it became ments of the 1950s was the emergence of alum, the advance- necessary to carry the College Church as an independent ment of his most am- out rigorous re- entity. For many years the College Division bitious project, a trenchment mea- of the Village Church had been holding modern library facil- sures and to seek ex- separate meetings on the campus. Follow- ity on the western side traordinary assis- ing the completion of Machlan Audito- of the mall that had tance from the At- rium in 1954, President Lawrence M. Stump emerged at the cen- lantic Union Con- pushed for the formation of an independent ter of the campus. ference. By 1972, the congregation at AUC. After the Southern The new library was administration had New England Conference gave its approval, nearly completed when Douglass left the achieved financial stability. Renewed fi- the new congregation was organized on college midway through the 1969-1970 nancial soundness made possible a number August 27, 1955, with highly respected school year. In April 1970, librarian Oscar of additions to and improvements in the Gerald H. Minchin of the college's religion Schmidt led a book brigade of hundreds of physical plant. Those changes included the department doubling as pastor. students and teachers in the transfer to the restoration of Founders Hall for use by the The decade of the 1960s was one of the new building. religion department and of Thayer Hall for most lustrous in the history of the college. W ill iam G. Nelson, who became presi- the music department, the acquisition of As the country enjoyed prosperity, waves of dent in 1970, was the first of a series of the John E. Thayer Ornithological Mu- baby boomers arrived on campus, sending CEOs with roots largely in the American seum on Main Street for the art depart- AUC's enrollment higher and higher. In West. He gave the college steady leadership ment, and the beginning of construction the fall of 1964, student numbers climbed at a time of difficult adjustments. In recent on a fieldhouse adjacent to the gymnasium by 25 percent and passed 700 for the first years the once overwhelmingly white stu- on George Hill Road. The fieldhouse was time. Robert L. Reynolds, the first alum to dent body had become rnore diverse. Against completed during the presidency of R. Dale serve as president, provided effective, con- the backdrop of the American civil rights McCune, who led the college from 1975 to sensus-building leadership for most of the movement, significant numbers of black 1980. decade. The faculty became larger and bet- students had enrolled at AUC. The black One of the important academic inno- ter-trained. Program H, an alternative core students themselves were a diverse group, vations of the decade of the 1970s was the curriculum, was designed for students who coming from New York City and other preferred courses with an emphasis on dis- cities of the Northeast, Bermuda, and the cussion and writing. West Indies, among other places. Almost Above: After a human chain transferred Growth in enrollment made expanded inevitably, racial tensions had developed books fRiin the library in Haskell Hall to the facilities necessary. Two of the most impor- on campus. By the beginning of the Nelson new G. Eric Jones Library in 1970, Roland tant changes in the physical plant were the administration, those tensions had become Madore and Milton Fish carried librarian acquisitions of the old Atlantic Union a serious problem. However, the new presi- Oscar Schmidt and his last armload of books into the building. Conference building on Prescott Street and dent, the new academic dean, S. Eugene the mansion offMain Street formerly owned Gascay, a joint student-faculty committee, Opposite page, left: Pre-nursing students pose by the Thayer and Bigelow families that and others of both races successfully de- for a photo in 1955. AUC established its Divi- came to be known simply as the "White fused the problem. One result was the sion of Nursing in 1964 and graduated its first AS recipients in 1966. Prior to that, nursing stu- House." Those buildings provided much- faculty's nearly unanimous vote to charter dents went to the New England Sanitarium and needed space for academic departments. the Black Christian Union. Hospital (row New England Memorial Hospital) The college gained additional space when Meanwhile, Nelson and his adminis- School of Nursing to complete their degrees. South Lan-caster Academy severed all of trative associates were also wrestling with its connections with the campus and moved serious financial problems, including an

8 AnVE:•rrrsr HERITAGE / Spring 1994 Adult Degree Program. Beginning with behavioral science department) were held an African American woman was serving just five students in July 1972, it grew in the recently completed College Church, as dean and a Hispanic man headed the rapidly, attracting older students who could across Main Street from Haskell Hall. An- college's student life team. study at home between brief seminars con- other important addition to the campus In the early 1990s the national reces- ducted on campus at six-month intervals. was a new science building erected near the sion contributed to a leveling off of the For much of its history after 1974, the library and Founders Hall. Replacing a build- college's enrollment and a tightening of its program was led by Ottilie Stafford, an ing that had burned in 1981, it provided finances. The burgeoning Electronic Dis- outstanding professor of English. new and much improved facilities for the tance Learning program, which used com- Fol law ing a heart attack and then heart biology, chemistry, and home economics puters to reach students in prisons and surgery, Nelson left the presidency in 1975 departments. other facilities, raised hopes for a significant to teach in the education department. A Demographic shifts made it very diffi- increase in revenues. However, in the mean- year after R. Dale McCune came from cult to maintain a stable enrollment at time the president and his associates Walla Walla College to serve as president, AUC. That problem in turn helped to struggled to raise the funds necessary to Larry Lewis transferred from the same insti- create a climate of concern about the build a long-anticipated dining commons. tution to become dean. Important changes college's future. Responding to restlessness Efforts to resolve various interpersonal con- in the late 1970s included the achievement among some teachers, staffers, and board flicts also sapped the energy of the admin- of parity in pay for women and an increase members, Lewis and some of the other istrators before Geraty accepted an invita- in lay representation on the board of trust- members of his administration left office in tion in 1993 to become the president of La ees. 1985. He remained at the college to teach Sierra University. When McCune left in 1980 to become in the education/psychology department, While Carol Allen served as acting provost of 's La Si- where he soon became the chair, received president, a search committee looked for erra campus (now La Sierra University), recognition as a superior teacher, and the best person to lead the college into the Lewis assumed the AUC presidency. Un- emerged as one of the most respected voices twenty-first century. On the recommenda- like most of his predecessors, Lewis had of the teaching faculty. tion of that committee, the board of trust- spent much of his earlier career in the Lawrence T. Geraty, a prominent Bib- ees voted to invite James J. Landis, an alum classroom. He had expertise in several fields, lical archaeologist, came from the Seventh- and former religion professor at AUC, to including religion and psychology. day Adventist Theological Seminary at assume the college presidency. On Decem- ❑ne of the highlights of the Lewis Andrews University to serve as president ber 14, 1993, Londis accepted the position. administration was the year-long celebra- from 1985 to 1993. He worked extremely Daunting challenges (many having to do tion of the college's centennial, leading up hard to boost enrollment, burnish the im- with money) awaited the new leader. For- to the climactic alumni homecoming week- age of the college, and strengthen relations tunately, those challenges were balanced end of April 16-19, 1982. Some of the with nearby communities. However, he by numerous assets: a beautiful, spacious centennial events (planned by a commis- may be remembered best for his ceaseless campus in a culturally rich region; support- sion led by alum Susan Willoughby of the efforts to present the ethnic diversity of the ive trustees and Atlantic Union Confer- student body (including ence officials; interested constituents and significant numbers of alumni; lively students; and a dedicated, African Americans, resilient faculty committed to Adventist Puerto Ricans, Bermudi- liberal arts education. ans, Haitian-Americans, Asians, and Brazilians, References among others) as one of the greatest attractions References for this article are available upon and strengths of the col- request. lege. Geraty also tried to achieve greater diversity in the faculty, staff, and administration. Before the end ofhis presidency,

His-roax 9 A R Fi

AUC's Architecture*

L . _

Although it is far his home town, and sent out a call for gifts to busy broom factory was functioning on more than bricks and mortar that gives a build a school building and dormitory. In the ground floor. The building's offices, college its distinctive personality, Atlan- only one year he had raised $75,000 to erect classrooms, and chapel were practical tic Union College's architecture sets it a surprisingly spacious, well-built, three-floor and in constant use thereafter, but with apart from other Seventh-day Adventist structure and a Large dormitory only a block the passage of time the space was badly college and university campuses. AUC's away. carved up with renovations. At first buildings include a national historical trea- The school building was a good ex- primarily a classroom structure, it sure (the Thayer Conservatory of Music), ample of the High Victorian architecture in successively became an administration a denominational landmark (Founders vogue in 1884. Its warmer west side was building, an office building, the acad- Hall), and an architectural gem that was given decorated windows once an ornithological museum (the and larger classrooms to uti- Mabel Bartlett Art Gallery). lize the sun's afternoon heat. Pictured here are a few of the most A bell was hung in the historically or architecturally significant Mansard tower, and a buildings on campus. boardwalk built to connect the building with the new

Founders Hall: Where it AU Began dormitory. When Stephen N. Haskell's New The "Academy," as it England school opened in 1882 after sev- soon came to be known, eral years of planning, he had to house was at first larger than students in a carriage house, the upstairs necessary; only one room of a print shop, and the basement of the was completed. Within a small church. He personally arranged for few years its three classroom the purchase of a school site in Lancaster, floors were all in use and a

10 ADVENTIST HERITAGE I Spring 1994 emy and lower grade building, and finally The College Church: Stephen N. Haskell Hall: the college music department. The Victo- Blending Tradition and The Administration Building rian lines faded and floors sagged, and the Contemporary Design Almost on the site of first settler John structure came close to being razed as its The college church's contemporary Prescott's 1672 house, the college dug a matching dormitory had been. design differs from the modified Georgian cellar hole in 1938. In President G. Eric Instead, in 1976 an extensive resto- architecture of most of the AUC campus Jones's office down the street in Thayer ration was completed. The entire area of buildings, but the building materials of Hall (now known as the Thayer Conser- the two main floors was redone in Victo- brick and natural wood and the landscape vatory of Music) hung a large picture of an rian decor to function as the campus reli- design help it blend into the campus. The imposing building. Until World War II gion center. Art works and a large collec- building was completed in 1980. was over and the construction materials tion of Adventist memorabilia were in- A significant feature of the sanctuary became available, that was all there would stalled. Especially significant is the Miller is the light tower. This is an area approxi- Chapel, which contains matching full- mately eight feet wide, spanning the en- Opposite page: Miles Hall, home of AUC's mathematics and computer science departments, length portraits of William Miller and his tire length of the sanctuary at the top of ceramics and design studios, and darkroom. wife, Lucy Paulina Miller, done by the the central roof support. Natural light Left: Founders Hall, AUC's original famous American primitive artist Horace enters through translucent panels at the administration and classroom building, was built Bundy. top and is reflected softly from the walls of in 1884. A bell hung in its tower and a boardwalk connected it to the dormitory . Today this venerable structure is the tower to the sanctuary floor 56 feet Right: The White House, home of the oldest Seventh-day Adventist edu- below. The effect is similar to that found AUC's English department, was purchased by the college cational building still standing. in a large cathedral: a heightened sense of in 1965. It once was the home of Eugene Van Rensselaer Thayer andhis bride, Susanne Begelow . reverence and an uplifting of the spirit. Photo by David Adamson. be of the long-planned new administra- Thus Miles was able to present the of deep and earnest convictions, Sears tion building. acutely needed laboratory space to the was held in highest estimation by his By the late 1940s materials were avail- school as a gift—and to save the institu- friends and parishioners. Due to ill health, able and the climbing enrollment and tion from educational oblivion. In 1933, Sears retired from the ministry after six cheap GI labor made possible the begin- the school was authorized by the state to years and four months with the First ning of construction. The building was grant the BA degree, and the General Church of Christ in Lancaster. An able finished and dedicated in 1952 for the Conference withdrew its order to reduce writer of prose and hymns, Sears' best- seventieth anniversary of the college. It the program to a jun ior college. Miles died known hymn was the Christmas carol "It contains administrative offices, the cam- shortly after the goal had been reached. Came Upon a Midnight Clear." Origi- pus computer center and bookstore, class- Miles Hall currently houses the math- nally occupying a site where Haskell Hall rooms, and the business administration/ ematics and computer science depart- now stands, Seals' early Victorian home secretarial science and nursing depart- ments. The lower floor contains ceramics was moved to George Hill Road, where it ments. and design studios and a darkroom. serves as a staff residence. The north end of the complex houses an auditorium named for Benjamin F. The Sears Home: Machlan, under whose presidency in the Birthplace of a Christmas 1920s the school became a four-year col- Carol lege. The whole complex memorializes Hamilton Sears (1810- Stephen N. Haskell's driving spirit in 1876), an 1837 graduate of founding the school—its rotunda floor Harvard Divinity School, epitomizing the motto of Haskell's own was installed as the minis- life, "Let there be light in all the world." ter of the Unitarian Church in Lancaster on December E. Edgar Miles Hall: 23, 1840. Known as a man It Saved the College In 1931 President Otto M. John was faced with a crisis brought on by the great depression: the school would be lowered to the status of a junior college during the following term because of its generally weak program, particularly in the sci- ences. Because the school was unaccredited, its BA degree was not being accepted by graduate schools in any case. For help, President John turned to E. E. Miles, a long-time minister and Bible teacher in South Lancaster. Miles had started a private bindery where students could work. It had grown and prospered.

12 ADVENTIST HERITAGE f Spring 1994 The Thayer Properties: Reminders of In 1902 the present house was com- behalf of the college. Lancaster's Age of Elegance pleted by architect Ogden Cadman, a The old manse quickly became the The Thayer Conservatory of Music: leading American designer. The house, college administration building and li- The Nathaniel E. Thayer Estate comparable to Edith Wharton's "The brary. When Haskell Hall was completed, When Nathaniel Thayer arrived in Mount," is one of the high points of the "Thayer" was turned into a boys' dormi- Lancaster in 1796, he followed four min- American architectural style known as tory for . To- isters who had met untimely deaths. But the Georgian Revival. Its interiors, espe- day, as the Thayer Conservatory of Music, Thayer's pastorate lasted for 47 years. cially the Louis XVI elements, are some of it is listed in the National Register of His- During that time he became one of the the finest of its age found anywhere in the toric Places for the State of Massachusetts. leading lights of the new theology that world. resulted in the Unitarian movement. Eventually, due to changing interests The Mabel R. Bartlett Art Gallery: In the mid-nineteenth century, and fortunes, the massive old home be- Former Ornithology Museum Thayer's wealthy sons took down his small came a burden. After the great hurricane On the first property purchased on parsonage and constructed a palatial Vic- of 1938 destroyed its formal gardens and the main street of South Lancaster, a torian manse complete with a mansard much of its landscaping, the building was dormitory was erected in the 1890s. Late roof and the largest formai hall and stair- sold privately. Its works of art and rare in the decade it was sold and converted case in New England. The family pros- collections, including a set of Paul Revere into a sanitarium. The new medical insti- pered, eventually becoming one of the silver, were auctioned off in 1942. The tution, operated in close connection with richest in the nation. By the 1880s the house itself, with 140 acres of land, was the school, was housed in a five-story mansion was again redone and extended. sold abruptly to intermediaries acting on Victorian style frame structure. Soon pa- tients were walking, sitting, and wheeling along Main Street in a kind of extended Battle Creek Sanitarium style. But what was acceptable in midwestern Battle Creek was a shock to the sensibilities of the elegant old New England town. Growing apprehension on the part of the towns- people crystallized, and steps were taken to have the sanitarium removed.

Opposite page, above: The Mabel R. Bartlett Arc Gallery began its life as an ornithological museum, built by John Eliot Thayer. Photo by David Perry. Below: The Thayer Conservatory of Music was renovated by architect Ogden Cadman, a leading American designer, for Natheniel Thayer HI in 1902. It served as an administration building and dormitory before becoming a music conservatory.

Left: Hamilton Sears's home, where "h Came Upon a Midnight Clear" was written, is now a staff residence on the AUC campus.

ARCHITECTURE 13 When John Eliot Thayer offered to bride, Susanne Bigelow, of the carpet- After several changes of hands, the purchase the sanitarium property, the producing Bigelow family. He obtained the much-remodeled building was purchased negotiating church official asked for services of architect Ogden Codman, who by the college in 1965. By then the brown $50,000 a sum he felt was too large for created a classic English structure—leaded shingles had been painted, turning the serious consideration. But Thayer, wealthy glass windows, rough-hewn interior, beams, structure somewhat ironically into "The and determined, paid the large sum. The dark-shingled exterior, half-timbered gables White House." It houses the college's sanitarium building was dismantled and jutting all directions, all to be clustered English department. removed on the Thayer railroad to a choice under a group of towering pines. *Adapted from The Architecture of Atlantic location by the Middlesex Fells Reservoir, The result was fascinating. The house, Union College: A Guide to the Campus, pub- near Boston, where New England Memo- spreading at off-angles, became a favorite lished by the college's advancement office in 1986, with permission from John Wood, '69, rial Hospital was established. Thayer mansion. Its greenhouses, and es- who wrote the essays. Wherever possible, we Thayer was an avid supporter of vari- pecially its gardens, made it a year-round have provided the original David Adamson photos printed in the brochure. ous philanthropies and a leading ornitholo- attraction. gist. His strong interest in birds led him to In the 1920s the mansion was remod- Above: The College Church, completed in build a small museum on the property he had eled by another noted architect, Henry 1980. Photo by David Adamson, bought to house his growing collections. Forbes Bigelow. Taxes on the wealthy Below: Haskell Hall, AUC's administration The building was designed by Rafael having soared enormously, a wing of the Machlan Auditorium is on the right. Gaustav, an architect responsible for the house containing the servants' use in America of vaulted roofs character- quarters was detached and istic of the Moorish architecture of Spain. placed on a nearby corner. It It is related to his other Gaustav works still stands under the pines on such as the Boston Public Library. that corner across from the col- The Thayer family's interests even- lege church, painted the origi- tually moved elsewhere and public inter- nal color and suggesting the est in the museum declined. In 1973, after original mood. The former several years of negotiations, the small foundation next to the house plot with its classical building rejoined became an intimate garden. the campus from which it had been sepa- rated 70 years earlier. As the Mabel R. Bartlett Art Gallery, it honors a distinguished, long-time art professor of the college.

The White House: The E.V.R. Thayer Estate In 1883 Eugene Van Rensselaer Thayer, son of the two famous families Thayer and Van Rensselaer, decided to build a manor house in Lancaster for his

14 ADVENTIST HERITAGE / Spring 1994 F U R 0 P E A

European Students at AUC, 1882-1994

By Alberto Sbacchi

Writing about European Through 1940, not more than two has always been a small school, at times students who attended Atlantic Union dozen Europeans studied in South little known. To this might be added the College is not easy, given the lack of Lancaster. After the Second World War, high cost of travel to North America pertinent information. Most of the avail- Europeans were eager to cross the Atlantic from Europe during this period and the able data is obtained from such sources as and try out the benefits American lack of financial aid for foreign students. the Student Idea, the Lancastrian, Accent International tensions discouraged on AUC, the Minuteman, and the corre- Europeans from seeking education in the spondence of Rochelle Kilgore. The other New World. Another important reason major tool used is Myron Wehtje's And must have been the fact that AUC was There was Light, a history of the college's not fully accredited until 1945. first 50 years. Because of these limitations, the essay European Students in South Lancaster: is a survey of European students' presence The First Half Century at "that New England School." It will attempt to answer the questions why In the spring of 1882, only 24 students Europeans came to study here, what they were enrolled in "that New England contributed, and how they fared. It does school," which the next year became not claim to be a definitive study, but it South Lancaster Academy (SLA). In a provides a challenge for further research few years the number increased to over and invites comments and information one hundred. from readers that can be incorporated in In the late nineteenth century, the projected second volume of the history education could offer. For this reason, the Lancaster was inhabited by wealthy of AUC, focusing on events beginning in enrollment of Europeans at AUC people; in contrast, the academy students 1928. quadrupled between 1950 and the 1990s and faculty were poor and struggled with The total number of Europeans who to about 81. debts. Another peculiarity of the school attended AUG is not certain. Available There are several explanations for was the composition of the student body, statistics suggest about 115, from at least the limited presence of Europeans before which was more diverse "in race, cultural 18 European countries. the Second World War. One is that AUC backgrounds and national origin than

EUROPEANS 15 any other Adventist campus in North experience and provide international in the following statement: "Of these 22 America." perspectives. were from other countries," including One of the earliest references to Besides these two accounts there are Canada. However, these students were European students in South Lancaster is no details of Europeans attending SLA isolated and found it difficult to be made in a negative context. Ellen G. during this early period. According to integrated into the student body. White reprimanded the administration one source, during the 1890s the Eastern In spite of these early difficulties in for lack of understanding toward a United States saw the arrival of increasing assimilation, the cultural and spiritual Norwegian boy who was expelled for numbers of immigrants from Southern benefits of a Christian school began to be various reasons, including a long list of and Central Europe, some of whom found felt. Dorena Baily from Great Britain, class absences. In 1886, Mrs. White their way to South Lancaster. Among when asked why she came to South threatened not to endorse South them were the Armenians escaping the Lancaster, answered: "My father wanted Lancaster Academy unless she had persecution of the Ottoman Empire. But me educated in a Seventh-day Adventist evidence that "there is a true missionary again, we are at a loss to document these school. As there were none in England, spirit exercised constantly to save the arrivals at SLA. he sent me here." erring and inexperienced youth." By the turn of the 20th century Another indication of the presence A more positive experience is Europe seems to have been represented described by another European student, by students from Norway, Sweden, Great Lucy Veysey, from England, whose father Britain, Denmark, and Germany. was also a member of the faculty. He was Between 1907 and 1908 the school passed one of the many professionals to come to the 300 mark of enrolled students. The South Lancaster to enrich the student European presence is clearly established

Previous page: Rochelle Kilgore recruited a number of European students for AUC. One of them was Reinhard Jarschke, with whom she remained friends until her death. Jarschke , who directs the flight center at Pacific Union College, Angwin, California, met Kilgore when he was a student at Marienhoehe Seminary in Germany. He spent six weeks during the summer of 1955 chauffeuring her around Europe. He lived in her home while he attended AUC, graduating in 1959,

Above: Edeltraud Schmidt Ter Mate, who graduated from AUC in 1964, has returned to campus twice since then from her home in Middleburg, Netherlands. The first time was for the college's centennial celebrations in 1982, when this photo was taken. The second was this pas tJanuary , when she brought her 20-year-old daughter, Marit, to college. She is a librarian and English teacher.

Left: An honorary alum of European heritage was John Henry Weidner, right, who was awarded an honorary doctorate in 1992. During the Holocaust, Weidner established the Dutch-Paris Line, an un- derground network that rescued1,000 Jewish people, Allied airmen, and political refugees. Weidner, who donated his memorabilia to AUG, is pictured pre- senting his medals to lames Landis, AUC president. In the spring of1994 ,the college established the John Henry Weidner Center for Cultivation of the Altru- istic Spirit. This center, in arldition to being the repository of Weidner's diaries, correspondence, medals, and citations, promotes research and study in altruism through classes, lectures, concerts, exhi- bitions, social programs, and creative activities.

Right: European faculty members at AUC in- cluded Englishman W.R.A. Madgwick, professor of history, who spent 25 of his 57 years of denomi- national service at AUC, leaving the college in 1981.

16 ADVENTIST HEarrAoE / Spring 1994 of Europeans at South Lancaster Academy immigrants arrived on the East Coast. benefits of Christian education. is in a 1908 notice in The Student Idea: They were the special object of SDA Furthermore, AUC was well represented "On Sunday 2 February the chief evangelist campaigns, and converted by a determined and persistent recruiter, attraction in the dining room was the members from Poland, Italy, Rochelle Kilgore. British table. Eleven Britons were Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Latvia, present. .. ." Greece, and Germany sent their children At about the same time, J. M. to South Lancaster to receive a Christian Erickson, from Sweden, attended Bible education. classes at South Lancaster Academy for Likewise, Jews converted to The Kilgore Factor one year. So did his children. Likewise attended Lancaster Junior Fred Gilbert, a London Jew, converted to College (the school's name after 1918) as As Europe entered a period of Christianity and although penniless, with a result of Fred Gilbert, whose conferences reconstruction and economic boom from the help of the academy was able to finish for the Jewish community of Worcester the 1960s to the 1980s, Kilgore was active his studies and after graduation became increased the number of students and in Europe because of her concern for the an Adventist minister. their cosmopolitan character. Many are spiritual and physical well-being of Just prior to the First World War, the reported to have had successful careers American servicemen in Europe. She not school became internationally minded enhancing the reputation of their alma only wrote letters to soldiers but also because of interest in missionary service. mater. "extended her interests to young people French, German, and Spanish language By 1939, when the Second World of other countries.... A 1961 tribute to courses were taught. War erupted, Atlantic Union College her noted that "she counsels young men "In 1911 the Academy established could count about 10 European students. of European countries, helps many of separate departments in which French (It had become a four-year college in them to find ways of getting an education speaking students could study in their 1922.) During the war, crossing the in the United States." native language. It was hoped to convince Atlantic was impossible. Even after the In a typical letter to the president of mothers and fathers of French language re establishment of peace, war-torn AUC Kilgore stated in 1960: "I have two to send their sons and daughters to SLA Europe could not afford to send its sons good prospective students in England and to be trained to become workers for and daughters to America to study. But I hope to have two more with whom I millions of French people in North with the reconstruction of Europe under have been corresponding.. . I am going America." the Marshall Plan and the beginning of to get to our schools in Austria and In 1913 German-speaking students the Cold War, the United States was France." received the same privilege, but because willing to accept more western European Assisting servicemen, then, was just of the First World War the "departments" immigrants. Refugees from Eastern and one of Kilgore's objectives. She was also were dropped. Germany was perceived, Central Europe and the Baltic countries interested in recruiting young men and in the United States, as having started also began to appear at AUG. After the women for SDA colleges, an activity that the conflict in Europe, and so German war the number of European students she started on her own and financed with was not a popular subject to study. attending AUC increased. her own money. In spite of these temporary setbacks, Statistical data shows that from the To increase the number of European SLA students had been exposed to 1950s to the present over 80 European students, she proposed that AUC provide European culture and to new ideas. But students have come to South Lancaster. them with financial aid. Thanks to her European students at SLA, according to This boom of Europeans was partly due to thoughtfulness, Europeans enjoyed the available data, were few. Not more than the high standard of living in the United generosity of the Division Scholarship half a dozen are reported for the decades States and the opportunities it offered to Fund, which provided each recipient with of 1910 and 1920. The war and the great the newcomers from war-devastated full tuition for the first year and fifty economic depression of the late 1920s Europe. During the computer age, the percent each succeeding year. and mid 1930s further prevented students United States was at the avant garde of Unfortunately, in 1970 the scholarship from attending the school at South the world and many young men and program for overseas students had to be Lancaster. women were attracted toward careers in revised and reduced because of financial Early this century, another wave of electronics as well as experiencing the constraints. Since then, aid to foreign

EUROPEANS 17 students has survived, although in reduced laboratory so that he could pay for his that perhaps is found no where else." quantities. college expenses. A critical letter shows that students For her many years of service to AUC, Her half-century of activities in favor trusted Kilgore with their real feelings: "I Kilgore is still fondly remembered for her of servicemen and European students often think of AUC and my thoughts are many years not only as a recruiter but as made Rochelle Kilgore an unforgettable pleasant . . but I do not give a blanket a counselor and second mother to many figure. To alums who were touched by endorsement of all AUC policies. I don't European students. Numerous students this memorable woman throughout their think ... the place next to the Post Office from Holland, Germany, Austria, college experience, she remains their most should be off limit. Unfortunately young Belgium, France, Iceland, Great Britain, valued memory of AUC. At one time she people at AUC will get out in this world and other countries recall her assistance corresponded with as many as 350 filled with pitfalls. Restrictions at school during their time at AUC. servicemen and students. She used to are just small irritants that can often be Through the years, beginning in receive 35 letters a week and 800 out flanked. Only a strong realistic 1941, Kilgore constantly housed two to Christmas cards from former students. Christian life will keep an individual on four foreign students in her home on the The large correspondence left after the right track in this world." AUC campus. In 1986, in a letter to the her death proves the important role played Similarly, a mature student and a president of AUC, she stated: "In the past by Kilgore in bringing to AUC numerous future lawyer, while reasserting the good 40 years, eighty-seven young men have European students. They expressed their received at AUC, resented the sense of lived in my home." By the time she died gratitude for her help in 1993, she had supported and given but also exposed hospitality to 90 students in her home. freely their opinions Believing that nothing is free on this to her. "My thoughts earth, Kilgore expected that in exchange constantly return to for board she receive due compensation AUC," one wrote. in the form of two hours a week of free "AUC is a great labor in the garden or in the house and school, it is great only occasionally the charge of one dollar a because it is small. month. One student was even allowed to There is a student- transform a coal room into a dental faculty [relationship]

Number of European Students at AUC by Decades

30

26 25 23

20

15

0 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1980 1970 1980 1990

18 ADVENTIST HERITAGE / Spring 1994 restriction imposed on the faculty. "There Other European correspondents have had the privilege of living at Mrs. is no place quite like the Alma Mater. accentuated the positive: "As long as we Kilgore's home. We in a strange country, College days were undoubtedly my behaved we could come and go as we among strange people found a new home at happiest. Now if the school will uphold pleased." Another mentions, "[Kilgore] her house, which today is just as precious to the integrity of their teachers progress is was the best public relations AUC ever us as our former homes. Living at Mrs. assured. . . I hope that thought control had. She used her home as a 're education Kilgore's for years, we have learned that the will not be the result of removals. . . I unit,' for young men no longer welcome motto found in her class room is a living part remember AUC for its capable teachers. in the dormitory." And lastly, a German of her daily life: I expect to pass through this If teachers are not given a bit of student remembers, "she took an interest life but once, if therefore, there is any kindness [intellectual] freedom, initiative will be in me and that was the reason for coming I can show, or any good lean do to any fellow stifled and the result will be patterned to AUC." The sense of appreciation beings, let me do it now, let me not forget or automatons." ( Fortunately, this student's Kilgore engendered in many students is neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again. concern has proved to be unnecessary. evident in the following letter from a AUC has benefited by progressive AUC encourages free thought and the European alum: teachers and administrators who have pursuit of academic freedom, which is in Probably nobody can so deeply appreciate left a mark on its centennial history. Its part the result of its high academic the kindness and the good one receives from student body too makes "that New standing.) his fellow men as we foreign students who England School" a special one. It is a microcosm of the American population. It is a place where European students have come, some par hazard, others Number of European Students at AUC through specific planning, but all to be by Country and Gender touched in one way or another. in the final analysis, it is important to know that AUC exists to mold young people for a Country Number Male Female better world.

Austria 1 0 References Belgium 1 0 Denmark 3 2 1 References for this article are available upon Finland 6 1 5 request. France 10 7 3 Germany 26 19 7 Great Britain 20 12 8 Opposite page, above left: Randi Moe, from Greece 2 Lillihammer, Norway, attended AUC during the Netherlands 4 2 2 1990-91 and 1991-92 school years. She was Hungary 6 3 3 pictured in the 1991 yearbook as a member of the sailing class and the Lady Flames basketball team. Iceland 5 4 Italy 6 3 3 Right: F.C. Gilbert graduated in the class of 1894 and became an Adventist minister. His own Norway 7 2 5 Jewish background led him to take an interest in Portugal 5 2 3 leading others to belief in Christ. Russia 0 I Below: Osa-Karin Berg Canto, an AUC stu- Spain 3 2 I dent from Sweden, graduated in 1966. She is Sweden 4 3 1 now ADC's assistant vice president for enroll- ment management. In her former position as Switzerland 6 2 4 director of academic records, she provided the Total 115 65 50 diploma her son Michael received in 1993. Her son Chris, left, graduated in 1994.

EUROPEANS 19 A

To Asia and from Asia

By Lawrence E . Smart

Since "that New England ing Adventist work in the Far East, and complete his education, and Rolland school" was established by the pioneers their family members followed their ex- Brines, '10. Both became distinguished as one of the earliest educational centers amples. The second generation of Lees physicians in China. of the newly organized and quickly devel- includes Milton, who probably has Ezra ('18) and Inez Miles Longway oping Adventist church, it is only logical preached more sermons to more Chinese arrived in what is now Thailand in 1918, that many of Adventism's early missionar- people than any other living Adventist just a few months after their marriage, to ies came from New England. minister, and Donald and James, who initiate Adventist work. They transferred J. N. Andrews, a New Englander to China in 1922. While holding several who became the first official Adventist different administrative and evangelistic missionary to serve outside North posts, Longway became a prolific pro- America, made his home in Lancaster Many missionaries have found ducer of literature in the Chinese lan- before his departure for Switzerland in their way to the Orient by way of guage, translating the Conflict of the 1874. In the early 1900's, denomina- Atlantic Union College. A smaller Ages series and scores of other devotional tional administrators Arthur G. Daniells but growing number of Asian stu- and inspirational books. He spent his and William A. Spicer, both returned dents have chosen AUC to pre- later years raising hundreds of thousands missionaries, promoted foreign missions pare them for service. of dollars for Adventist medical and edu- during their visits to South Lancaster cational work in the Far East. By the time Academy. In 1908 Harry W. Miller, a of his "official" retirement in 1986, he physician who had already served as a had given 68 years of service to Asia. missionary in China, visited the school spent years in Korea, where their father Arriving in Thailand while the and spoke to the students, presenting the had previously pioneered the program of Longways were still there were Forest challenge of mission service in the Ori- the church. Pratt, '18, and his wife, Jennie. Forest ent. And a class focusing on foreign mis- Prior to World War II, the Seventh- Pratt served as the first director of the sions was taught by Charles S. Longacre, day Adventist Church sent more mis- Siam Mission. The Pratts also worked in principal from 1909 to 1913. Of the 35 sionaries to China than any other Protes- the Philippines and Singapore. students enrolled in the class, 25 eventual.. tant denomination. Among them were During the years of World War II, ly filled mission appointments. several from AUC, such as Paul Quimby, many missionaries were interned in pris- Howard ('04) and Frederick C08) who spent considerable time studying in oner-of-war camps. While they suffered Lee distinguished themselves in pioneer- South Lancaster before moving west to greatly, they continued to promote the

20 ADVENTIST HERITAGE I Spring 1994 church's mission program. Among those evacuated from one "safe haven" to an- to that part of the world. Three of AUC's who endured internment were several other. After the war they worked in Tai- student missionaries during the 1993-94 AUC alumni, such as Inez Longway and wan, Singapore, and, after a brief sojourn school year are serving in Asia: Jennifer Charles ('28) and Violet ('31) in Africa, Hong Kong. Sprague, a 1993 nursing graduate, in the Wittschiebe. After peace returned to Asia, the Philippines; Rick Owen, teaching at the Paul ('35) and Retha Giles ('34) Adventist Church's disrupted mission San Yu English Bible Center in Pingtung Eldridge were also interned in the Philip- program was revived. Many pre-war work- City, Taiwan; and Matt Seymour, teach- pines after they were forced to abandon ers returned to lead and guide the throng ing at the Osaka SDA English School in their pasts in Japan. In 1947, the Eldridges of new missionaries who answered the Osaka, Japan. returned to Japan and spent the next 15 call of the church. In addition to being a place where years with the Japanese Voice of Proph- Donald ('54) and Russell ('63) AUC graduates and students have ecy, establishing a Bible correspondence Aldridge and their families were promi- worked, Asia also has also been the prov- school and a weekly radio broadcast. Then nent in the educational branch of the ing ground for others who have come they moved to Singapore, where Eldridge church, serving as administrators of vari- from service there to work in South became president of the Far Eastern Divi- ous schools in such locations as Singapore, Lancaster, either at AUC or at the Atlan- sion. Sarawak, Taiwan, and the islands of tic Union Conference. Among those are Carl ('40) and Eva Longway Currie Micronesia. former union presidents Willis J. Hackett began their 50 years of mission service in Among the AUC women who have and Francis Millard, former union trea- Shanghai, arriving in 1940, just in time made their mark in the Far East is Ger- surer and Later president, Kenneth to be evacuated to Burma. A year later, trude Green, '29, who spent most of her Tilghman, and former college president they were evacuated once again—back adult life in Asia, first in mainland China (1953-1960) Lawrence M. Stump. to China. They spent the war years being and then in Thailand. Probably her mast Lawrence Geraty, college president from notable achievement was establishing a 1985 to 1993, spent his childhood with training school for midwives at Bangkok his missionary parents in Burma, China, Adventist Hospital. and Hong Kong. Geraty's father, Thomas Marion Seitz Simmons, '33 has served S. Geraty has travelled to AUC from his several terms in various parts of the Far California retirement home during sum- East, including the division headquarters mers to teach classes in the education in Singapore. She also was pastor of the department. Bangkok Adventist Hospital church, one For many years Atlantic Union Col- of the largest churches in the division. lege has drawn a small but select group of Since the early days of the student Asian students who have distinguished missionary program, AUC students have themselves at the college and after com- supported the pleting their study programs. An example church's world- is Samuel Young, '59, who came to AUC wide. Since send- from Hong Kong, returned to the Orient ing its first stu- and then, after some years of leadership dent missionary there, responded to a call to the General to the Far East in Conference, where he is special assistant 1962, AUC has to the president. He has served as a mem- sent a total of 106 ber of the AUC Board of Directors and

Above: Philip Chen chaired AUC's chemistry department from 1938 until his retirement m 1970.

Below: Asian Club members sold egg rolls, Korean dumplings, and fried rice at their booth at the International Food Festival in March, 1994. Profits from the food fesitval went to the college's international scholarship fund.

ASIANS 21 his activities on AUC's behalf have ben- glish classes and learn about New En- and helpful. Later Professor Owen efited the college in a variety of tangible gland culture. Every• other summer, AUC Mattingly, of the mathematics depart- ways. Last fall, in his capacity as execu- is the site of a Summer Seminar in New ment, and his Japanese wife, Miyo, gave tive secretary of the Chan Shun Founda- England for Japanese students. During support to the students from the Far East. tion, he presented AUC with a check for alternate summers, Saniku Gakuin Col- Although half way around the world $300,000, the first installment of the lege students may participate in a pro- from Asia, AUC has been tied to that foundation's $1 million commitment to gram organized by Pacific Union College continent by bonds of service since its the college's new Chan Shun Dining in Angwin, California. earliest years. Although the people are Commons. While AUC has had comparatively different and the methods have changed, Today an active Asian Club on cam- few Asian students through the years, it AUC's commitment to the global vision pus has nearly 40 members and draws had a strong Asian presence in the per- of the church remains strong. students from almost every Asian coun- sons of Philip and Helen Chen and the try. The club's president, Chhan Touch, six children they raised and educated in References and pastor, Thys an Sam, are Cambodians South Lancaster. Philip Chen chaired who escaped from that country's infa- the chemistry department from 1938 un- References for this article are available upon mous killing fields and found Christ in a til his retirement in 1970. Helen Chen, request. refugee camp in Thailand. who also worked on campus and was well For the second time, AUC will host known by all the students, was named about 25 students from Saniku Gakuin "Massachusetts Mother of the Year" in College in Japan this August. They will 1964. Presumably the Asian students stay in the homes of South Lancaster who did venture to New England, so far residents while they take intensive En- from home, found the Chens reassuring

Clockwise: Helen Chen, who worked in the library for many years , was named "Massachusetts Mother of the Year" in 1964. The Chens raised and educated six children in South Lancaster.

Marion Seitz Simmons '33 has served several terms in various parts of the Far East. She is pictured here during a volunteer stint in Sri Lanka.

While his wife, Retha, concentrated on the correspondence school, Paul Eldridge, '35, established a weekly radio broadcast in Japanese.

Lawrence T. Geraty pre- sents a certificate to aJapa- muse student who had com- pleted AUC's first Summer Seminar in New England in 1992.

Samuel Young '59, repre- senting the Chan Shun Foundation, gives Carol Allen, vice president for academic affairs, a $300,000 check from the foundation for AUC 's new Chan Shun Dining Com- mons. Construction is ex- pected to start this summer.

22 ADVENTIST HERITAGE / Spring 1994 H I S P A

The Hispanic Exchange

by Ileana Douglas with the collaboration of Johanna Prestol-Dominguez '94

Since its founding, Atlantic Union College has evolved into a multicultural community, comprising students and faculty from more than 50 countries in different parts of the world. Especially since the 1940s, Latino cul- tures have been increasingly important in that community, but the greatest growth has occurred since the 1970s. One of the groups experiencing sub- stantial growth is the Hispanic community on campus. The 122 Hispanic students represent a wide range of cultures, values, and traditions, from Central America, South America, and the Caribbean islands. The rapid growth of the Hispanic population at AUC has not been confined to the student population. There has also been substan- tial growth in the number of Hispanic faculty and staff members, who number 18. (Of course, this increase in the His- panic population is not limited to AUC— it is paralleled in other educational insti- tutions across the country.)

Lingua Domus, now known as Chant Hail, functioned in the 1970s as a women's residence hall dedicated to the learning of languages. Photo by David Adamson.

HISPANICS 23 these languages who also be- their participation in establishing an in- came very fluent in English in ternational community at AUC. order to complete requirements In order to respond to the needs of for their degrees. those students, AUC celebrates its diver- During the 1960s and sity through various activities during the 1970s, population shifts brought school year. These include the Interna- Hispanic students from Cuba, tional Food Festival, Black Heritage Week, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Colom- Latino Heritage Week, and the Fall Festi- bia, Brazil, and many other coun- val, during which different cultural groups tries. Gudmundsson remembers can share more of their traditions. her frequent travels to Central In 1985, AUC welcomed Johnny and South American colleges Ramirez, former pastor/evangelist in Hon- and academies to promote the duras, as associate chaplain. It was due to his new programs at AUC. efforts that "The Spanish Connection," a Eduardo Urbina, cur- soc ial club, was organized at AUC. Ramirez rently a teacher in the math- maintains that H ispan ics have special needs ematics department, was able to as individuals to preserve their culture and attend AUC due to the efforts roots as sources of identity. Often, he says, of Gudmundsson. they need counseling, tutoring, and career During that time, the guidance from someone who understands International Club was orga- their culture and language. The rapid growth of the Hispanic nized at AUC, with members drawn from The work that Johnny Ramirez began population at AUC is due in large part to the Hispanic, Asian, and African stu- was continued by Eddie Medina when he the efforts and leadership of Lourdes Mo- dents. The Zeta Omega chapter of Alpha joined the AUC faculty in 1988 as a profes- rales Gudmundsson, chair of the modern Nu Gamma, the foreign language honor sor in the social work department. Medina languages department from 1970 to 1979, society, was established on campus. had a very personal commitment and mis- who dedicated herself to the task of devel- Among the requirements for membership sion to the Hispanic students at AUC. oping academic programs which would were high academic standards and com- Eddie, as he was usually called, was attract Hispanic students to AUC. She mitment to educational development. In seen as the counselor and protector of the introduced a Spanish major and began a this way, foreign and minority students students; under his leadership the Coun- program of intensive English courses for were encouraged to take advantage of the Hispanic students with English as a sec- educational opportunities available at ond language. This led to the establish- AUC. ment in 1974 of the English Language Gudmundsson, pioneer of those Institute (ELI), with the full support of projects that opened doors to foreign stu- Adventist Colleges Abroad, for foreign dents, recalls her 12 years at AUC as the students and Hispanics. most productive and satisfactory in her With the support of William G. career. She went from South Lancaster to Nelson, then president of the college, Antillian College, in Puerto Rico, to chair Gudmundsson founded a women's resi- their Spanish department. Her daughter, dence hall dedicated to the learning of Carmencita, a small child when her languages. That house, called "Lingua mother taught at AUC, will return as a Domus" from 1971 to 1979, was open to student when classes begin next fall. women already fluent in one language Although Lingua Domus has ceased who wished to perfect their fluency in to function, the English Language Insti- Spanish or French. According to tute continues to flourish and has helped Gudmundsson, this program attracted encourage the presence of Hispanic young many students already fluent in one of men and women on this campus, and

24 ADVENTIST HERITAGE I Spring 1994 cil of Hispanic Students for Progressive home countries to serve the Sev- Action (CHISPA) was founded. One of enth-day Adventist Church. the goals of CHISPA is to promote and AUC also can boast of many develop activities to preserve the cultural Hispanic alumni who have distin- background of the Hispanic students. guished themselves in their fields. CHISPA also provides academic assis- Here is a listing of a few of them: tance to those students needing tutoring Francisco Ramos, '66, pas- in their classes, and religious activities to tor of the Leominster, Massa- encourage the students' spiritual growth. chusetts, Spanish SDA church; After Eddie Medina's untimely death Ariel Schmidt, '66, owner of the in a car accident during the summer of Atlantic Graphics Services, of 1992, CHISPA was left without its father Clinton, Massachusetts; Enid until Eduardo Urbina, a professor at AUC Schmidt, '66, a teacher at South since 1989, and Ileana Douglas accepted Lancaster Academy from 1974- responsibility for the organization. In 1987; Paula Lopez Ramos, '68, Medina's honor the club has established director of student apartments at the Eddie Medina Scholarship Fund for AUC; A i lsa DePrada Hispanic Students. Deitemeyer, '69, a partner in the Another group growing on the AUC law firm of Choate, Hall, and campus is the Portugese/Brazilian popula- Stewart in Boston and AUC's tion. Many of those students come to Alumna of the Year for 1994; study theology and then return to their Eduardo Urbina, '79, professor of math- ference health, temperance, and Hispanic ematics and computer science at AUC; ministries director, expressed the hope of Vivian Rivera-Brimmer, '86, assistant di- Hispanics in the Northeast and many oth- rector of the Center for Continuing Edu- ers: "May we as God's people, brown, yel- cation at AUC; Carlos Rodriguez, '86, a low, black, and white, all precious in God's pastor in the Florida Conference of Sev- sight, demonstrate to the world that in spite enth-day Adventists; Omar Dicent, '92, a of ethnic, language, and social diversity, we teacher at Pine Tree Academy in Freeport, can work together in love and thus hasten Maine; and Amado Luzbet, '93, an assis- the day of His coming." tant pastor of the Boston Temple. Sources In the August 19, 1984, issue of the Atlantic Union Gleaner, Pedro Geli, Jr., Sources for this article are available upon who at that time was Atlantic Union Con- request.

Opposite page, right: Eduardo Urbina, associate professor of mathematics, is a 1979 AUC graduate. Left: Johnny Ramirez, associate professor of religion and associate chaplain, organized "The Spanish Connection," a social club, in 1985.

Above right: As chair of the Modern Langauges deparonent at AUC , Lourdes Morales Guclmundsson developed academic programs that would attract Hispanic students to the college. She introduced a Spanish major, as well as clasu.s in English as a secondlanguage that led to the establishment of the English Language Institute.

Above left: Eddie Medina, assistant professor of social work, founded CHISPA, the Council of Hispanic Students for Progressive Action. One of the organization's goals is to help the Hispanic students preserve their cultural heritage. It also encourages their spiritual growth.

HISPANICS 25 A F R IC AN A M E R IC AN S

Yet With a Steady Beat: Blacks at AUC

by Joan Francis

L October of 1990, the first From the time that blacks were ad- Christian ethics has not always shielded homecoming weekend for AUC's black mitted to AUC (or its predecessors) in them from unpleasant occurrences. How- alums was held in Machlan Auditorium. 1895 they have performed well, have ever, Myron Wehtje's evaluation that It grew out of discussions held during the been an essential part of the structure, "Atlantic Union College remained the annual spring homecoming six months have been active in leadership roles while most advanced of all Adventist colleges earlier by a group of black alumni, faculty, attending, and have brought credit to in racial understanding in spite of some staff, and friends of AUC, who noted that themselves and the institution after leav- difficulties" seems to be true even today. many blacks never returned to their alma ing. "That New England School" starred mater. Yet their experiences here in a large off in 1882 as a homogeneous white From this April discussion was born part has reflected the situation prevailing school, but it would not be long until it the Black Alumni of AUC, designed "to nationwide. AUC's commitment to had a strand of African Americans and establish a bridge between the black alumni of the college and the college itself; to stimulate and sustain interest in the needs of black students of the college; to provide tangible support for the black students in the forms of scholarships and mentor ing, and for faculty and staff of the college in the form of advocacy. . . . The development of this organization in 1990 was similar to the Black Christian Union organization that was formed 20 years earlier by the black students to meet their need for self worth, equality, and educa- tion. These two organizations highlight the contributions that blacks have made to AUC.

26 ADVENTIST HERITAGE / Spring 1994 other blacks as part of its fabric. Over the it is certain that Natelkka E. Burrell, a the Nashua." years it has educated a long list of out- New Yorker by birth, entered South During this decade about eight standing black personalities. In spite of Lancaster Academy in 1910. Later, when graduated; in the 1940s about 10. One the difficulties that many faced, the she enrolled in the teacher training pro- student who attended in the late forties completion of an education was their gram at Lancaster Junior College, she was said that whether there was a quota or not focus. Blacks came from New England, the only black. Natelkka "would some- was unclear, but each year only seven to New York, Bermuda, the Bahamas, and times be excused from the dormitory to ten blacks were graduated or came in as the Caribbean islands to AUC to con- spend nights with a girl friend in the new students. There was a constant un- tinue their educations. Most of them village." Obviously she made many white dercurrent of racial prejudice and dis- avoided anything that would cause a mis- friends, but it must have been quite an crimination. Yet the few who attended step which might result in their leaving experience for her, for, as she later re- AUC were involved and active on cam- without achieving their dreams. marked when she graduated in 1917, the pus. They had talent and used it. They As early as 1895, at the height of continued to be small. Information in were active as Sabbath school teachers segregation, Herman DeMond, a black 1930s yearbooks shows that they were and superintendents and leaders of Phi from Boston, was enrolled in South scattered in every department and in- Delta Chi (the men's club) and were Lancaster Academy. He was described as volved in many campus activities. For active in the glee club. They were found carrying "qu ite an influence with those of example, a review of the 1930s shows studying in all the major departments. his age and under." three black males in theology and four in Additionally, in keeping with the times, Information about blacks at AUC in history, one female and three males in all the black females and males were placed the early days is difficult to ascertain, yet English, four males in math and science, on the same floor in their respective dor- and one each in foreign language, piano mitories. This enabled them to develop a and voice, and the commercial depart- camaraderie that has lasted all these years. ment. Some played in the orchestra and They remember in detail incidents and sang in the Adelphian Chorus. Archie fellow students from the time. Hazel Hairston, of New York City, a native Edgecombe, for instance, recalls singing Georgian, wrote the music for the class and playing and performing her junior song in 1932. and senior recitals. The students went to But race relations were not always perform with the Robert Shaw Chorale, smooth. "In the thirties, one story goes, a along with students from Holy Cross group of white fellows, thinking that a College, at Mechanics Hall in Worcester. black fellow student was paying too much At least a quarter of the blacks who attention to white girls, took him by attended during this period were first- force one night and threw him into a car, generation Americans or recent arrivals then pulled from overseas. With the growth of cities, him out of it more "urban students" came, and blacks and ducked increased in numbers from cities, Ber- him in the muda, the Bahamas, and the Caribbean cold waters of islands, including Barbados and Jamaica.

Opposite Page: RUC's Human Relations Committee in 1967 included Milian Raga!, Jr., Joyce Hanscom, James Londis, Emory Tolbert, Jose Vega, Robert Reynolds, Paula Lopez, and William Allen. Above: G. Ralph Thompson '56 came to AUC from Barbados. He serves as secretary of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. Below: John Grayson '64 teaches the Sabbath School lesson during alumni weekend, 1989. Grayson is a professor of religion at Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts.

AFRICAN AMERICANS 27 A few of the overseas students were Olive AUC should institute a quota system. The 1960s marked a watershed in Edwards, Cuthbert Arthur, David Henry, The black graduates in this decade race relations not only in the nation but Eric Gouldbourne, and Eric John Murray. exceeded 70 and again reflected the Afri- also at AUC. All the undercurrents fi- Some returned to their homelands to can Diaspora. There were A rj una O. Cole nally burst out. Until this time black serve, others stayed—but all excelled in from Sierra Leone, G. Ralph Thompson students had no black role models on their chosen careers. from Barbados, the Nembhard brothers campus, no one who could visibly iden- The African Americans continued from Jamaica, Bernard Benn from tify with their concerns, although there to come slowly but steadily. Many of Trinidad, many from New York, such as were teachers and faculty who were kind those from the islands first experienced Louis Dixon, and others from around the to students. Yet the black students con- racism on a Christian campus, while at United States. In spite of the undercur- tinued their outstanding tradition of lead- the same time most of the whites adjusted rent of racism, they were able to enjoy a ership, scholarship and service. to the experience of living with persons reasonable experience. In 1960, Llewellyn Mullings, an eco- of other ethnic groups and cultures. G. Ralph Thompson stated that he nomics and business major, received the The 1950s saw a more dramatic in- had no unmanageable problems. His ex- annual Wall Street Journal award as out- crease in the number of blacks on cam- perience was probably made easier be- standing senior in the business depart- pus. The 1958 yearbook observed that cause he was a minister who had already ment. Darrel Rollins served as spiritual "no two students are completely alike. A pastored before he arrived at AUC. He vice president of the Student Association college welcomes the conventional and served as pastor of both his junior and during the same year. While a freshman, the unusual, the vivacious and the lethar- senior classes. He also assisted H. E John Grayson spoke during the Week of gic, the diffident and the resourceful." Nembhard, who pastored the Hartford, Prayer and was later in charge of joint And so the graduates in this period seem Connecticut, and Springfield, Massachu- worships. In 1965 Leroy Reese served as to fit this description. But all the black setts, churches. Thompson also believes pfesident of Phi Delta Chi. In 1967 Isaac students did not feel welcomed. They that because the president at the time, Johnson won top prize in the SA Talent dealt with racism in every aspect of cam- Lawrence M. Stump, had served as M.V Festival, and he also functioned as SA pus life, sometimes winning, sometimes secretary of the South American Divi- vice president during the 1967-68 school Losing. sion and had worked in the Philippines, year. Lenore Spence was one of the per- "A black student from the fifties re- he was able to work with different groups sons chosen for inclusion in Who's Who members a class where on every test, the of people. in American Colleges and Universities. line between A and B was drawn just Others like Earl Richards, '54, con- Lee Parson served as co-editor of the above his mark. When he finally got the tinued the tradition of service; Richards Lancastrian ( AUC's student newspaper) highest grade on a test, the teacher gave held the positions of president of the in 1969. The class of 1968 chose Emory no A's at all." Additionally, for three Science Forum and vice president of Phi Tolbert as its president. semesters in Preston Hall, the Kappa Nu Delta Chi (the men's club). Godfrey In spite of all these accomplishments, Epsilon (women's club) nominating com- Jackson served as the senior class ser- many black students felt isolated and not mittee selected a popular black student to geant-at-arms. Every department of the affirmed by the larger society. As the civil run for president; three times the dean of campus seemed to have been colorized rights movement grew, AUC was held up women vetoed the nomination. She said during the 1950s. And the number of as an example of a Massachusetts college there were not enough black women in black graduates in this decade increased that had a respectable number of black Preston Hail to justify having a black from one in 1950 to 16 in 1957. Some still and Hispanic students. But the students president." When word of this leaked had to suffer indignities that made them themselves felt they were not being treated out, the students, both black and white, vow never to return to the campus once equally. There were no black professors rejected all the reports of the nominating they received their degrees. And as na- and no books on African American lit- committee until the dean allowed the tional events unfolded, including the Su- erature in the library. They needed to student's name to be submitted. Other preme Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of learn about themselves. Finally the col- forces also opposed the increasing num- Education, they must have wondered if lege awoke to the fact that with so many ber of blacks. A conference president is educators at AUC would allow them to excellent black students, black teachers alleged to have said that there were too feel equal and included. But the '60s were would be necessary. many black students at AUC and that still ahead. The new school year of 1965-66 saw

28 AD./INT/sr HERITAGE I Sp ring 1994 the usual crop of new faculty, but this time should go to Wayne Canton, an African dents seldom appeared in college programs. one of them was black. Alvin McClean, a American student from. New York City. As That night the entire college community saw professor in the English department, was head of the Negro History Week Commit- what we could offer... . the first black professor at AUC who tee, he was tenacious and tireless. He raised identified himself as black, a welcome funds from various sources, sought speakers A group of Black artists in Boston exhibited sight to the black students who were tired and presenters from near and far, and lob- their paintings in the library, in hallways of of hearing that "black people had no his- bied student groups and administrators for the administration building, and in the small tory" and other such false and demeaning input. student lounge. The images were powerful, statements. disturbing and in most cases, altogether ap- On February 12-17, 1968, the first With a modest contribution from the SA we propriate for an exhibit that meant to com- Negro History Week was conducted. Ac- were able to put together an impressive pro- municate the Black experience. This was a cord ing to the Lancastrian, "Ideas for such gram. One of the more promising events was new experience for AUC. a week stemmed from discussions on race considered too controversial for AUC... relations during the M.V. Weekend in It was an all-African American theatrical Dr. Calvin Rock delivered the Sabbath ser- September 22-23." Some students thought group that presented Black American history mon. I recall that the theme had to do with that human relations could be improved in songs, sketches and dances. . . brotherhood. on campus if persons had more knowledge about other groups. The idea was pre- The presenters who passed scrutiny were This program was a landmark in the his- sented to the Human Relations Commit- quite good. . Our most famous speaker tory of the school and a sort of coming of tee, which in turn formed a subcommittee was Senator Edward Kennedy. Dr. John age for blacks at AUC. No longer would to plan the week. The theme for the week Christian, on the History faculty at AUC, their voice be muffled on the campus. was "Understanding through Education." used his friendship with Senator Henry Jack- Later that same year, Martin Luther Massachusetts senator Edward Kennedy son of Washington to reach Kennedy's of- King, Jr., was assassinated. Students led spoke on the first day. The program for fice. . . by Cecil Thompson joined the commu- the week also featured black history, art, nity in a service for the slain leader on the religion, and education. Most agree that one of the highlights of the steps of the Clinton courthouse. A me- The chair of the Human Relations week was the performance of the Black stu- morialservice was held on campus. Speak- Committee, Emory Tolbert, '68 (who was dent choir organized by Isaac Johnson, '68 , ers included McClean and James J. Lond is also senior class president) remembers it a senior English major. We sang a program of the theology department. AUC presi- this way: of spirituals for the Friday night program. dent Herbert Douglass read from the Old Most of the credit for organizing the event Unfortunately, many talented Black stu- Testament, "Do you know that a prince has fallen?" What would befall the cause of civil rights? For AUC's blacks it was a time for leadership and organization. The catalyst that sparked the organi-

Left: A portrait of Jon Robertson, left, founder and director of the Thayer Conservatory of Music and the Thayer Conservatory (now Symphony) Orchestra, hangs in the lobby of the conservatcrry . Pictured with Robertson are his wife, Florence, and. Standley Gellineau, chair of the graduate social work program at Walla Walla College.

Right: Tysone Scott was president of AUC's Student Association during the 1988439 school year. nation was the denial of re-admission in gram on the campus. tee, chaired by Eugene Gascay (from the 1969 to a black student, Ronald Dolger, The key factor in pushing the debate department of education), along with because the administration believed he further was the declaration by President Alvin McClean (English), James Londis "had a bad attitude." But the underlying Douglass that he would support the black (religion), John Christian (history), and concerns were the incidents blacks had students' proposals, since he was "presi- (art). The committee's task coped with for many years, plus the ha- dent of black students with all their aspi- was to investigate a way of determining rassment of black students during the first rations as well as president of all other how meaningful recognition and empha- Black History Week program. Addition- students." True to his word, he presented sis could be given to black Americans and ally, blacks wanted to be understood and the proposals to the faculty on October other cultural groups within the present to function as full members of the com- 27, 1969. In the meantime the students curriculum. The group also discussed the munity. So on September 21, 1969, stu- established their union and chose offic- possible formation of a black studies pro- dents held a meeting on the patio of ers. The sponsor was the lone black fac- gram. AUC's White House, which housed the ulty member, Alvin McClean. He felt Unfortunately, in the middle of the English department. The outcome was that the organization was important as a school year Herbert Douglass accepted the decision to form a black student union, means of fostering self-identity for black an invitation to become an associate edi- and the formation of a seven-member people. Further, he believed it would tor of the Review and Herald. Some of the committee to write a constitution for the reduce tension and would be a respon- black students felt that he had been "fired" organization. sible body dealing with racial problems because he supported their proposals. As would be expected, this action on campus. Its objectives were: Later that year, some of the seniors were caused a furor on campus. Some felt that threatened, and a cherry bomb exploded these black students were creating a sepa- I . to provide a source of cultural identity, outside a black student's room in Lenheim ratist organization. Some faculty were and to have a base of support and guidance Hall. The black students eventually left sympathetic, others openly opposed. The for all black students; campus and submitted a series of de- black students knew this was serious busi- 2. to foster and encourage an academic mands to the administration, with the ness and held many caucuses and prayer atmosphere and environment which would understanding that if these demands were sessions, as well as a day of fasting on provide an impartial overview of the achieve- not met, all of AUC's black students October 14. Three former AUC au- ments of mankind; would leave and inform the federal gov- dents, ministers in the Northeastern Con- 3. to provide programs and activities that ernment—with the result that the school ference, attended and participated in the will have academic social and spiritual appeal would lose some of its federal funding. discussions with the students. for blacks; Many teachers negotiated, and the The Lancastrian reported that the 4. to help combat racial prejudice and dis- committee on black studies continued its objectives of the union were focused in crimination and to expose practices contrary three areas—education, religion, and rec- to the concept of human brotherhood; reation. Educationally, the union planned 5. to establish effective communication to address curriculum changes, tutoring, between the off campus black community and scholarships. The students also hoped and AUC. to supplement the religious activities pro- The students were able to formulate their Susan Willoughby '56, chair of the sociology/ proposals so quickly because the issues social work department, chaired AUC's Centen- they addressed were ones that touched nial Commission, which was responsible for the them deeply. Additionally, many of them celebration of the school's 100th birthday in 1982 . had come with high expectations from Opposite Page: In recent years, a number of their various high schools. (For instance, Haitian students have studied at AUC. One of most of the top officers and students from them, Junon Volny Joseph '89, who served as Northeastern Academy had come to Student Association president in 1986, cam- AUC that school year.) paigned as the candidate "for everyone." Her political support cut across racial and ethnic A spin-off of the discussions was the lines. formation of the Black Studies Commit-

30 ADVENTIST HERITAGE / Spring 1994 work. There was enough good will on ment, "It should be the goal of the college and psychology/behavioral science from campus that on February 3, 1970, the to ensure a black minimum balance in that of Susan Willoughby. Both made Black Christian Union was incorporated administrative officers, teaching person- indelible marks on the institution, their into the structure of the Student Associa- nel, and student officers approximating colleagues, and their students; the former tion by a nearly unanimous vote of the the racial structure of the student body." remained on the faculty for five years, faculty. The new president, William O. The articulation of this goal made AUC while the latter has made AUC her home Nelson, Sr., termed the incorporation of one of the first SDA colleges to confront until the present. the BCU "a landmark in the institution the issue of race relations. Robertson had been a familiar face of AUC." The Black Studies Committee In earlier years, blacks had demon- on campus, performing as a guest artist in also recommended the following: strated their individual abilities; now they musical programs a few years before. He had shown their strength as an organized was studying at the Juilliard School of The appointment of the president of the group. They had pushed the college in Music completing his doctorate when he Black Christian Union as secretary for black the direction of justice and it had re- was asked to join the AUC music faculty affairs and as a member of the executive sponded positively. As a non-black stu- as chair of the department. He made two committee of the SA. dent, Cheryl Mattingly, wrote: requests before he considered the offer: Senate membership to be increased CO first, that the music department be moved include three representatives from the Black There are people from Founders Hall to the Thayer man- Christian Union. Black people sion, and, secondly, that he be able to All faculty committees which involve City people form the Thayer Conservatory Orchestra student representation to include one black No longer strange people. (now known as the Thayer Symphony student nominated by the BCU . Friends. Orchestra). The administration agreed, Black students or faculty members to be This is what college has taught me. and he came to AUC—becoming not included on all faculty committees. only the first African American to head a The new decade began with a new major department at AUC, but also the Other recommendations that were sense of being. Old feelings lingered, but first at any Adventist college in North approved included the formation of a some made a valiant effort to ensure that America. new Human Relations Committee and the statement on race relations was not The music department was soon the adoption of a formal statement on forgotten. As interaction become more moved to Thayer Hall, and within a few race relations. According to this state- relaxed and frequent, with more students months Robertson had also organized working together, lasting friendships de- TCO as a link between the college and veloped between blacks and those of other the community. Once the orchestra was races. Everyday battles in classrooms, off the ground, he started the Preparatory dormitories, and the cafeteria still had to School of Music, which eventually served be fought, but with an increasing number hundreds of youngsters. He also insti- of blacks in the student body the campus tuted various curriculum changes, defin- came more readily to accept the contri- ing the structure of the music program butions of blacks. and insisting that each performance ma- This was most evident in the hiring jor have a second major not in music. of black faculty and staff. Alvin McClean (His goal was to ensure that AUC's music was joined by a recent graduate, Edith majors were as employable as possible.) Fraser, who taught in the sociology de- Not everyone welcomed the speed partment in 1970. Both were gone by the with which he was able to do things. In end of that school year, but, undaunted, spite of his accomplishments, some felt the president and dean looked for other that too much was happening too fast. qualified blacks to fill teaching positions. "What happened in one year, I would In 1972 two outstanding black faculty have been perfectly happy if it had hap- were added to the college. Music ben- pened in ten years," was the response he efited from the presence of Jon Robertson received for his energy, creative vision,

AFRICAN AMERICANS 31 and outreach. But the students loved him, numerous students, planned many pro- teaching of Caribbean and African were proud of him, and felt empowered by grams, and initiated projects such as the American literature has fluctuated. In him. Unfortunately, in 1976 he left AUC purchase of robes for the BCU choir. As 1977, Lee Parson, '69, joined the college and went to Sweden to study conduct- a spokeswoman for black issues on cam- staff as assistant librarian. When Oscar ing. But the changes he made in the pus, she alerted one president to the fact Schmidt retired, she replaced him as Li- music department have stood the test of that coming into to Haskell Hall must be brarian. She has updated the library and time, and subsequent department chairs intimidating for black students, because mounted outstanding displays. Slowly have continued to build on the solid there were no faces like theirs in any of the campus was trying to attract black foundation he laid. the offices. Soon there was a change in faculty as the black student population Susan Willoughby, '56, was the the look of Haskell Hall. college's first black graduate to join the Always on the go, she has faculty. She and Robertson co-sponsored written a motivational the BCU in 1972. Willoughby had com- book, The Go-Getter. In 111 pleted a BA in chemistry at AUC, but she 1990 she received a Zapara was returning with a doctorate in educa- Award for Excellence in tion from Harvard. After working on cam- Teaching and was named fit pus for eight years, she established the Alumna of the Year by department of sociology/social work, serv- AUC's Alumni Associa- ing as chair. She has seen the department tion. accredited into the next century. Addi- In 1976, the year tionally, she returned to the classroom at Robertson left, two new Boston University School of Social Work blacks joined the faculty, to earn an MSW so that she could be Carolyn Cooper, assistant qualified to teach all of AUC's social professor of English, and work courses. She also attended Boston Melvin Peters, assistant University School of Medicine, from professor of religion. Still, which she received an MPH. In 1986 she altogether there were only started the community-oriented Social three black teachers, and Work Satellite Nutrition Center. In ad- Peters left after only one dition to her academic duties, she has year. Cooper remained for engaged in a variety of other activities four more years and was on- and off-campus—serving, for in- instrumental in diversify- stance, as chair of the AUC Centennial ing the curriculum of the Commission. English department. As sponsor of the BCU she has helped Since her departure, the

Clockwise from top right: Three current black faculty/staff members: Lethiel Parson '68, library director; Bruce Wells, dean of men; Joan Francis '73 , professor of history .

Gosnell Yorke was one of three new black faculty members during the 989-90 school year. He taught in the theology department and was a sponsor of the Black Christian Union.

Susan Willoughby, '56, was the college's first black graduate to join the faculty. She chairs the sociology/social work department.

Carol Allen, vice president for academic affairs since 1992, has fulfilled the goal of the the college's 1969 race relations statement that coiled fora "black minimum balance in administrative officers . . . ."

32 ADVENTIST HERITAGE / Spring 1994 continued to increase in the '70s. behind efforts to bring John Weidner, an highest students' offices. The black-white The nation was moving in the direc- Adventist rescuer of Jews and others dur- coalition of James Coleman-Richard tion of valuing all its people because of ing World War II, to the campus in April Tibbitts was elected to the SA presidency the civil rights movement. AUC contin- of 1990. Meanwhile, as the sponsor of in 1971-72. Junon Volney Joseph cap- ued to set the pace in Adventist educa- BCU, he maintained the traditions of the tured the SA presidency in 1986, Tysone tion. Black students now had an organi- organization. Scott did so in 1988.89, and Ruth zation through which to funnel their cre- Joan Francis, '73 was the first full- Carnegie filled out the term after the ative energy and complaints. The BCU time female in the history department. president resigned in 1989-90. was a dynamic organization, and the choir And Jaeiza Harmal, from Washington, Only two major episodes have that was organized for the first Negro DC, was the newcomer in the sociology/ strained relations in recent times—a trip History Week became a fixture of the social work department; her clinical back- by the New England Youth Ensemble (a organization. Black students were seeing ground enhanced her teaching. Unfortu- predominantly white group) to South more black role models on campus. This nately, she taught at AUC for just one Africa in the 1988-89 school year and a encouraged them to be more active in year, white Yorke remained on the fac- proposed trip by the ensemble and the college departments and clubs. ulty for only two, so once again the num- college choir in 1989-90. Both black and The '80s saw another effort to diver- ber of black faculty decreased. However, white students were among those who sify the faculty. Rose Henry came to teach the school was fortunate to hire D. Rob- objected, although some tried to make in the nursing department and Wil ert Kennedy in 1991 to replace Yorke in the trip an exclusively black issue. Com- Kitching and Randall Phillips taught theology and Juliette Willoughby and bined black-white opposition ultimately business. Kaestner Robertson, a student Margaret Howell-Walton to replace derailed the planned trip. The debate at Boston University, joined the music Harrnal. More recently, Saul Torres joined provided an opportunity for all groups on faculty. Mary Meade was appointed assis- the education department, Ninon campus to share intimate feelings and tant dean and later served as cooperative Amertil t nursing department, and Gre- experiences. Additionally, the Rodney education director. In 1985 Bruce Wells gory Allen the religion department. King incident in California gave the en- became the first black men's dean in an This list might look impressive, but tire campus an opportunity to hear of Adventist college apart from Oakwood. taken on a year-by-year basis, the largest some of the lingering injustices that some Henri Noel, AUC's first Haitian instruc- number of black faculty has not exceeded blacks confront even in the 1990s. tor, has chaired the modern languages six in any given year. Since the 1950s AUC has had an department since 1989. Vital staff support is exemplified in increasing enrollment of blacks. Figure 1 Even though it was difficult to retain the persons of Gwen Ashley, the below illustrates the number of black these faculty members, others followed president's administrative assistant, who graduates by decade since 1930. during the '80s. The middle of the decade came to AUC in 1989; Fiona Ghosn in In spite of progress, the challenges saw a change in administrative leader- the registrar's office; Marjorie Whidbee continued. While sponsor of the BCU, ship and a renewed commitment to di- and Sandra Caddell in the library; Yorke called the black faculty and staff versity as an asset. A new drive was made Alourdes Noel as assistant to the dean of together as a support group for the BCU to attract and retain black faculty. At the women; and Betty Swanston in food ser- students. Out of their discussions origi- beginning of the 1989-90 school year, vices. The campus has worked to ensure nated the Black Faculty and Staff organi- three new black faculty joined the col- that every facet of life, especially reli- zation. This group has been able to make lege community. Gosnell Yorke, from gious services, reflects the diversity of the suggestions, provide solutions, and work Canada, became a member of the theol- student body. That this has gone beyond with administration on difficult issues, ogy department. He was soon impacting tokenism to an acceptance of using quali- including personnel, ranking, recruit- the campus with his energy and challeng- fied persons of whatever color was clearly ment, staff, and student concerns. ing classes. He was instrumental in get- demonstrated by the appointment of] ohn Simultaneously the faculty, staff, and ting the theology department to become Nixon as senior pastor of the College some administrators began analyzing the a member of the National Honor Society church in 1992. lack of black alumni returning for home- for Religious Studies and Theology, Theta Slowly the campus has accepted the coming weekends. In April 1990 a group Alpha Kappa. With Roger Preston, of the idea that everyone belongs. Black stu- of all black alumni and staff met. This was art department, he was the driving force dents competed more equitably for the the beginning of another organization,

AFRICAN AMERICANS 33 known as the Black Alumni of AUC. (It References seems that before this, in 1977, there was an attempt to form an Afro-American References for this article are available upon Chapter of the AUC Alumni. The presi- request. dent then was Ashton Gibbons and the vice president was Susan Willoughby. The Black Alumni of Atlantic Union College (BAJAUC) held its first home- Figure 1: AUCBlackGraduates, 1930.1993 (bydecade s) coming in September 1990, and it was a notable success. Seventy or more alumni returned, including Cecelia R. Foster, a representative of the classes of 1945-47. Since then more alumni have returned and also have been donating money to help current black students. During the first BA/AUC homecoming weekend, $10,000 was raised in gifts and pledges for a scholarship fund for current students. Each year the BA/AUC has given out about five scholarships. The black alumni also have been active in mentoring stu- dents. As Figure 2 above illustrates, the pool of black alumni is quite substantial. One needs to remember, however, that these numbers will be conservative, as some students came for a year or two and then transferred out or left. Currently, blacks serve efficiently and comfortably in almost every capacity on campus. With other ethnic groups, blacks Figure 2: are continually seeking for better rela- AUC Black Gradtultes, 1951-1993 tions among all people. Finally in 1992, the fulfillment of the goal of the race relations statement in 1969 occurred. The statement read, "h should be the goal of the college to ensure a black minimum balance in administrative officers, teach- ing personnel, and student officers ap- proximating the racial structure of the student body." Dr. Carol Allen, the first black female administrator, was appointed vice president for academic affairs in 1992, after a lengthy and thorough search pro- cess. AUC continues to lead the way, and blacks remain in the forefront of those seeking to ensure that it is a college of which all people can be justly proud.

34 ADVENTIST HERITAGE / Spring 1994 C H I L 17 11 0 0

South Lancaster Childhood* Growing Up on (Well, Next Door to) the AUC Campus

By Jocelyn Fay

remember the pot-holed driveway-entrance to the cafete- dad, a painting contractor, and my mom, Bartlett Art Gallery as the Thayer Orni- ria, the parking-lot-that-once-was-a-ten- a schoolteacher and then a grocery store thological Museum, where stuffed birds nis court, and the campus health center. clerk, moved to this town to give me a nested in glass display cases. And that little brown building, built in Christian education. I remember Browning Memorial the Craftsman era, I remember as the home In the summer of 1991, I returned to School, not as a common brick building of my third-grade friend, Jon Van Horne. my alma mater to work, after living else- on the periphery of the campus, but as a I grew up in South Lancaster. where for 24 years. The move back home, gracious and stately white frame building My first sojourn on the Atlantic just a few miles from my family's home in smack in the middle of it. Union College campus lasted 15 years, Princeton, brought along with it some I remember the Toy Cupboard Pup- from second grade through college. My interesting feelings. pet Theater when it was pink and when it commanded attention on its corner of Main Street and George Hill Road. It made way for Lenheim Hall when it was moved to an inconspicuous spot down the road and painted gray. I remember Zip Cosimi's restaurant on Prescott Street, where the novelty of sip- ping a soda fountain treat called an "orange cow" appealed to my sense of adventure. I remember Flagg Street, which once upon a time cut across campus from Main Street to Maple Street, by the power house. Students walk over it every day now, probably never even imagining that it might have existed. They know it only as a

CHILDHOOD 35 One of them was understanding of Like Annie Dillard and other chil- The academy dorm was a massive, how Rip Van Winkle must have felt. I dren of the '50s, my world was small— three-story building in the empty, grassy came back to a town I knew—but didn't only as large as central South Lancaster area between Chant Hall and Prescott know. Walking around town, I'd say to and the main part of the AUC campus. In Street. It housed hundreds of SLA students myself, "Oh yes, this used to be . ." It the summers after my ninth birthday, when in its heyday, before somebody's small elec- took several months to reacquaint myself I got a bicycle, I cycled up to the Lancaster trical appliance started the fire that de- with the town as it is, while reminiscing Library, and occasionally I ventured as far stroyed part of it and eventually led to its about childhood in a New England town away from home as Sterling Road, or demise. It wasn't long afterward that South that was. Kilboum Hill, but mostly we hung around Lancaster Academy became a day school. Probably the biggest jolt came when our own neighborhood, within calling The grove of pine trees behind East/ I walked down Prescott Street, saddened distance of home. West Hall was a wonderful place to play. by the decaying buildings that were, at My parents and I lived in a big brown The trees were smaller then and made a one time or another, Ponte's garage, the apartment house on Sawyer Street, next nice hideaway that could be a house or a post office, the Academy Cleaners (when door to the Village church. Actually, our fort or anything else we imagined. they added greeting cards and gifts, the apartment was so close to the Village Coming from there toward Founders owners changed its name to the Academy church that on a summer Sabbath, when Hall, which we knew as the music build- Shop), Louie the Barber's, Roy's Bakery, the church windows were open, we could ing, were three white buildings in a row. and Zip's restaurant (later College Town hear the service clearly from our front The first was Chant Hall, a faculty apart- Lunch), where Aunt Ruth's and my fa- porch. That apartment house exists only vorite table was by the window, where we in my memory, because it's been replaced could watch the passers-by. by the church fellowship hall. What does Much of the center of town, the hub remain of the old Cady house is about of my childhood universe, has been torn three yards of concrete wall that probably down to provide parking space for the has no significance to anyone in the world Village church and the Southern New but me. I fell off it once and broke my arm. England Conference office. To this day I On the corner where the church park- lament the loss of the Cream Crock, where ing lot is now, was Dever's Market, a Aunt Margaret used to take me for choco- mom-and-pop store that sold groceries. I late ice cream sodas. frequently was handed a quarter and asked As the "wheres" of childhood began to run down to the corner for a carton of coming back to me, so did the "whats." milk. The store always had plenty of soft Soon after returning, I read Annie Dillard's drinks and candy to sell to the South book, An American Childhood, which chal- Lancaster Academy dormitory students lenged me to see how much I could re- who lived across the street in Fist and member about my own growing-up years. West Hall.

Previous page: Browning students march along Main Street in the Founders Day Parade, April 1952. (This was the year before the author started school, but she is pictured at left, jump the right of the "doctor," holding the hand of her aunt, Margaret Hirt, whose sister, Ruth Hirt, was first and second grade teacher at Browning.)

Clockwise from above tight: Two grade-schoolers dressed in Founder's Day parade costumes. The Indian on the left is Robert Sm. Around 1953.

Lynda Gardner rind, on Van Home in costume as Dutch children for a Founder's Day parade. Around 1953.

UMstPd photo of Browning saiderus marching up the now-nonexistent Flagg Street in a Founders Day parade. Browning Memorial School is in the background.

The author, drecsrcl as May with her little lamb, fora Founder's Day parade, probably 1953.

36 AovErrns-r HEUTAGE / Spring 1994 merit building where my friend Lucille really want to teach after all!) We faith- chalks and erasers! No paint on the floor! Schmidt lived. Then came Miles Hall, fully earned our MV honors. We memo- No character!) In the early grades, before the science building. It was another fun rized poems and songs for the programs we we were old enough to play real instru- place to play if you knew the people who put on for our parents every year. And we ments, we played blocks and drums and had keys to let you into the basement even had a school newspaper, the Brown- bells and tambourines in a rhythm band. storage room. Next in the row came ing Memorial News, that offered me an And we learned safety songs. I still Browning Memorial School. It had three introduction to journalism. can sing two of them, one about remem- stories above ground and a basement level Our world in the '50s was pretty much bering my name and address in case I got that opened in back onto the playground, white, Adventist, and middle class, but I lost, and the other: where I slid, swung, and see-sawed through don't remember it as being exclusive. Our Ice skating is nice skating, but here's some hundreds, maybe even thousands, of re- names reflected our ancestry— advice about ice skating. cess periods. Guadagnoli, Van Horne, Badillo, Never skate where the ice is thin. I have no idea how many of us went Martinsen, Deitemeyer, Rodriguez. We Thin ice will crack and you'll fail in, and to school there at any given time, but didn't have many black and Hispanic come up with icicles under your chin—If you Browning was small enough that we knew classmates, but we had a few. They—and skate where the ice is thin! everybody—big, little, and in between. a few returned "missionaries' kids" like In fourth grade I joined beginners' Maybe that's because there were only four Bill Smart and Ruth and Laura Currie— band and learned to play the clarinet. Our classrooms, two grades to a room. We helped us understand that the world was director, Ellsworth Judy, taught us early in were pretty good kids, as I recall. We bigger than South Lancaster. ( Mrs. Chen, life to appreciate classical music. (My dad launched dozens of student teachers on who told us stories about China in Sab- once asked, "You're playing what? 'Come, their careers. (It's possible, I suppose, that bath school and at camp meeting, also Sweet Death'?") But most of the kids I we even convinced a few that they didn't expanded our horizons.) knew in the upper grades at Browning We even had a few non-Adventist balanced that with a healthy dose of rock classmates. Specifically, I remember a girl and roll. I used to fall asleep listening to whose father was a minister in Lancaster. the "top 20" on my radio, playing it very She came to our school because she some- softly, of course, so as not to bring the times had epileptic seizures, and her par- music to the attention of my parents, who ents felt more comfortable sending her to weren't as fond of Elvis as I was. Browning than to public school. The Browning Memorial Elementary At some point in the fifth or sixth School Band (comprising intermediate- grade, a student teacher named Ardy level players) was a spiffy looking outfit. Griswold taught us how to sing "White We had maroon capes with gold satin Christmas" in Spanish, and to this day linings. When we flipped our capes back "Navidad blanca" is part of my holiday over our shoulders, the gold satin shim- vocabulary. mered in the sunshine. My childhood was filled April 19, Founders Day, was a major with art and music. Be- holiday on campus, one to be joyously sides art cla'.ses in school, celebrated with a tree planting and a Myron Mills and Lynda parade. Band members led the procession, Gardner and I attended playing march music. Lacking a float, we art classes every week at rode high on a hay wagon from the farm. Dorothy Rand's art stu- And as we bumped along, we prayed fer- dio, about a block down vently that we wouldn't humiliate our- Bolton Road. (A real selves by falling off the wagon. estate agent held an open The rest of the school kids followed, house there recently. dressed in costumes or riding bicycles they Mrs. Rand's studio is now had decorated. Little kids came first, then a fami ly room. No smelly bigger ones, then the seventh and eighth

CHILDHOOD 37 graders, embarrassed to death that they I was baptized by Elder Knapp with the other eight volumes. When I needed had to be in the parade at all. Fortunately, most of my seventh and eighth grade these books for classes later on, I had it didn't last long, because the entire pa- classmates. I was certain that Jesus would them, while other college students I knew rade route just took us around the block. come before 1960, and scared that I had to borrow such basic books as The In addition to Founders Day, spring wouldn't be ready. Desire of Ages from the library. brought Sabbath afternoon walks down When it came to forming the spiri- Another thing Mrs. Gardner did for behind the barn, where we found dog- tual values I live by today, probably no- us is unique in Adventism, I think. She tooth violets and other spring flowers— body had a stronger influence on me than wrote to Adventists we all knew, like some of them planted, no doubt, by the my seventh and eighth grade teacher, Review editor F. D. Nichol and storyteller legendary Thayer family. Spring also Evelyn Gardner. Eric B. Hare, and asked each to send her brought freedom from "leggings," the cor- Mrs. Gardner had the notion that her a personal copy of one of their favorite " duroy or wool pants we girls wore to school people" (as she called us) should learn to Spirit of Prophecy books. Those in our under our skirts to keep our legs warm. appreciate our Adventist heritage early in class who wanted to—and that was most On hot summer afternoons our moth- life. She took us on field trips to places of of us—went through those books page by ers got us out from underfoot by giving us denominational interest. One of them page, underlining in our own books the ten cents and sending us to Rowell's Mar- was the home of J. N. Andrews in North same thoughts these "famous" people had ket. Rowell's was famous for its ice cream Lancaster. Andrews was living there when underlined in theirs. cones. A dime would buy us one double- he was called to Europe to become the As I recall, we did this during the part scoop cone or two single scoops. first Adventist overseas missionary. of the day when she read us stories, and 1 Autumn brought back the leggings, Mrs. Gardner must have known that admit that we did it rather mindlessly, as well as the spectacular color of the someday her people would find reason to flipping through books with red pencils in maple trees between the union office ( now question Ellen White's role in the Seventh- hand, and underlining, without taking Prescott House, a classroom building) and day Adventist church. She may also have time to read what we were underlining. the music building (now Founders Hall). known that some of our parents were using But eventually we did get around to read- In winter, we ice skated on Thayer Ellen White quotations to discipline us. ing the books, and then we began to appre- Pond, trudging the long way home after (I'm grateful that mine never did.) ciate their value. dark, so nearly frozen and wet and sore we And so at school we studied about I'm indebted to my seventh and eighth could barely move. Or we sledded down Ellen White as a real human being, some- grade teacher and her elderly friend for Kilboum Hill, trying to land as close as one who wrote books that had something the most-of-the-time positive feelings I've possible to the creek at the bottom with- to say to us. Mrs. Gardner introduced us to had ever since then for my church. And to out falling in. books like Steps to Christ by assigning us to many of the saints who lived and died in Television came into its own during search for sentences or paragraphs we this town (I'm thinking of Nina Rowell's my grade school years, and I often hurried liked, and collect them in notebooks. recent death at age 93 and eleven-twelfths) , through my homework to watch it. At And she helped us buy our own Spirit of who made South Lancaster an accepting lunch time I rushed home from school to Prophecy books with the help of her friend and secure place for me to grow up. watch Big Brother Bob Emery, a Bostonian Bert Rhoads. He baked granola cereal Sadly, I know that it was not so for all of who hosted local heroes like Ted Will- that we kids sold from door to door to raise us youngsters. Abuse of various kinds hap- iams. After school, of course, was The money to supplement whatever our par- pened in those days, too. So did accidents and Mickey Mouse Club. I idolized Annette ents were willing to put into this project. death. But in the composing of our lives, our Funicello and wondered why I had been As a result, as an eighth grader I had a South Lancaster childhoods played a substan- cursed with blonde hair instead of pretty respectably sized Spirit of Prophecy li- tial part. It wasn't only the academy and college black hair like she had. brary that included Messages to Young students whose lives were molded by this As a kid I went Ingathering, not People, The Desire of Ages, The Story of institution and this town. because I liked it, but because everybody Redemption, and Steps to Christ. did it. I always came home from Ingather- As a graduation gift, Elder Rhoads *Revised version of a chapel talk, N ovember 26, ing field days with less money than any- gave each of us Volume 1 of the Testimo- 1991, and subsequent article in Accent on A UC, one else in my car, but it was OK—the nies and arranged with the Book and Bible winter 1992. Please keep in mind that this is name of the game was participation. House for our parents to get discounts on what I remember, not necessarily what was!

38 ADVENTIST HERITAGE / Spring 1994 H I S T 0 R Y

Living Peaceably AUC in Its New England Religious Context

By David Knott

New England has always become an example to the world. In 1630, Thirteen years after Winthrop wrote been fertile soil for religious concern and he wrote that if the colony would serve these words, settlers had moved as far debate. Since the founders came in 1620, the Lord, God would "make us a praise west as Lancaster, some 30 miles from the role of individuals' relation to God and glory so that men shall say of succeed- Boston. In this rich intervale of meadow- has been a central theme. There was a ing plantations, The Lord make it like land where the two branches of the feeling that the European experience had that of New England,' for we must con- Nashua River met, with Mount failed in Leading human beings to live sider that we shall be as a city upon a hill, Wachusett on the western horizon, the lives according to Biblical tenets. As the the eyes of all people are upon us. So that town of Lancaster began. In order to children of Israel, coining out of Egypt, if we shall deal falsely with our God in incorporate, the town needed a resident had failed in their covenant relationship, this work we have undertaken, and so minister. It was not until 1653 that the there was a conviction that the Old World cause Him to withdraw His present help town was able to persuade Joseph churches had failed in their mission. Here, from us, we shall be made a story and a by- Rowlandson, the only graduate of Harvard then, was a land of beginning again, a word through the world." College during the previous year, to ac- New World, a second chance, a fresh cept this frontier community as his par- opportunity to succeed. Book titles re- ish. Soon after his coming, he took as his veal this impulse: The American Adam, bride Mary White, daughter of one of the Errand into the Wilderness, The Machine in town's most prosperous families. (It is the Garen, Virgin Land. As Harvey Walsh from this White family that the lineage of writes in his introduction to William Adventist pioneer James White can be Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation, to traced.) "Cotton Mather, looking back at the early The founders of this town made ev- seventeenth century, Governor William ery provision that they could that "The Bradford was the Moses who led his people Lord should be in this place." The very to an English land of Canaan under the first item in the original covenant be- intimate guidance of God." tween the town and the colony began: John Winthrop, leader of the Puri- "First, for the maintenance of the minis- tan settlement in Boston, threw out the try of God's Holy word . ," followed by, challenge to his pioneer adventurers to "And further, we do covenant and agree

HISTORY 39 to build a convenient meeting-house for King Philip's War came to Lancaster Her wounded child soon died, and it the public assembly of the church and in February of 1676, when an Indian would seem from her account that only people of God to worship God according attack destroyed the town. The her faith in God sustained her. At the to His holy ordinances . ." The next Rowlandson home—its site marked to- coming of dawn on those bitter winter item in the covenant deals with the com- day by a large pine on the north side of the. mornings, her journal records, she praised pensation of the minister. Later (1708), AUG campus—was not spared. Mary God for preserving her life—and, on some at a renewing of the covenant, the Sev- Rowlandson has left a graphic account of occasions, her sanity—and for giving her enth Article read: the disaster that came to Lancaster and of the strength to keep her from taking her We also bind ourselves to walk in love one her subsequent captivity. Her book, The own life. toward another endeavoring our mutual edi- Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration When she was finally redeemed from fication, visiting, exhorting, comforting, as of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, was published the Indians in May, she wrote: occasion serveth, and warning any brother in 1682 and is considered a major contri- . . God's power is as great now and as or sister which offendeth, not divulging pri- bution to the early literature of New sufficient to save as when he preserved Daniel vate offences irregularly, but heedfully fol- England. She writes of witnessing the in the lion's den or the three children in the lowing the precepts laid down for the church deaths of relatives and neighbors, of be- fiery furnace. I may well say , as he, Ps. 107: dealing Matthew 18:15, 16, 17 . . . . ing wounded herself, and of being led 1, 2: "0 give thanks unto the Lord, for he is In Lancaster's old First Settlers Burial away as a captive by those whom she good; for his mercy endureth forever. Let the Ground is the grave of John Prescott, the believed to be the enemies of God. redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath man considered to be the founder of the As she was forced to leave her burn- redeemed from the hand of the enemy"— town. The witness of his life led to the ing home, a bullet struck her and her especially that I should come away in the placement of these words on his grave- child which she carried in her arms. From midst of so many hundreds of enemies quietly stone: February to May, she experienced great and peaceably , and not a dog moving his Inspired by the love of liberty and the fear of physical and mental agony as she trav- tongue. So I took my leave of them, and in God, this stout hearted pioneer, forsaking eled with her captors. However, from her coming along my heart melted into tears, the pleasant vales of England, took up his close experience with the Native Ameri- more than all the while was with them, and I abode in the unbroken forest. . . . His faith cans and despite what she thought of as was almost swallowed up with the thoughts and virtues have been inherited by many their cruelty, she gained a grudging admi- that ever I should go home again." descendants who in every generation have ration for their fairness and their moral After she returned to Lancaster and well served the state in war, in literature, at behavior. She comments that not "one of the remnants of her family, with her eyes the bar, in the pulpit, in public life and in them ever offered the least abuse of fixed firmly on God's blessings rather Christian homes. unchastity to me in word or action." than on her own anguishing experience,

Previous page: The Seventh-day Adventist church in South Lancaster was organized in 1864 with eight charter members, among them S. N. Haskell, founder of AUG. The building was erected in the late 1870s . One of several enlargements was made in 1899 to accommodate a General Conference session. Left: The "Rowlandson pine," planted by the town of Lancaster during the town's bicentennial in 1853. Center: Eight mansions appeared in Lancaster as the centerpieces of the Thayer family's vast comary estates. The mostsignificatuThrryerhome, as far as the family was concerned , was Nathcrniel Thayer II' s "homestead" built just behind the parsonage site in 1846. Nothingremains of this home. A Second Empire manse arose from a total remodeling in 1860. The home had the largest formal hail in New England, as well as a breathtaking three-stork. staircase. In 1902, Nathaniel Thayer /II had the mansion redesigned by the architect OgdenCodman, who encased the olderVictarianmansion inside a restrainednew shell of Gerogian Revival mansion and preserved the massive mahogany staircase. Right: Swedenborgians built a church near the center of Lancaster that survives as the home of the Lancaster Current Topics Club .

40 APVENTSST HERITAGE / Spring 1994 she wrote: Lord keep the city, the watchmen waketh of Believers in Christ's Second Appear- . . The Lord bath showed me the vanity of but in vain" [Ps. 127:11. ing," commonly known as Shakers, es- these outward things, that they are the Van- Nathaniel Thayer, whose legacy to tablished a center in nearby Harvard, ity of vanities, and vexation of spirit; that the region and to AUC includes the well- where, despite much persecution, they they are but a shadow, a blast, a bubble, and known Th ayer Conservatory, became the flourished until 1918. Among Shakers' things of no continuance; that we must rely town minister in 1793. He served for 47 basic beliefs were celibacy, separation on God himself, and our whole dependence years, leading out in laying the plans for from the world, communal sharing of must be upon him. If trouble from smaller the magnificent structure known as the goods, confession of sins, equality of the matters begin to arise in me, I have some- Bulfinch church. This Charles Bulfinch- sexes, and pacifism. They were interested thing at hand to check myself with and say, designed "meeting house" is a National in health, many were vegetarians, and Why can I troubled? It was but the other day Historic Landmark and has been called evidence of their long lives is seen on the that, if I had had the world, I would have one of the 14 greatest American struc- tombstones in their much-visited cem- given it for my freedom or to have been a tures of all rime. etery. servant to a Christian. I have learned to look During his ministry, Thayer faced Under the leadership of Mother Ann beyond present and smaller troubles and to many tensions and challenges as other Lee, they drew many members from the be quieted under them, as Moses said, Ex. religious organizations sprang up in and local towns, including Lancaster. Today, 14:13: "Stand still, and see the salvation of around Lancaster. A search for Utopia, these towns do their best to keep the the Lord." some new way of organizing society, was memory of the Shakers alive by preserv- One cannot read Mary Rowlandson, in the air. The Shaker Movement was ing their buildings, architecture, furni- or indeed, most of the founders of strong in North Lancaster and in the ture, and unique "lollipop" cemetery. The Lancaster, without being struck by the towns of Shirley and Harvard. Later, tran- Shakers attracted many visitors to their significance of scripture in their minds, scendentalists established a utopian ex- community, among them Ralph Waldo by the strength of "words to live by" in periment at nearby Fruitlands, Sweden- Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne from crucial moments of life. On a marble borgians built a church near the center of Concord. When the Millerite commu- tablet in the Lancaster library for all citi- town, and a Millerite community flour- nity to the north in Groton disbanded, zens to ponder today are the words: "The ished in nearby Groton. and when Fruitlands closed, a number of grass withereth, and the flower thereof The minister who followed Rever- their residents came to the Shakers. falleth away; but the word of the Lord end Thayer left his imprint on Lancaster Swedenborgian meetings began in endureth forever" [I Peter 1:24, 251. in a different way. Edmund Hamilton Lancaster before the middle years of the "Except the Lord build the house, Sears was said to have had "a poet's sen- nineteenth century. Followers of Swed- they labor in vain that build it; except the sitivity and prophet's conscience." His ish religious thinker Emanuel Swedenborg words are now formally organized in 1875, and their heard around as New Jerusalem church was built in 1881. his great hymn, The most famous missionary of this move- "It Came Upon A ment was John Chapman, better known Midnight Clear," as "Johnny Appleseed," whose birthplace is sung each year and early home was on the west side of at Christmas- Lancaster in what is today the town of time. A town his- Leominster. He not only planted apple torian wrote of trees, but also carried Swedenborgian him, "Mr. Sears tracts with him wherever he went in the made an impres- midwest. Johnny Appleseed was a veg- sion in this place etarian who did not want to harm any which the lapse other creature and was characterized as "a of years has not religious zealot for whom apple trees in effaced." their flowering were a living sermon from In 1791, the God." "United Society Another local development in the

1-LisToRy 41 religious foment of the nineteenth cen- a school in 1882. The denomination held ions to live peaceably through the years. tury was the coming of Bronson Alcott its General Conference session in the Lancaster was able to find room for a and the transcendentalists to Fruitlands, South Lancaster church (now known as variety of views about forms of worship on the east side of Lancaster in what is the Village church) in 1899, and the and the individual's relation to God. It is today the town of Harvard. While not school founded in South Lancaster by in this tolerant environment that AUC specifically a religious community, tran- church pioneer Stephen N. Haskell has has flourished over the years. scendentalism stressed health reform, veg- become Atlantic Union College. etarianism, cold showers and naturally A much more recent religious inno- References grown foods. (When Alcott advocated vation in the AUC area was the founding more light, fresh air, and comfort in of St. Benedict's Center by the Slaves of References for this article are available upon schools, he was ridiculed.) Even though the Immaculate Heart of Mary. In 1958, request. the experiment did not last long, its legacy under the leadership of Father Leonard of ideas and idealism had wide influence. Feeney, this Roman Catholic communal Today, through the generosity of Clara group purchased land in nearby Harvard. Endicott Sears, there is a group of muse- The strong views of Father Feeney led to ums along a beautiful hillside that ac- a proclamation of celibacy for the com- companies the old Alcott farmhouse and munity and a virtual separation from the its Alcott mulberry tree. An American Roman Catholic Church. Despite con- Indian museum, an art museum, and a flicts between liberal and conservative Shaker museum also attract a variety of views over leadership after Father Feeney's visitors and scholars to Fruitlands death, the community continues to flour- This is the milieu in which the Sev- ish today. enth-day Adventist Church was estab- Perhaps it was the tolerant and lib- lished. Adventists organized a local con- eral views of Nathaniel Thayer and his gregation in South Lancaster in the 1860s, influence on the town over the years that sent out their first foreign missionary in allowed for the diversity of religious opin- 1874, built a church in 1878, and founded

A few Shaker buildings remain in Harvard, Massachusetts, along with the Shaker's "holy hill" where they conducted religious services.

Several views of the Shaker cernetary in Harvard, Massachusetts, referred to as the "lollipop" cemetary because of the unique shape of the grave markers.

42 AnvEN-usT HERITAGE / Spring 1994 0 M E N

Four Influential Women at AUC

By Randall Mackie and Neal Norcliffe

Although Carol Allen, Atlantic of the English language. In 1882, Bell left to her students and cared for them all. Union College's vice president for aca- teach in South Lancaster and Hall gradu- It was nearly five years after she demic affairs, recently served briefly as ated. She returned to Kansas, where she began work at South Lancaster Acad- acting president, all of the duly elected taught for two years. Then she moved to emy that she finally moved with her heads of the institution have been men. South Lancaster to replace Bell, who had husband into their own house. Until Nevertheless, women have been very moved back to Michigan. then she had served as a house mother prominent throughout the history of the To many of her students, Hall was an for an auxiliary men's dorm. school. Four of those women are espe- intimidating figure. She The minds of cially notable for their influence and con- was tall and well com- her students were of tributions inside and outside the class- posed—always expecting great importance to room: Sara Jane Hall, during AUC's for- excellence from her stu- her. One student re- mative years; Rowena Purdon, in its early dents. In response to one membered seeing and middle years; Rochelle Philmon student who came to class her "sitting one Kilgore, in its middle period; and Ottilie unprepared and com- sunny afternoon" in Stafford, in the contemporary era. plained of lack of time, front of what is now she replied, "Time ?Don't called Founders Sara Jane Hall you have 24 hours like Hall, "reading Para- Born in Indiana in 1851, Sara Jane the rest of us?" dise Lost to a young Hall became an important figure in the Her classes were unlettered lad from early Adventist educational system in marked by strict study, the north country, South Lancaster, Massachusetts. She be- even to the point where who had met his gan teaching in Indiana at 14 and moved it seemed tedious, but no soul's awakening a year later with her family to Kansas. work was ever done for and was sitting There she met a farmer named Reuben G. the mere sake of passing spellbound as she Hall, whom she married at the age of 18. time; Hall wished for all explained the poem A few years later the couple sold their of her students to develop to him." farm and moved to Battle Creek, Michi- a love for the language as Rowena Purdon Despite her rig- gan, so that Hall could continue her edu- she had, and she realized orous standards and cation. She studied English with Goodloe that the could only happen if her students intimidating demeanor, her students Harper Bell, who fostered her apprecia- were given the tools and knowledge to un- had great respect for her. Often this tion for literature and increased her love derstand it. Hall had a genuine interest in respect developed into affection. Two

WOMEN 43 of her admiring students were Louis and her that the academy would offer every Although the majority of her teach- Gladys Machlan. After moving to course she needed, including Latin, and ing was done in South Lancaster, her Avondale, Australia, Louis wrote, "I would by the next week she was enrolled at career there was interrupted more than like so much to be in your class this year." South Lancaster Academy. Although once. In 1908 she moved to her native Gladys wrote, "I am more and more thank- Latin was not officially taught at the acad- state of Vermont to be near her elderly ful I was taught by you, for there is such a emy at that time, Ramsey kept his word parents. She returned to South Lancaster difference." and taught Latin to a class of one—Rowena in 1918 after their deaths and became the Sara Jane Hall continued teaching at Purdon. director of the normal (teacher-training) South Lancaster Academy until anemia Purdon graduated from South program. She transferred in 1923 to the placed her in the Springfield Sanitarium. Lancaster Academy in 1888. She officially mathematics department, where she She died at the age of 59 on August 4, joined the South Lancaster Academy staff taught until the fall of 1926, when the 1910. —Randall Blackie in 1892 and eventually became the most principal of Greater New York Academy influential woman became ill and had to be replaced. She Rowena Purdon teacher to follow Sara agreed to fill the position and remained Rowena Purdon is Jane Hall. Although there until 1928, when she returned once another outstanding fe- she became qualified again to South Lancaster. male figure in the his- to teach classes rang- Purdon's demeanor was one of tory of the South ing from general his- strength, determination, and discipline. Lancaster educational tory to physiology, her She expected order and obedience from system. But she was re- favorite subject was al- her classes, but always as a means to the luctant, at first, to be- ways mathematics. achievement of other goals. Discipline come a part of it. As a One student in her and responsibility were values which had teenager, while attend- 1926 geometry class brought her success in her life and which ing a Vermont camp 1926 commented that she therefore desired to pass on to her meeting, she tried ear- "Miss Purdon was al- pupils. She died on December 24, 1954. nestly to avoid the prin- ways at her hest in the —Randall Biackie cipal of South Lancas- teaching of geometry. ter Academy, Charles I shall never forget the Rochelle Philmon Kilgore Ramsey, who was re- delight she took in Rochelle Kilgore was born on July 25, cruiting students. Al- sharing with us the 1887, in Reynolds, Georgia. She began though she had been perfections ofform and teaching full time at the age of 17. She impressed by a presen- Sara Jane Hall distance and the accu- received her first bachelor's degree from a tation he had given at racy of angles and college in Tennessee, and later earned one of the meetings, she lines." another from Union College, Lincoln, had no interest in attending the new One of Purdon's greatest contributions Nebraska, in 1920. She taught at Union school in South Lancaster. to South Lancaster Acade my was the estab- College for a total of 10 years and received In her attempts to avoid the princi- lishment of an alumni association. Until a master's degree during that time. pal, she would dash off after meetings and 1926, there was no official alumni associa- She moved to South Lancaster to find refuge in secluded spots where Ramsey tion. Class reunions and get-togethers were marry Charles L. Kilgore, treasurer of the would not find her. Nevertheless, she was all left to the discretion of former students. Atlantic Union Conference. In 1936 she unable to avoid him the entire week, and However, Rowena Purdon and other alumni began teaching in the Atlantic Union eventually he confronted her with the began campaigning for the establishment College English department and served as proposition of attending school in South of an alumni association, and on May 14, its chair until 1960, when she focused her Lancaster. 1926, a six-member committee of the fac- efforts on recruitment and alumni. She responded by telling him that in ulty was appointed to make the necessary Her experience with overseas recruit- order to he properly prepared for college plans. Shortly thereafter, 56 charter mem- ing began shortly after World War II, she needed to take many more courses ben formed an association, and Purdon was when A UC president Lewis N. Holm sent than Bible and grammar. Ramsey assured chosen as its president. her to Germany to recruit Seventh-day

44 ADVENTIST HERITAGE / Spring 1994 Adventist servicemen who start Program II (now would soon be released from the Honors Core Pro- military duty. She made the gram), an advanced trip to Germany 25 times, per- course load designed sonally paying for all but one to push proven stu- trip. She also boarded a num- dents. She was a key ber of students in her home. In initiator of Fine Arts her later years she focused on Week (for which she alumni work as editor of the has directed many dra- Golden Chapter Newsletter, a matic productions) publication designed for women and the Adult Degree and men who had graduated Program (ADP). In from Atlantic Union College Rochelle Kilgore Ottilie Stafford the late 1950s, Stafford 50 or more years ago. also initiated the stu- Her contributions were not confined to Stafford graduated from Union Springs dent arts publication, Contours. the church, however. She was a correspon- Academy. She continued her education at Stafford is also an accomplished ad- dent for the Clinton Daily Item, writing more Atlantic Union College, receiving a Bach- ministrator. For most of the time between than 15,000 column inches, and a member of elor of Arts degree in history and music in 1962 and 1989, she served AUC as chair of the Lancaster Historical Society. 1941. In 1948, Stafford completed a master the English department. Under her leader- Rochelle Kilgore was a celebrated of arts degree in English history and litera- ship, the department has graduated many professor at AUC. In 1977 she became ture at Boston University, and in 1960, she teachers now serving in the Adventist the first recipient of an honorary doctor- completed a doctor of philosophy degree in school system and elsewhere. ate from the college. There is also a chapel literature, also at Boston University. Stafford's first stint as director of the named in her honor in Preston Hall, the Along with short terms of teaching ADP began in the summer of 1974, when women's dormitory, as well as well as a elementary school in Elmira, New York, she established the first working office for scholarship available to English majors. and Hickory, North Carolina, Stafford also the program. From 1989 to the present she As an English teacher at AUC, Kilgore taught on the secondary level for five years has continued to work hard on the develop- was so popular that she would fill rooms in Philadelphia, Phoenix, and Boston. She ment of the ADP, including the difficult with anxiously awaiting students even after has been actively teaching on the college task of encouraging teachers, already bogged classes had been moved because of limited level since 1948. Except for 1979-80, when down with full loads, to teach during two- capacity in a previous room. Her students she was a visiting professor at Loma Linda week winter and summer ADP seminars. were always attentive, hut not because of an and Andrews universities, Stafford has been She has also chaired the Academic intimidating demeanor or strict classroom a member of Atlantic Union College's fac- Self-Study Committee as it has prepared discipline. She was an intriguing teacher— ulty continuously since 1951. for several evaluation visits by the New and she spoke very softly! Stafford is probably best known for her England Association of Secondary Schools Kilgore died in her home on campus teaching. Focused on topics ranging from and Colleges (whose visiting teams have at the age of 105, on February 23, 1993. ethics to 20th-century literature to commented on the well-written reports —Randall Blackie Shakespeare, her classes are consistently she has authored), the committee that challenging. Although students are some- developed the current general education Ottilie Stafford times intimidated initially by the work toad core, and the Long-Range Planning Com- Ottilie Stafford has long been a center and Stafford's tough reputation, they quickly mittee. Stafford has also served on several of knowledge and energy on the campus of learn to appreciate her classes, in which open General Conference committees, includ- Atlantic Union College. Her interests and discussion of important issues is consistently ing the Committee on Academic Free- degrees range from history to English to encouraged. Many students credit Stafford dom and the committee that developed music. As a student, a teacher, an advisor, with being their most influential teacher. the new Seventh-day Adventist hymnal. and an administrator, she has continually Stafford has also helped to pioneer Next year Stafford will return to her contributed to the quality of AUC life. some of the most important and influential first love, teaching full-time in the En- Born in Middletown, New York, programs on AUC's campus. She helped to glish department. —Neal Norcliffe

WOMEN 45 NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID Riverside, CA 92515 Permit Na. 206