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Newsletter - September 2013 ASDAH Newsletter
The Association of Seventh-day Adventist Historians Fall 2013 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Letter to the Members Dear ASDAH Members, The Seventh Triennial ASDAH Conference*, held at Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska, is now history. But for those of you who attended its sessions, memories of clean, comfortable rooms, delicious banquet and cafeteria meals, stimulating papers and discussions, and delightful fellowship still linger. Kudos to George Gibson, Edward Allen, Sabrina Riley, Malcolm and Sharon Russell and their colleagues and student workers for planning and executing a first-rate convention! Despite inclement weather on Sabbath, the Allens demonstrated Cornhusker hospitality by inviting everyone over to their home for dinner and a tour of the Nebraska State House. In every respect, the weekend's events demonstrated careful, detailed planning and professional execution. Union College has "raised the bar" for the History Faculty at La Sierra University who will host our next triennial conference in the spring of 2016. Those of you who could not attend the 2013 conference may enjoy reading the summaries of its sessions provided in this issue. Most of the papers presented are available on-line or by writing to the presenters themselves. Yours for the best in history, Brian E. Strayer, Editor ASDAH Newsletter *Seven ASDAH Conferences have been held at the following venues: Southern College (1995); Walla Walla College at Portland, OR (1998); Andrews University (2001); Pacific Union College (2004); Oakwood College (2007); Washington Adventist University (2010); and Union College (2013). Summary of the Seventh Triennial ASDAH Conference On Thursday, March 21, John Wagner, Union College (UC) president, and George Gibson, ASDAH president, presided over a magnificent banquet in the President's Dining Room. After Andrew Howe, chair of La Sierra University's History Department, gave a tribute to the late Fred Hoyt (see below), Ron Numbers of the Department of Medical History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, delivered an informative (and hilarious) address on "John Harvey Kellogg and the Adventists." On Friday, March 22, attendees could choose from four morning sessions. "Profiles in Adventist Education: The Chairs of the Oakwood University Department of History and Political Science" featured presentations by members of Oakwood University's History Department, including Ciro Sepulveda on "Emmanuel Saunders: Empathetic Leadership"; Samuel London on "Clarence Barnes: The Will to Succeed"; Alfonzo Greene, Jr., on "Otis B. Edwards: A Standard of Excellence"; with a response from Doug Morgan of Washington Adventist University. The second session on world mission included Bruce Lo (University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire) giving a paper entitled "The Roles of Two Union College Brothers, J.N. and B.L. Anderson, in Facilitating the Adventist Church's Transition to a World Movement in the Early 1900s [in China]" and Malcolm Russell, academic vice-president of UC, speaking about "Contrasting Pioneers: The Relationship between Walter Ising and Bashir Hasso." At the third session, Ben McArthur (SAU) read a paper by Gary Land (AU Emeritus) on "Uriah Smith's Great Globetrotting Trip: Scandinavia (1894)"; Brian Strayer (AU) presented "Little Man, Long Shadow: The Legacy of J. N. Loughborough"; and Jeff Crocombe (PAU) talked about "SDA Reactions to Compulsory Military Service in Australia, 1903-1917." In the fourth session, Doug Morgan (WAU) read a paper on "The Significance of a Solid Start: Adventism and Race Relations, 1880-1920"; Glenn Phillips (Morgan State University) presented "The Shaping of Early Eastern Caribbean Adventist Leadership: Charles J. B. Cave and George E. Peters, 1884-1920"; while Ciro Sepulveda (Oakwood) compared "Booker T. Washington, Ellen G. White, and the Birth of the SDA Manual Training Schools." Following lunch, delegates had the choice of attending three afternoon sessions. At the first one, Dick Osborn (VP, Western Association of Schools and Colleges Accrediting Commission of Senior Colleges & Universities) presented a stimulating PowerPoint on "The Changing Ecology of Higher Education: A Threat to History Departments?" Audience response was vigorous and sometimes heated. In the second session, Kaitlyn Bylard (PUC student) talked about "Finding a Space to Thrive in the Societal Middle: Antebellum African Americans in American Society"; Chris Lovato (SAU student) presented "Parents, Curses, and Monkeys: An Examination of Racial Slavery Rhetoric in the Antebellum South"; and Erika Weidemann (PUC student) read her paper on "Ethnicity and Loyalty: The Volksdeutsche's Relationship with the Soviet Union." At the third session, Gil Valentine(LSU) discussed "How We Did Business: Conflict of Interest and General Conference Session Electoral Processes, 1897-1926"; John Grys (Associate Pastor, Wenatchee SDA Church) gave a paper on "A. G. Daniells and the Dilemmas of Adventist Leadership", followed by Ben McArthur's (SAU) presentation on "Balancing Contending Demands: A. G. Daniells between 1908 and 1910." Also in the afternoon Sabrina Riley, Library Director and UC Archivist, gave a tour of the Lora McMahon King Heritage Room at the UC Library. The day closed with Alden Thompson's (WWU) vesper talk on "Inquisitiveness and Reverence." On Sabbath, March 23, delegates attended Sabbath school and church at the College View Church, then ollowed Edward Allen (Religion Department, UC) to his home for dinner, warm fellowship, and a tour of the Nebraska State House in downtown Lincoln. Before departing on Sunday, March 24, attendees enjoyed a sumptuous brunch at the President's Dining Room followed by a short business meeting presided over by Malcolm Russell(UC). In brief, the attendees accomplished the following: (1) determined that the purpose of ASDAH is to focus on providing support to historians in Adventist institutions and churches and is not limited to the study of Adventist history itself; (2) voted that La Sierra University host the March 2016 ASDAH conference; (3) appointed a five-member steering committee to plan for the 2016 conference and a five-member constitutional committee to prepare an updated constitution for the association; (4) elected Edward Allen as ASDAH president with clearly defined duties to call meetings to order, write newsletter editorials, enforce membership policies, create marketing strategies and a web presence, and serve as a conduit for information to members via the newsletter, website, e-mails, and other media. Formal thanks were voted to newsletter editor Brian Strayer and to the NAD Department of Education which funds the newsletter. Members' attention was drawn to the ASDAH website (http://www.sdahistorians.org ) which includes the association's mission statement, papers from past conferences, minutes of past business meetings, a list of historians working on the history of the SDA Church, historians and history departments at SDA colleges and universities, Adventists writing history, and the revised constitution (www.sdahistorians.org/constitution.html). IN REMEMBRANCE Dr. Richard William Schwarz served at Andrews University for thirty-five years as a history professor, department chair, and academic vice-president. Born on September 11, 1925, near Wataga, Illinois, Dick attended a small rural elementary school, graduated from Broadview Academy in 1942, then enrolled at Emmanuel Missionary College for one year before enlisting in the navy during WWII. He served in the Fleet Post Office in Samar and Leyte, Philippines. In the fall of 1946 he returned to EMC where he majored in history with minors in English, business, and education. Following graduation in 1949, he returned to Broadview Academy to teach history and business courses while serving as librarian and registrar. In 1950 he married Joyce Anderson of Minneapolis; they had three children, Connie, Rick, and Dwight. In 1953 the Schwarzes went to Adelphian Academy where Dick taught government, history, and economics, while completing his Master of Science Degree in Library Science at t e University of Illinois. In 1955 the family moved to Berrien Springs where Dick began a distinguished career at Andrews University, first in the library (1955-58) and then in the History and Political Science Department (1958-90). He taught under-graduate courses in Western Civilization, Principles of Sociology, Russian History, Modern U.S. History, British Empire and Commonwealth, SDA History, and the first Black History course ever offered at Andrews University. He also taught graduate courses in Historical Methods and Research and Great Historians. In 1959 he earned a Master of Arts Degree in History at the University of Michigan and in 1964 completed his Ph.D. degree there. His Dissertation, entitled "John Harvey Kellogg, American Health Reformer," was published by Southern Publishing Association in 1970 as John Harvey Kellogg, M.D. Dick was Department chair from 1963 to 1974 and Academic Vice-President from 1977 to 1987 before returning to the History and Political Science Department from 1987 until his retirement in 1990. During his years at Andrews University, Dr. Schwarz co-directed two popular three-month summer tours of Europe with Dr. Merlene Ogden and completed the first denominational history textbook, Light Bearers to the Remnant (1979). He published dozens of articles in scholarly and professional journals such as Spectrum, The Journal of the Illinois State Historical Scoiety, Adventist Heritage, Andrews University Seminary Studies, The Library Journal, The Journal of True Education (predecessor of the Journal of Adventist Education), and the Dictionary of American Biography. He also presented papers at conferences of the Michigan Academy of Science, the Historical Society of Michigan, and the Association of SDA Historians and held active memberships in the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, the Association of SDA Histori- ans, Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Alpha Theta, and Phi Kappa Phi. In addition to his teaching, administrative, and scholarly contributions, he served as an editor and contributor for Adventism in America, Adventist Heritage Magazine, and the Association of SDA Historians Newsletter. In Michiana, he was a popular speaker at Kiwanis, Lions, Rotary, Exchange, and City clubs, while at Pioneer Memorial Church he served as a deacon, Sabbath school superintendent, and Seminary Sabbath School teacher. In 1990, after forty-one years of denominational service, he retired, first in Berrien Springs, and then in 1994 he and Joyce moved into Fletcher Park Villas in Hendersonville, North Carolina. From 2007 until his death at eighty-seven on May 16, 2013, however, they lived with their son Dwight and his wife Launnies in Kaneohe, Hawaii. On May 18, his ashes were buried at the Punch Bowl National Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii. Brian E. Strayer History Department Andrews University Dr. Frederick G. Hoyt I was lucky enough to grow up on the very same block where Dr. Frederick G. Hoyt lived. I used to love going over to his house after school, sitting in his living room and listening to his wonderful stories filled not only with entertaining moments, but also with nuggets of wisdom. Dr. Hoyt and his wife Vivian took an ac- tive interest in my education, and it was in large part due to his example that I later embraced history. Several decades later, I found myself in the same department, following in (but by no means filling) his footsteps. The manner in which Dr. Hoyt defined history at La Sierra cannot be understated. He matriculated as a freshman History Major there in 1937 and passed to rest as an Emeritus Professor of History in 2012, an incredi- ble 75-year span that allowed him to witness the institution grow rapidly. During the interim he spent four years in the United States Navy during World War II, held a few jobs at academies in California, and spent several years in graduate school at Claremont University, where he earned both a master's degree and a doctorate in history. But the main feature of his life was the more than 60 years he spent at La Sierra and the students and col- leagues whose lives he greatly enriched. Regarding academics, Dr. Hoyt was very well rounded. He was dedicated to campus service, at one point sitting on an almost unbelievable 38 different committees! (I always asked him why he couldn't find just one more!) He made research a part of his academic identity long before such a thing was expected or even valued, focusing in large part upon the early SDA church, the Spanish-American War, and the history of the Philippine Islands. He was one of only two faculty members who received a Fulbright Award while at La Sierra, taking a year to teach and conduct research in the Philippines. It is Dr. Hoyt the teacher, however, who will live on in the memories of students far and wide. He had a passion for history that was infectious, but his teaching was not always in the classroom, as I once discovered during one of the many times I watered his lawn while he and his wife vacationed in the Hawaiian Islands. Usually, I did a good job. Once, however, I accidentally left the water running for 72 hours straight, until a neighbor became agitated about the deluge affecting four surrounding properties and went door to door until he discovered the (ir)responsible party. I "fessed up" as the forgetful caretaker and spent the rest of the week fearing that I might see a different side of Dr. Hoyt upon his return. I still recall marching into his living room to make my apology, expecting a lecture. However, as I began telling Dr. Hoyt of my blunder, I noticed a familiar twinkle in his eye. After a short pause, he looked out the window at the lush foliage in his back yard and said: "Coming back to California, I was going to miss the jungles of Kauai. Now, I only have to walk out my back door for that experience!" He then told a story I'd never heard before, one involving a mistake he had made and the fruit it later bore when a similar situation presented itself and was successfully negotiated. I didn't realize it until years later, but his story was purposefully suited to the occasion, suggesting that learning results from making, but not repeating, mistakes. This was Dr. Hoyt at his best: storyteller, teacher, and, best of all, friend. Andrew Howse, Chair History Department La Sierra University News Notes Meeting of the Web Presence Committee The Web Presence Committee, chaired by Ed Allen of Union College, met in conference call on July 8, 2013 and decided to transfer all the papers given at the 2010 ASDAH Conference at Oakwood University to the ASDAH website. Additional matters discussed included putting the 2013 Conference papers on this website with embedded key words in the paper abstracts that will increase searchers' ability to find and use the papers; add a section for publication news where members could note their recent publications; host the ASDAH Newsletter; and add a "Contact Us" feature. The purpose of the ASDAH website should be a resource for SDA historians; make research done for conference papers widely accessible; facilitate communication with the ASDAH community; promote collaboration in research; and manage the triennial conferences more efficiently. The committee hoped soon to open a blog on the ASDAH website for members' use. The URL of the ASDAH website is at: www.sdahistorians.org Colleges and Universities Reports Andrews University In April 2013 the History & Political Science Department faculty elected Dr. Marcella Myers as the new chair; she is the first woman and also the first political scientist to chair the Department in the 140-year history of Battle Creek College, Emmanuel Missionary College, and Andrews University. During 2012-13, the Department had 35 Political Science Majors, 17 History Majors, and 3 Social Studies Majors for a total of 55 majors. Marcella Myers and Gary Wood teach political science courses while Kathryn Silva Banks (U.S., African-American), Brian Strayer (Early Modern Europe, SDA), John Markovic (Modern Europe, History of the Christian Church), and Robert Bates (adjunct, Ancient History & World Civ.) teach history courses. In March 2013 Brian Strayer presented a paper entitled "Little Man, Long Shadow: The Legacy of J. N. Loughborough" at the ASDAH Conference in Lincoln, Nebraska. His Loughborough biography for the Adventist Pioneers series will be published by the Review and Herald press in the spring of 2014. In the meantime, he has nearly finished the research for a biography of John Byington, prominent abolitionist, founder of the Wesleyan Methodist Church and the Liberty Party in St. Lawrence County, NY, and our first General Conference president. He is also updating his 200-page manuscript on the 165-year history of the Jackson, Michigan SDA Church and, with Dr. Barbara Reid, preparing for National Council for Social Studies accreditation in the spring of 2014. Denis Kaiser, Adjunct Professor in Adventist History, is writing his dissertation entitled "The History of Adventist Views of Inspiration between 1880 and 1930" to complete the Ph.D. degree at the SDA Theological Seminary in 2016. He is also assisting Stan Hickerson in the annotation of Ellen White's unpublished letters and manuscripts. In 2012-13 he published "The Reception of Ellen White's Trinitarian Statements by Her Contemporaries (1897-1915)" in Andrews University Seminary Studies 50, no. 1 and "Ellen G. White's Life of Christ: An Episode in the History of Early Adventist Translation Work" in Spes Christiana 22-23. He has had three book reviews published in Andrews University Seminary Studies and read five scholarly papers within the past year at Loma Linda University and Andrews University on topics ranging from Abelard's theology of atonement and Conditionalism among SDAs to Ellen White's Trinitarian statements. Morgan State University Glenn Phillips, Professor of History, teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in African Diaspora, Caribbean and Latin American History, Comparative Slave Systems, and Caribbean Migration Studies in the university's honor program. Since 2010 he has served on the University Council, is the alternate for MSU's president on the Maryland State Archives Commission, and in 2012 was the recipient of the Morgan State International Award. His published books include African American Leaders of Maryland (2004), The African Diaspora Experience (2008), and Singing in a Strange Land: The Hanson Place SDA Church of Brooklyn, NYC (2010). Southern Adventist University Lisa Diller, who chairs the History Department, reports that the faculty have developed a new major, Global Policy and Service. As part of the executive committee for the Southern Conference on British Studies, Lisa is recruiting participants. Her chapter, "My Historical-Prophetic Imagination: Creativity and History," was published recently in Manifest: Our Call to Faithful Creativity, edited by Jo Davis for Signs Publishing. Kris Erskine, who has just joined the faculty, is working on his Ph.D. in Sino-US relations, focusing on Frank Price, an American missionary who advised Chinese president Chiang Kai-shek in the 1930s and 1940s. Ben McArthur has completed ten of the twelve chapters for his biography of A. G. Daniells. In July he attended a seminar on "The Gilded Age" at Stanford University which he found excellent preparation for his new class on "Mark Twain and Gilded Age America." Mark Peach, who recently returned from his sixth stint scoring World History AP essays in Salt Lake City, is now preparing a new course on Appalachian History focusing on mountaineers, miners, and moonshiners (no lab included!). He continues to direct the Southern Scholars Honors Program as well. Mindi Rahn teaches political studies and is pleased that 25 students have signed up to take the new Global Policy and Services major. To prepare herself for teaching courses in this program, Mindi is reading widely in the politics of food, poverty, and the intersection of human rights issues with Christianity. Independent Scholars Gerald du Preez, Director for Education of the Southern Africa Union and editor of their Signs of the Times magazine, hosts a weekly TV program called "In Conversation with" on the show "34˚ South" over Hope TV International. In its third broadcast year, it features interviews with South African SDA pioneers and retirees. Gary Land, professor emeritus of Andrews University, submitted his biography of Uriah Smith to the Review and Herald Publishing Association in July; it is scheduled for publication in December 2014. Oxford University Press has accepted for publication, probably early in 2014, Ellen Harmon White: American Prophet. Edited by Terrie Aamodt (WWU), Ronald Numbers (University of Wisconsin), and Gary, the book is a collection of essays on the life and work of Ellen White written by a wide variety of scholars. Currently, Gary is revising his Historical Dictionary of Seventh-day Adventists for Scarecrow Press and serving as a teacher for the on-line Adventist history ourse offered through Andrews University. In his spare time he reads widely, collects stamps, and builds model airplanes and ships. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brian E. Strayer Editor, ASDAH Newsletter Department of History and Political Science Buller Hall 135 Andrews University Berrien Springs, MI 49104 |