VOL. 89 NO.2 Alumni Weekend By Albert Dittes The annual Madison College homecoming will meet the weekend of June 28, with David Gates, famed Adventist self-supporting missionary to South America, speaking for both services at the Madison Campus Church. The Friday night service will be at the church and be primarily social interaction, with Bill Burks and Ralph Pieroni providing background music on the vibraharp and piano. The alumni will have their own Sabbath School class, however, next door to the church in the main classroom rotunda of the Middle Tennessee School of Anesthesia (MTAS). This setting will be appropriate as the only part of old Madison College still active. Dr. Bill Dysinger will teach the lesson in an amphitheater with the latest audio and visual technology. The alumni will eat as usual at the regular catered meal in the Madison Campus Church. (What a great opportunity to share Madison College story with this generation). Some had asked that the alumni dinner be in the Madison Academy Gymnasium on the original site of the Helen Funk Assembly Hall, but careful inquiry showed this facility did not have the cooking facilities needed to handle the food properly for this size of group. The large crowd at the church fellowship hall has made it difficult for alumni guests to spot their friends in the past. So this year we will ask for $5 per person to cover each catered meal. For the vesper service, two authors, Albert Dittes and Dr. Bill Dysinger, will talk about books they have recently published. A business meeting will follow. Sunday morning a pancake breakfast will conclude APRIL --JUNE 2008 alumni weekend. So we invite everyone to return to Madison on the weekend of June 28. Also write to us about yourselves, and we will be happy to share that with our Survey readers. About M T SA The Middle Tennessee School of Anesthesia (MTSA) started out as part of Madison College and is still very much alive, having raised $1.8 million of $3 million needed for complete renovation. It has over 200 students, a clinical affiliation with 23 hospitals, including every hospital in Nashville except Veterans, offers a Masters degree in anesthesia and plans to start a doctoral program in 2011-12 school year. To contribute, send tax deductible donations to MTSA at P. 0. Box 417, Madison, Tenn., 37116. For more information, contact Jim Closser at ( 615)-732- 7674 or jclosser@mtas.edu THE ROCKS OF MADISON "THE REST OF THE STORY" "Greetings to all you faithful Madisonians!, In the last Madison Survey there was a write-up about a stone from the old Madison entrance pillar, with the words "Madison College" on it. The "rest of the story" is that there were two pillars at the main entrance to the campus-one with "Madison College 1904" on it and the other with "Madison Sanitarium and Hospital" on it. (see pages 2, 5, 204 of the book, MADISON COLLEGE, SCHOOL OF DIVINE eruGIN, u~ti5h@d h n r W':::. U 1 c IL t::Sernen :::>pnngs Michigan Page 2 MADISON SURVEY in 1986 by the Madison College Alumni Association.) The words were not engraved in stone, but were made by pouring concrete into a carefully crafted form, and the job was done by Joel Everett (BS, 1950) as an Industrial Arts class project. Joel went on to Lorna Linda and in 1957 was a graduate in the first class of the School of Dentistry of the Lorna Linda University ( then College of Medical Evangelists), He practiced Dentistry in the Jackson, Mississippi, area for about thirty years and is now retired, living on the Cumberland Plateau in beautiful Tennessee. We are so sorry to hear of Bob Sutherland's Health problem-we'll be praying. God's blessing to you all ! Mary Lillie Everett (BS 1945) THE WAGNALLS MEMORIAL ENRICHING LIVES-Since 1925 . . By Albert Dittes ternet and look up www.wagnalls.org, you will find a web site featuring the monument of a childhood-of- . fortune friend of Lida Funk Scott. The heritage link shows that Mabel Wagnalls Jones, daughter of Adam W agnalls, co-founder Mabel Wagnalls Jones with Isaac Funk of the Funk & Wagnalls publishing company, also used her inherited fortune to benefit others. Both partners grew up in Ohio and made it big in New York City. Lida Scott's files indicated that her father started his career as a Lutheran minister and then went into a church supply business with his friend APRIL--JUNE 2008 Adam Wagnalls. Their venture grew. "Enriching lives is the core purpose at The Wagnalls Memorial," the web site states. "We offer a community center, library, museum, and theater with many kinds of opportunities and activities. Scholarships are also provided to area youth." "Located just south of Columbus in Lithopolis, Ohio, the original building has an auditorium, a library, a banquet hall, and two tower rooms. "In 1925 Mabel Wagnalls Jones designed and built The Wagnalls Memorial library and community center in memory of her parents, Anna and Adam W agnalls. The Memorial is located in Lithopolis because both of Mabel's parents were born and lived here. At her death in 1946, Mabel Wagnalls Jones left the bulk of her estate to The Memorial. More than $25 million has been paid out for all expenses related to the many different services provided since the 1925 original construction and 1946 donation. "Mabel W agnalls was the only child of Anna and Adam W agnalls, co-founder of the Funk and Wagnalls Publishing Company. Mabel was a concert pianist and was the author of nine books. She died in March of 1946 leaving her estate for the perpetual care of this community center as a living Memorial to her parents "This gift expressed the loyalty of her parents, Hester Anna Willis W agnalls and Adam W agnalls, to the town and township in which they were born. "Mabel followed this gift with additional gifts of nearly all of her wealth to sustain and improve the Library and Community Center, and to provide scholarships for residents of Lithopolis and Bloom Township to 'institutions of learning, music and art.' "Lulu Harshfield's closing of her history of The Wagnalls Memorial is worthy of your consideration: 'Because a daughter honored her mother and father, because a mother and father remembered their modest beginnings and their youthful struggles to obtain education, and because of necessity of an education had been engendered in the hearts of Ohio pioneers, Lithopolis, Ohio, and Bloom Township have a community center, a library, and a scholarship program worthy of emulation.' MADISON SURVEY The web site also features distinguished looking pictures of the Wagnalls family. From Here and There ~@ Missouri: Joe, BS '56, S '59 and Barbara Busch Schnell, S '56-' 57 sent dues and this message, "Thank you so much for the Survey. We always enjoy reading it. Sorry to hear about Bob Sutherland's health. He and Stella devoted so much to Madison. Also sorry to hear of Reuben Perales passing away. Also Doyle Martin's wife, Jenny, passing away. When I was a teenager I used to baby sit their Children. Jim and Paul, thanks for placing 1904 "Madison College" concrete from the columns. I remember them walking to school everyday. Joe and I have many memories of Madison. I grew up there and Joe came from Kansas to college. Keep up the good work." Florida: John and Elenia Lancaster, sent dues and extra and this note, "Dear friends, We are so glad that you continue to publish the Survey. It keeps us well informed of what's happening with old friends. We were saddened by the death of Reuben Perales. His father baptized me when I was fifteen years old. I was always fond of the whole family, which I met back in 1953. I continue on dialysis and await a kidney transplant. I hope it happens soon. I am supposed to be on "top" of the list. APRIL--JUNE 2008. Page 3 Sorry to hear about Bob's illness. Our prayers are with him. Keep up the good work." Tennessee: Carl Glenn and Laura Mae Slattery Zollinger, '55, BSN '60, sent a brief note with dues "Dear Staff, just a quick note that Glenn and I are ' here at Laurelbrook now in our retirement years. It's watching young folks "grow and become". I am so glad the staff are still holding up the torch of many good things. Guess what! We plan to meet "ya all" at the tree of life soon, fondly". Texas: Jim, S '47-'48 and Peggy Larcom Bryant, S '48, sent the following, "Sending dues and some office support as we do. Appreciate your hard work. So sorry to hear about your health problem. We want you to know there are so many Madisonites who appreciate your dedication to keeping the "Spirit of Madison" alive. We are trying (with God's help) to evangelize this part of the world. Hobbs, New Mexico is where our home church is located. We are looking forward to attending the homecoming in June and this will be the first time for us. God bless you and hope to see you in June." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ New Headquarters Underway The second story of the new $1.5 million Layman Foundation headquarters in Collegedale, Tenn., is now complete. The staff hopes to occupy it by the end of June and attract rental tenants to occupy all the space. Why Collegedale and not Madison? The Layman Foundation (TLF) started at the home of Lida Funk Scott on the Madison College Page 4 MADISON SURVEY New layman Foundation Headquarters campus as its home office in 1924 and remained there after Mrs. Scott died in 1945. In the mid 1980's, the campus administration wanted the organization to vacate the Scott House, so they moved to a former U.S. Post Office building in Collegedale, according to Herbert Coolidge, vice president of the foundation. The executive secretary lived there as did several board members, so the transfer worked satisfactorily until the aging building there developed problems. TLF then moved into a vacant building on the campus of what had been Little Creek Academy in 1998, but that transfer did not work satisfactorily. Structural defects there made use of the dormitories difficult. So TLF moved back to Collegedale in 2001. "Collegedale seems to work better than any other alternative site," Coolidge says. "The academies we support have much interaction with Southern Adventist University, and their people therefore come here often. Many of our board members are also Collegedale affiliated. So we hope our new building here will prove to be of long-term good if we can attract new tenants as renters." APRIL--JUNE 2008 Madison College Couple Retires Wayne and Edna Atkins retired at the beginning of 2008 after serving a combination of 7 5 years at what is now Portland Medical Center, Portland, Tennessee. It was originally Highland Hospital when Edna started working there in 1964, the year Madison College closed, and later changed its name to Tennessee Christian Medical Center/Portland. The Atkins met at Madison College. She finished in the last graduating class before the school closed at the end of Wayne's sophomore year. Edna started out as a surgical and obstetrics nurse then became director of nurses and retired as a case management and utilization nurse. Wayne joined the plant engineering and operations department in the mid 70s and later served as director for over 20 years. Here they pause with their family at a hospital afternoon reception honoring their years of service. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ L-R Jana Tucker (daughter), Jacquelyne Wade, Wayne & Edna Atkins, Jake Wade, & Kristi Wade (daughter) The Madison Legacy in Two New Books Two Madison-related authors have just written books about Lorna Linda. One spotlights the health education mission of Lorna Linda. The other uncovers an untold story of the great financial sacrifice Madison made in order for the College of Medical Evangelists to receive its Grade A rating. MADISON SURVEY Dr. P. William (Bill) Dysinger describes his book Health to the People, as "an effort to tell stories of God's providence in the outreach efforts of Lorna Linda in the areas of public health, preventive medicine and its modem designation, lifestyle medicine." He points out that the first two training programs of Lorna Linda at its 1906 opening were for nurses and medical evangelists working the cities. The school of medicine began five years later. Lorna Linda enlarged its health education vision with the start of the School of Dietetics in 1922 "to place vegetarianism on a sound scientific basis." A crash course for foreign missionaries became the School of Tropical and Preventive Medicine (STPM) in 1948. To fill the health education gap as Adventist sanitariums evolved into community hospitals, the Lorna Linda University Board of Directors started the School of Public Health in 1964. The first Adventist- sponsored live-in conditioning program began in Louisiana in 1965, and new institutions of this sort sprang up staffed by school of public health graduates. Lorna Linda first tried to incorporate health education into its physician training in 1928. The current university president, Richard Hart, completed an MD and MPH degrees in 1970. The Lorna Linda School of Public Health became the first of its kind to offer accredited off-campus graduate degrees. These and other facts document the health educational mission of Lorna Linda throughout the world. Dr. Dysinger grew up in Madison affiliated units, his father serving as business manager at Fountain Head Rural School in Tennessee and Peewee Valley near Louisville, Ky., before moving to Madison. Albert Dittes has just completed his second book of Madison history entitled Letters from Dr. Percy Magan based on correspondence between Dr. Magan and Lida Funk Scott, the great financial benefactress of Madison. APRIL--ruNE 2008 Page 5 The book begins with the attempts to fully accredit the school of medicine at Lorna Linda. Ellen White made it clear to the church in 1910 that Lorna Linda was to graduate physicians able to pass the state standards of any country in the world. That meant developing a hospital in Los Angeles to satisfy accreditation demands of the American Medical Association. Accounts of the General Conference session in the Reviews of the period showed the church was slow to appropriate funds for this task, citing a need to avoid the embarrassment of debt. The new hospital would cost $61,000. Prominent women of the church led by Mrs. S.N. Haskell offered to raise the money at the 1915 Fall Council and hoped to have it done by the end of 1916, but unfortunately fell short. By that time, Mrs. Scott had taken a serious interest in the work of Madison and, at the instigation of Dr. Sutherland, saw the need of physicians for its unit schools to succeed. The correspondence began in earnest in 1917 after the United States entered World War I, and reflected the challenges and struggles Dr. Magan faced in bringing the College of Medical Evangelists (CME) to full accreditation. He had much trouble in persuading the General Conference officials to support Lorna Linda but triumphed over them in the end, thanks to Dr. Sutherland and Mrs. Scott. Dysinger's book is available on Amazon. com and also at the Lorna Linda University School of Public Health, Lorna Linda, California, 92354. The Dittes book is self-published. For a copy, contact him at 123 Hood Trail, Portland, TN 37148. RESTING UNTIL THE RESURRECTION Cantrell, Kenneth, 7 6, died at his home in Portland, Tenn. on April 10, 2008 after a short illness consisting of lung problems. Born in Vian, Okla., in 1932, he attended Madison College from 1954 to 1957 and married the former Elaine Culpepper, who attended Madison through 1957. Page 6 MADISON SURVEY He served in the U.S. Army for 24 years in four states, Vietnam, Germany and the Panama Canal Zone, working in the area of Preventive Medicine. His many military honors included the bronze star for his Vietnam service. He retired from the army in 1972 and made his home near Highland Academy in Portland, Tenn. Survivors are his wife Elaine; daughter Anita Carter of Orlando, Fla.; three sons, David of Cottontown, Tenn., Daniel of Cross Plains, Tenn., and Jonathan of High Point, N.C., as well as four grandchildren; three sisters, Carole Skaggs of Joelton, Tenn., Dorothy Randall of Chandler, Ariz., and Juanita Turner of Pleasant View, Tenn., all of whom attended Madison College. Burial was with full military honors. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Norman Peek, Ph. D. With apologies to the family. This picture should have accompanied his obituary in the last issue but technological problems kept it out. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Why Tennessee Christian Medical Center Closed A letter from the Southern Union President By Albert Dittes Declining market share, a geographically isolated position, exclusionary provisions in managed care contracts and a high debt load contributed to closing Tennessee Christian Medical Center in 2006, according to a recent letter from the Southern Union President to Alumni Association Board Member Mickey Rabuka. "I personally recognize with sadness that the selling of this institution certainly marks a moment in the history of the work in Nashville that we wish could have been different," wrote Gordon Retzer. "At the same time I want to assure you that the decision to sell was a difficult decision, and I believe the APRIL--JUNE 2008 leadership of Adventist Health System did everything possible to try to keep the doors open." Retzer added that at one point in the deliberation process, the board suspended its meeting with a season of prayer for guidance. The obstacles just looked formidable. A consultant study showed the Nashville market over-bedded, with fierce competition and low occupancy as a result. In addition, TCMC had limited participation in managed care contracts due to exclusionary provisions, seriously reducing the cash flow. Changing times had geographically isolated the hospital campus. The financial posture of the hospital was deteriorating. TCMC carried a $50 million debt, and one study by MET A Associates showed just upgrading the aging hospital mechanical and electrical systems would cost $25-30 million. TCMC had only three years of operating gains since 1997 and lost $5 million during its worst year. It lost $1 million during its final year of 2005. "I'm sure you can see, Mickey, as a former health care administrator that these factors were extremely serious, yet I assure you through the recent years, AHS leadership continued to believe it could be turned around and in my opinion they did everything they could," Retzer concluded. The Nashville Agricultural and Normal Institute (Madison College)Transferred Control to Church After operating Madison College, formerly known as N. A. N. I., as a self-supporting institution for almost 60 years, the constituency recommended to the Southern Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists on February 3, 1963, that it take over ownership and operation of the institution, and that the college and sanitarium become part of the organized work of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The institution was founded in 1904. It became an accredited academy in 1922, when the academy and junior college became separate institutions. The junior college was accredited in 1927. The Junior MADISON SURVEY College accreditation was no longer needed in 1930 as a senior college status was sought. The Senior College was accredited with the state of Tennessee in 1933 The action taken in 1963 to transfer the operation of the college and hospital to the Adventist Church was in harmony with the statement appearing in 1914 in the pamphlet, OWNERSHIP AND CONTROL OF THE MADISON SCHOOL, by Dr. E. A. Sutherland. The pamphlet was printed by the Elmshaven Press in Sanitarium, Napa, Co., California. Dr. Sutherland wrote: "The founders of the school have put themselves on record as being willing, whenever it shall appear to be for the best interests of the school and of the Southern Union Conference, to tum over the property to any corporation that the Union Conference may form for holding the same, provided such corporation is qualified to carry out the aim and objects for which the school was founded. "p9 The executive committee of the Southern Union accepted the recommendation of the constituency on February 7, subject to approval of the General Conference officers. On April 4 the General Conference Committee gave its full approval to the plan. Therefore ownership of the college and hospital was transferred to the SDA denomination in April 1963. In 1964 Madison College was closed and Madison Hospital became a Southern Union Institution. Madison Academy continued to operate under the ownership of the Kentucky -Tennessee Conference. Beginning with the school year 1963 -4 Madison Academy was operated by the Kentucky-Tennessee Conference.(Madison College was operated by the Southern Union Conference. Horace R. Beckner was president). L. J. Larson ('38) was principal. Elder L. J. Leiske, president of the Southern Union Conference, said, "The school will continue to operate, giving emphasis to medical-technological and practical arts. "The main change in Madison College," he said, "would be in the curriculum. Besides the medical technological and nursing courses already being offered, the college will specialize in the practical and industrial arts, APRIL--JUNE 2008 Page 7 including the building trades, agriculture, electronics, offset composition, printing, refrigeration, air conditioning, auto mechanics, and construction technology. He continued that for the next two or three years the institution would concentrate on junior college level teaching, the administration planned to build up the new fields of instruction, to bachelor degree level. Madison College became the fifteenth college to join the sisterhood of Seventh-day Adventist colleges in North America. It was different from the other colleges in that the hospital was an integral part of the institution. Because of a decrease of interest in the trade- technical programs which Madison offered a change was made in the fall of 1964. Southern Missionary College took charge of the educational programs. Madison College became a branch or extension of SMC, Collegedale, Tennessee, thus giving accreditation to subjects offered on the Madison campus except some basic subjects taught in connection with the hospital curricula. Madison Hospital continued to offer the medical records course, anesthesia, X-ray, and laboratory technology. Trade courses were discontinued as a part of the college program. The Kentucky-Tennessee Conference continued to operate the first twelve grades with W. D. Levering as principal. The academy has continued to operate to the present time." (Taken from pages 84-85 of the book, MADISON COLLEGE, SCHOOL OF DIVINE ORIGIN, published in 1986 by the Madison College Alumni Association.) A Personal Thought By Bob Sutherland Stella and I have been honored to serve the alumni association for many years now, she as Secretary-Treasurer and Board member and I as Board member, President, Curator of the Heritage House, and managing editor of the Madison Survey. As those of you hav~ serve.d .i!.l the p~st ·-~.:~~~:. ·ussv ~UUinlv g~gno:J uos~p£W :·~--~-~ --"$' ~