Heritage Snapshot: Part 104

Dr. Godfrey T. Anderson, president of Loma Linda University, called Maynard V. Campbell, chair of the Loma Linda University Board of Trustees at the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, and told him, “We’ve got to come back and talk to you.” School of Medicine Dean David B. Hinshaw Sr., MD, and Anderson flew to Washington and in an all-day session talked with Campbell and Rueben R. Figuhr, President of the General Conference. Hinshaw reiterated his position that a clear-cut decision regarding the consolidation of the School of Medicine on one campus had to be made. Figuhr asked, “Do you believe it is possible to move the School from Los Angeles to Loma Linda? Hinshaw said,” Yes, I do believe it is possible, difficult, but possible.” Figuhr then asked, “What do you think is the better thing to do in the long run?” “I believe it is better to move it to Loma Linda for several reasons,” Hinshaw answered. “We have the land. We have elbowroom, space. In Los Angeles we are trapped. We would have to condemn property, and it is in a deteriorating neighborhood and a critical issue is that we would be forever dependent on the County Hospital….” In Hinshaw’s judgment, continuing dependence on the County Hospital was a huge issue, which would marginalize Loma Linda University. Figuhr asked, “If the board votes to move it out to Loma Linda, can you do it? “I believe it can be done if the church gets behind it, and I believe it’s the right thing to do.” “Let’s do it,” responded Figuhr. He and Campbell then immediately began to make plans for the next Board meeting. They had committed themselves to move to Loma Linda. The Board Meeting of September 1962 had only one item on its agenda—to solve the consolidation issue once and for all. Hinshaw declared that as dean he would support whatever the board decided. If it meant moving to Los Angeles, he would put his heart and soul into that. If it meant moving to Loma Linda, he would do that. His own preference in considering everything was that the school should move to Loma Linda. Figuhr then made it clear that in his opinion it would be best to consolidate in Loma Linda and referred to the fact that the dean had said it was possible to do. Author Keld Reynolds, PhD, reported Dr. Hinshaw’s influence from the Board’s perspective: “The young Dean generated a sort of infectious courage which led the Board to hope that this David just might have the right stone for felling the Goliath of indecision.” In September 1962, with escalating concern from University Alumni and church leaders favoring Loma Linda, and increasingly difficult but seldom publicly mentioned political realities at the Los Angeles County General Hospital, the Board voted with a solid majority to consolidate the two campuses in Loma Linda. The Loma Linda University Board of Trustees minutes for September 25 and 26, 1962, recorded the historical decision under the subtitle, “CONSOLIDATION—SCHOOL OF MEDICINE.” These minutes reveal that Dr. Hinshaw not only sought direction from the Board, but also asked for explicit, unambiguous authority to implement the decision they would make. “Dr. Anderson presented Dr. David B. Hinshaw as Dean of the School of Medicine, and indicated that Dr. Hinshaw wished to discuss with the Board membership what his duties were to be and how he was to relate himself to future plans for the School of Medicine. Dr. Hinshaw indicated that he had great need of more clarification from the Board of Trustees concerning the future development of the School of Medicine if he were to carry out efficiently his work as Dean of the School. He presented to the Trustees a number of alternative ways by which the School of Medicine could develop, but declared positively that he made no recommendation of any one plan; he was ready to serve under any of them. As part of his presentation, he emphasized the need to establish one primary base, and not be under the heavy cost of developing two main bases. Dr. Hinshaw answered many questions put to him by the Trustees. The vote on September 25, 1962, to consolidate the School of Medicine in Loma Linda was quite lengthy. The next day the Board took a second vote. Appearing here as recorded in the official Board minutes under the sub-title SCHOOL OF MEDICINE TO GO TO LOMA LINDA CAMPUS, these few words emphasize the most important points in the decision, simplify the wording, and illustrate the intensity of feelings that brought the controversial action to a vote. They also provide a perspective for what Loma Linda is today. “Some of the Trustees felt that it would be well to declare in emphatic form re-emphasizing the decision to develop the School of Medicine on the Loma Linda campus as in Action #1017 above.” And under Action #1032: “VOTED that the four-year program of the School of Medicine be developed on the Loma Linda campus of the Loma Linda University, in effect continuing the teaching of the basic sciences on that campus and transferring to the Loma Linda campus the junior and senior classes as soon as clinical facilities can be made available.” These decisions not only gave Dr. Hinshaw Board approval to assume the unequivocal authority he would need to implement the Board’s decision, but also made it necessary to expand greatly the Loma Linda facilities for the School of Medicine and the School of Nursing and to build a new university hospital/teaching/research facilitythe 516-bed Loma Linda University Hospital (its name at that time).