Heritage Snapshot: Part 121

Toward the end of his internship at the old Los Angeles County Hospital, Dr. Walter E. Macpherson began to wonder what he would do next. He considered becoming a medical missionary to Africa, but the fact that he was single disqualified him. On March 31, 1925, the colorful Dean Percy T. Magan, MD, outlined the problem and proposed a solution: “I have had a letter from the powers that be in the General Conference office, and they tell me that they cannot agree to sending any man who is single to such a field as Africa. So I suppose we can count you down and out on this proposition, and consider that your status is solely due to your lack of interest in the beautiful women who are all around begging for chances. However, I have something else in my head I would like to talk to you about. We possibly might have an opening here at the White Memorial [Hospital] for you if you would like it.” When Dr. Newton Evans asked him if he would be interested in teaching Physiology at Loma Linda, he immediately responded “Yes, I would.” Walter had always thought that the Lord had been with him ever since he was born and that accepting this position was in harmony with God’s plan for his life. Dr. Evans arranged for Walter to study additional physiology for a year at Washington University Medical School in St. Louis. Because he had to motivate his students, Walter studied physiology more than did his students. Dr. Macpherson joined the CME faculty in 1925 and started teaching in 1926. He was one of the institution’s first teachers to publish his lecture notes. He also performed physical exams for new hospital employees on the hill, including Geraldine Manning, a young woman who was to become a medical secretary at the Loma Linda Sanitarium and Hospital. After a campus courtship, Walter married Geraldine in Riverside, California, on July 16, 1928. During the eleven years he taught physiology he also saw patients in the Loma Linda Sanitarium. Because he developed a particular interest in pulmonary problems he became the one to check patients’ lungs and respiratory systems. Even though it was a little extra load, he enjoyed that. Then, in 1935 Dean Edward H. Risley, MD, asked him to become Associate Dean for the School of Medicine on the Loma Linda Campus (also known as “the Farm”). In 1936, following a vacancy on the Los Angeles campus (also known as “the City”), Dean Risley asked him to move to Los Angeles, where he became Associate Dean. When asked how the Depression impacted the institution, Dr. Macpherson gave his perspective and told about the institution’s challenges: “…we were always in a Depression. The Depression really didn’t bother us very much, we never had any money anyhow…. I can remember at least once when the week went by and we didn’t get paid. Our pay just didn’t arrive. We survived it, yes, we got along, but sure, those were tough days.” At the beginning of World War II, during Dr. Macpherson’s first term as president of CME, he helped organize the 47th General Hospital, a mostly Adventist unit comprising School of Medicine faculty and graduates that served in New Guinea and the Philippines during the war in the Pacific. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the medical school lost approximately half of its faculty to the military. The Army and Navy moved onto both CME campuses. “The biggest advantage of that situation was that we had no financial worries or student problems,” he reported. “The military looked after both. We just worried about keeping the School afloat.” To meet challenges and maintain accreditation, Dr. Macpherson worked in his office 16 to 18 hours a day. He also taught several classes in medicine that had been left teacherless by the war. He considered himself to be on duty at all times. The military also assumed authority for placing medical students in the nation’s medical schools. The government announced that it would assign medical school applicants randomly from Washington, D.C. This development projected that medical school classes at CME largely would include alcohol-using, smoking, non-vegetarian individuals, who were totally ignorant about Loma Linda's conservative, spiritual ideals. A crisis loomed. The CME Board of Trustees sent President Macpherson to Washington, DC, where he met Colonel Walter S. Jensen, MD (CME class of 1924), one of Macpherson’s former classmates, who opened doors for him. Finally, Dr. Macpherson saw a Colonel White. As he presented CME’s problem to White, a soldier entered the office and handed the Colonel a communiqué. It said that White had just been promoted. He was now a Brigadier General. Of course the promotion made him feel real good. White promised to keep Loma Linda in mind, and Macpherson believed that White’s elation spilled over into the matter under consideration as he drafted details of how the plan might work. Providence worked in a spectacular and practical way as CME became the only school of medicine in America allowed to choose its own students, starting with those about to be assigned to other schools.