Sixty Years Later: Taking Stock of APU’s Leadership Heritage

Mary A. Hill

Of the three, Mary A. Hill (1858-1947) remains the most recognizable name at APU. She was educated at Earlham and Mt. Union colleges and was a recorded (ordained) Friends minister. Prior to arriving in Whittier on February 24, 1900 to become the first principal/president of the Training School for Christian Workers (TSCW), she actively participated in education, home missions, and evangelism throughout Iowa, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois.

At the Jubilee Homecoming on November 22, 1949 in honor of TSCW’s founding in 1899, one of the early students, Robert Adell, described her as “a spiritually minded individual whose missionary passion and vision has characterized the school down through the years.” Many students who sat under Hill’s leadership at the Training School during her brief tenure went to foreign mission fields. She herself departed for China on October 15, 1901.

In anticipation of her journey, she wrote: “Now His voice calls distinctly and the door opens. There is greater joy in going forth since the essential features of organization and teaching in the Gospel Mission of Dark South Chih-li are the same as those which God has been so signally blessing in our Training School work on this coast. With great tenderness of spirit, love for the dear old associations is warmly cherished; but tears give place to gladness of heart as we look toward going forth in the name of Jesus and with His own sweet word of command.”

She soon established a training school in China and continued to serve with the National Holiness Missionary Society for approximately 35 years. She died on March 13, 1947 in Pasadena and is buried at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier. Then-president Cornelius P. Haggard, Th.D., participated in the funeral service. The Ohio Yearly Meeting of Friends published this powerful tribute following her death: “Her consecrated life challenges us to find our places in the ripened harvest fields and carry forward the unfinished task.”

Bertha Pinkham Dixon

Hill was not the only Training School leader to go to China as a missionary. Bertha Pinkham Dixon (1877-1947) served as the third principal/president of TSCW. She was educated at Brown University and the Friends Bible Institute in Cleveland; while at the Friends Institute, she participated in teaching and evangelism. She came to the Training School in June 1903 to teach for the summer term and was selected as principal in August 1903. She taught classes in Matthew, homiletics, atonement, rhetoric, Scripture doctrines, and voice culture. At the conclusion of the academic year, she wrote: “As we behold the fields white unto harvest, it brings genuine praise to our hearts, to know that, through the favor of God, this school has, during the past year, been permitted to help and instruct between 40 and 50 persons, definitely called of God to enter these fields.”

On June 23, 1904, she married William T. Dixon, a missionary to the Mojave Native American Indians in Needles, California. They were active in evangelistic work for several years until accepting a call to go to China as missionaries; they departed from San Francisco with their two small children on December 7, 1909. Unlike Hill, however, their tenure in China was cut short; both children died in early 1911 after brief illnesses. Upon returning to the United States, they resumed an active life of ministry in California, including several years with Redlands Christian and Missionary Alliance. Dixon wrote a striking memoir, A Romance of Faith, that documents the ministry partnership with her husband. She died on June 1, 1947 in San Bernardino and is buried in Montecito Memorial Park in Colton.

Ruth Esther Smith

The third exemplar of intentional internationalization from the early years of TSCW is Ruth Esther Smith (1870-1947). A recorded minister in the Society of Friends, her fields of service from 1898-1906 included the Sunshine Mission in San Francisco, the First Friends Church in Long Beach, and the Training School, where she served as one of the first teachers in 1900.

The Sunshine Mission served the needs of the poor and recent immigrants; she was leading the mission when it was devastated by the 1906 earthquake. Restarting the work proved impossible, so she looked elsewhere for a place to serve. “Miss Ruth” joined the California Quakers’ Guatemala mission in 1906 and served as superintendent from 1907 until her death on April 19, 1947 in Chiquimula, Guatemala, where she is buried. In one of her annual reports to the California Yearly Meeting, she wrote: “The people of these vast fields are ready to listen to a clear, convincing, confident statement of what Jesus Christ can do to meet human needs.”

Her dedication prompted this posthumously published tribute: “When she arrived in Guatemala, there were eight believers in Chiquimula and one man in Santa Elena who had a Bible. From this beginning, she saw the work grow to 4,500 believers in 50 organized congregations and 14 districts.”

Three Women

Three remarkable women whose lives ended in 1947 after intersecting briefly with the TSCW in its earliest days – Mary A. Hill, Bertha Pinkham Dixon, and Ruth Esther Smith. Each was a product of the Society of Friends with its affirmation of women in church leadership. Each exemplified God First by investing her life in obedience to God’s call to service. Each left the comforts of home to “make known the glorious Gospel.” Sixty years later, their legacy of leadership and global vision lives on through Azusa Pacific University’s emphasis on intentional internationalization.

Bertha Pinkham Dixon

Hill was not the only Training School leader to go to China as a missionary. Bertha Pinkham Dixon (1877-1947) served as the third principal/president of TSCW. She was educated at Brown University and the Friends Bible Institute in Cleveland; while at the Friends Institute, she participated in teaching and evangelism. She came to the Training School in June 1903 to teach for the summer term and was selected as principal in August 1903. She taught classes in Matthew, homiletics, atonement, rhetoric, Scripture doctrines, and voice culture. At the conclusion of the academic year, she wrote: “As we behold the fields white unto harvest, it brings genuine praise to our hearts, to know that, through the favor of God, this school has, during the past year, been permitted to help and instruct between 40 and 50 persons, definitely called of God to enter these fields.”

On June 23, 1904, she married William T. Dixon, a missionary to the Mojave Native American Indians in Needles, California. They were active in evangelistic work for several years until accepting a call to go to China as missionaries; they departed from San Francisco with their two small children on December 7, 1909. Unlike Hill, however, their tenure in China was cut short; both children died in early 1911 after brief illnesses. Upon returning to the United States, they resumed an active life of ministry in California, including several years with Redlands Christian and Missionary Alliance. Dixon wrote a striking memoir, A Romance of Faith, that documents the ministry partnership with her husband. She died on June 1, 1947 in San Bernardino and is buried in Montecito Memorial Park in Colton.

Ruth Esther Smith

The third exemplar of intentional internationalization from the early years of TSCW is Ruth Esther Smith (1870-1947). A recorded minister in the Society of Friends, her fields of service from 1898-1906 included the Sunshine Mission in San Francisco, the First Friends Church in Long Beach, and the Training School, where she served as one of the first teachers in 1900.

The Sunshine Mission served the needs of the poor and recent immigrants; she was leading the mission when it was devastated by the 1906 earthquake. Restarting the work proved impossible, so she looked elsewhere for a place to serve. “Miss Ruth” joined the California Quakers’ Guatemala mission in 1906 and served as superintendent from 1907 until her death on April 19, 1947 in Chiquimula, Guatemala, where she is buried. In one of her annual reports to the California Yearly Meeting, she wrote: “The people of these vast fields are ready to listen to a clear, convincing, confident statement of what Jesus Christ can do to meet human needs.”

Her dedication prompted this posthumously published tribute: “When she arrived in Guatemala, there were eight believers in Chiquimula and one man in Santa Elena who had a Bible. From this beginning, she saw the work grow to 4,500 believers in 50 organized congregations and 14 districts.”

Three Women

Three remarkable women whose lives ended in 1947 after intersecting briefly with the TSCW in its earliest days – Mary A. Hill, Bertha Pinkham Dixon, and Ruth Esther Smith. Each was a product of the Society of Friends with its affirmation of women in church leadership. Each exemplified God First by investing her life in obedience to God’s call to service. Each left the comforts of home to “make known the glorious Gospel.” Sixty years later, their legacy of leadership and global vision lives on through Azusa Pacific University’s emphasis on intentional internationalization.