Though the deaths of Mary A. Hill, Bertha Pinkham Dixon, and Ruth Esther Smith in 1947 did not produce front-page headlines, even 60 years later their powerful legacies of lifelong Christian service stand as hallmarks. They were among the “founding mothers” of the Training School for Christian Workers (now Azusa Pacific University) and were instrumental in shaping the institution’s outward focus, alive today in the Academic Vision 2016, which identifies intentional internationalization as a major initiative for the next decade. Who were these women and how did they model intentional internationalization?
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.”
