Alumni Association Historical Timeline

Depending on which story you read, the exact dates and order of events for the early days of the Alumni Association will vary. This timeline is a sort of a mixture of multiple sources, an effort to depict the full picture of the Alumni Association's history.

1915

The 18 graduates of the College of Medical Evangelists get together and form an informal Alumni Association. Leslie Trott '15 serves as the first president (he serves until 1917).

1917

May 31—The Alumni Association is formally inaugurated with a total membership of 41.

Because of World War I the Alumni Association seems to take a break. No records exist on who was president from 1917 until 1922.

1921

March—Iner Sheld-Ritchie '15 writes in The Medical Evangelist that "with the present number of graduates, we feel that we have now come to the time when we can organize into a successful alumni association." Dr. Sheld-Ritchie's article is often quoted as the idea that started the Alumni Association.

May 26—Broadcasted by Inter Sheld-Ritchie in The Medical Evangelist, the first official Alumni Association meeting takes place in Loma Linda. Alumni came to Loma Linda for commencement, then attended an alumni banquet and meeting where they perfected their new working organization.

1931

January/February—The first Alumni Journal is published by Roger Barnes '22.

June 25—The first financial report is delivered. Receipts for the year were $2,932.13 and disbursements were $3,819.50. Dues (which included Journal and Directory subscriptions) were increased from $1.00 to $3.00.

The first Alumni Directory is published by Orlyn Pratt '24.

Mrs. Faye Nelson is hired as assistant secretary, the first paid employee of the Alumni Association.

1932

The Alumni Association is legally incorporated. Walter Macpherson '24 heads up the effort, writing the bylaws with G. Mosser Taylor '23 and Russell Starr '23.

1933

March 12—The first APC is held. It was called the Alumni Clinical Congress, cost $1 for admission, and lasted an afternoon.

July 9—The board votes Percy T. Magan as the first honorary Alumni Association member.

1934

December 9—The first Annual Postgraduate Assembly is held. It ran annually in the winter alongside the Alumni Clinical Congress, which happened in the spring. These two meetings later joined to become the modern APC.

1944

March—The Alumni Clinical Congress is cancelled that year due to World War II. The Annual Postgraduate Assembly still continues on December 3 of that year, which means that APC has continued in some form or other without a break from 1933 to the present.

1947

January 1—Jerry Pettis starts as the first Executive Director of the Alumni Association (at the time his position was called "General Manager").

May—The Alumni Journal format grows. Previous Journals were about 6 x 9 inches. The new format was about 8 x 10.5 inches.

October 5—The first Alumnus of the Year and Honored Alumni are named. Wilton L. Halverson '29 is Alumnus of the Year, and Daniel D. Comstock '06 and August H. Larson '06 are the Honored Alumni.

December—Walter Palmer '25 donates $500 to become the first perpetual member of the Alumni Association.

1948

March 7-9—The Alumni Clinical Congress and the Annual Postgraduate Assembly are combined to form the Annual Postgraduate Assembly, which happens in the spring.

The Alumni Association gets its first home in a bungalow located at 316 N. Bailey St. in Los Angeles.

The Alumni Directory cover is in color for the first time.

1949

APC includes religious services for the first time.

1950

January—The Alumni Journal cover is in color for the first time.

The Annual Postgraduate Assembly is renamed The Postgraduate Assembly and is moved from Paulsen Hall on the Los Angeles campus to the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.

1951

The Alumni Association is able to offer continuing education credit to APC attendees.

1952

APC is the largest medical convention in the west, receiving radio and TV news coverage.

1953

The Postgraduate Assembly is renamed the Alumni Postgraduate Convention and held at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

1958

The Alumni Journal format grows again, to the current 8.5 x 11 inch format.

1961

The Alumni Association changes its name to Alumni Association of the School of Medicine of Loma Linda University.

The Silver Anniversary Class of 1936 starts the tradition of giving a gift at the APC banquet by presenting a check for $11,000.

1964

March 9—The newly organized Walter E. Macpherson Society (WEMS) has it's first meeting during APC.

The Alumni Association's next home, the Osler House, is an old redwood mansion opposite Paulson Hall on the corner of Michigan and State Streets in Los Angeles.

1965

The tradition of honoring the 25th and 50th anniversary classes at the APC banquet begins.

1967

The Alumni Postgraduate Convention is held half in Los Angeles and half in Loma Linda.

The Alumni Association opens up a branch office in Loma Linda at 24887 Taylor Court, in what is now the University Arts Building.

1968

The Holding Fund is established to manage perpetual memberships in an endowment.

1973

The Alumni Postgraduate Convention is moved totally to Loma Linda.

1975

The Alumni Association switches its primary office to the building on Taylor Court in Loma Linda and leaves its branch office in the Osler House in Los Angeles.

1976

The regular perpetual membership category is renamed the "silver" category. The gold category is also created.

At the APC banquet, the silver anniversary class of 1951 presents the Samuel A. Crooks Endowed Chair in Anatomy, the first endowed chair.

1977

November—The Adventist International Medical Society (AIMS) starts.

The Alumni Postgraduate Convention is renamed The Annual Postgraduate Convention. It is professionally taped for the first time.

The Alumni Association leaves Los Angeles and moves its entire operation to Loma Linda, in a house on the northwest corner of Anderson and Prospect Streets.

1979

The Alumni Association looks into buying a computer to streamline its accounting system.

1980

March 9—Ground is broken for the Alumni Hall for Basic Sciences

Fund raising begins for the Alumni Hall for Basic Sciences

1981

The Alumni Association builds and moves into its own building, the Alumni Center, located at 11245 Anderson Street, on the corner of Anderson and Starr Streets in Loma Linda. The building opened for business on September 19.

1982

The Alumni Association reached its $3.5 million goal to build the Alumni Hall for Basic Sciences.

The Alumni Association celebrates 50 years of APC.

1984

The Alumni Association publishes Diamond Memories: School of Medicine Seventy-Fifth Anniversary, edited by Carrol Small '34.

1984-1985

Hubert C. Watkins, Class of 1962, was the first Alumni Association president to have graduated from Loma Linda University. All other presidents graduated from the College of Medical Evangelists with the exception of Benton Colver AMMC '04 and George Thomason 1899-aff (Jefferson Medical College).

1986

December—The first Alumni Association "Statement of Mission and Purpose", containing 240 words, was adopted by the board of directors.

The Neufeld Society is formed.

1987

The Alumni Fund, the fundraising arm of the Alumni Association, is started.

1989

The first Platinum Perpetual membership is established with a posthumous donation (of $15,000) by the estate of Merle Wehner '44-B. 

1991

The Alumni Association Board of Directors votes to give Raymond Herber '57 honorary Perpetual Diamond membership for his efforts encouraging alumni to become Perpetual members.

1993

APC has its first opening ceremonies.

The Alumni Association gets a Digital Micro Vax 3600 to replace the Digital Micro Vax II, which ran out of memory.

1998

March 6—The Alumni Center is renamed the Carrol S. Small Alumni Center.

The Alumni Association staff are assigned email addresses.

1999

The Alumni Association launches its first web site at www.tagnet.org/aasmllu with Rodney E. Willard '56 serving as the Association's first webmaster.

2000

Marilyn Herber becomes the first Perpetual Double Diamond member (at $50,000) of the Alumni Association.

2001

The Alumni Association publishes From the Journal ... Essays by the School of Medicine Alumni Association Presidents: The C.M.E. Years, part one of a collection of the "President's Pages" from the Alumni Journals, compiled by Alumni Association Executive Director Dennis E. Park.

2002

The Alumni Association publishes From the Journal ... Essays by the School of Medicine Alumni Association Presidents: The Transition Years, part two of a three-part series compiled by Dennis E. Park.

2004

The first Iner Sheld-Ritchie Presidential Award is given to S. Wesley Kime '53-A a the APC banquet.

2005

Weldon Schumacher '62 becomes the first Perpetual Triple Diamond member (at $75,000) of the Alumni Association.

The Alumni Association publishes Portraits: Loma Linda University School of Medicine Honored Faculty, edited by Raymond Herber '57 and illustrated by S. Wesley Kime '53-A.

2006

January-March—The 75th anniversary edition of the Alumni Journal is published.

APC moves from Gentry Gym to Drayson Center.

2007

The Adventist International Medical Society is renamed the Association of International Medical Services.

The Alumni Association celebrates its 75th APC.

The Alumni Association premiers its first self-produced video documentary, a history of the Annual Postgraduate Convention called "The Story of APC."

The Alumni Association publishes The Mound City Chronicles: A Pictorial History of Loma Linda University, A Health Sciences Institution, 1905-2005 The Centennial by Dennis E. Park, with a foreword by S. Wesley Kime '53-A.

2008

September 30—The Alumni Association board of directors approved a revised "Statement of Mission and Purpose," reducing the number of words from 240 to 31.

The Alumni Association launches its redesigned and updated website at www.llusmaa.org.

2009

By 2009, all 98 members of the Class of 1957 had become perpetual members, making them the first class with 100% participation.

2010

March 5-8—APC is first held in the Centennial Complex.

August 17—The first Alumni Association video conference call is conducted using Skype between Burton Briggs '61 and Dennis E. Park.

July-September—The first full-color Alumni Journal is printed by Color Press.

2011

The Alumni Journal celebrates its 80th year of publication.

July 21—The first online donation is made using PayPal on the AIMS Web site.

September 30—Long-time executive director, Dennis E. Park '07-hon, retires after 22 years of service, 17 as executive director.

October 10—Nicole Batten begins work as the Alumni Association's seventh executive director.

October 31—Long-time finance manager, Karen Sutton, retires after 27 years of service.