Multnomah University - Ambassador Yearbook (Portland, OR)

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2,71 - W n student: listen to a lecture during one of tbe oon affer the move to the present campnx. St d is from one of the early classes sing Chrisnnas I in rlownlown Portland. teaching at the school, along with Misses Josephine Neil and Doris Coffin. The stu- dent body consisted of 29 full-time and 10 part-time students-. The only fee that first year was registra- tion: S10 per year. The biggest cost was room and board, originally on an individual basis in neighboring homes. Most of the boarders earned their room and sometimes their board by doing house or yard work. Money came in small quantities for the early studentsg financial aid was a thing of the future. Although the costs grew from year to year, the administration devised a method to curb them somewhat. Every week all students worked from four to five hours for the school without pay, so the school would not have to hire extra staff. They did all the jobs students do today as campus employment, such as waitressing, secretarial, kitchen, and maintenance. Dorm life hasn't changed much: R.A.'s tcalled dorm repsl, roommates, and gossip in the girl's dorms probably will never change. Guys had roommates and they probably gossipped, but they didn't have proctors. A few rules have changed though, especially for the girls. One particular girl did not approve of the 10:30 lights out rule in her dorm. She waited until all were nestled snug in their beds, then crawled out the window and headed for a burger joint. She did it so often that other girls often placed their orders with her for a midnight special delivery snack. Would you believe MSB sanctioned a co- ed dorm at the old campus? Mrs. Steiglemeirs boarding house hosted MSB girls on the fourth floor and Oregon Dental school men on the third. The girls were not allowed to stop on the guy's floor on their way upstairs and could not even talk to their Early Multnomah xtzrdentx put on a skit :luring missionary conference. .S't1m'ents have a social in the dining room of the tben- neu' camjmx. third floor neighbors. This posed an in- teresting problem, since nobody told the boys why the MSB girls gave them the cold shoulder. They went on trying to be nice. One day some poor maid and dental student received the wrath of Mrs. Steiglemeir because she had asked him to help her carry a trunk downstairs. Some guys just can't win for losing. A large gong sounded the start of all meals in the main dining hall. The kids there ate family style, with assigned seating by lot for the evening meal. The food during the early years pleased almost everyone, except when fried liver was on the menu, which is understandable to non-liver lovers. Even with the smaller housing, diseases still traveled quickly through the student body. In 1940 school had to close early for Christmas vacation because the flu epidemic had reached the point where the school nurse, Miss Unruh Cpronounced Unrool could not handle it. She later receiv- ed a special tribute for the 24 hour vigil she kept during the flu season. For the society of that day, MSB followed a middle-of the road policy of social regulations. Students could not date their first year fa common policy of all Christian schools of the timel, nor could they marry during their three year course of studies. The school was not down on guy-girl relationships, but wanted to make sure the priorities kept themselves in right align- ment. Of course there's an exception to every rule. Jim and Artis Worthington married with full faculty approval in their junior year. It seems Jim's grades took a turn for the better when he started dating Artis and the school just couldn't argue with success. N5 M53

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, x A -- - - - , 2 I.- : z - - ifgf Dip - E! E 2 aT ,S F 1, 5' , Q Q- M55 'fl TH V HBE Fl EHHIN IIN By now everyone has heard that Dr. Mitchell, Dr. Sutcliffe, Dr. Aldrich and several others founded Multnomah School of the Bible in 1936, but what most people don't realize is that the kids, the early students, had just as big a part in making the school what it is today. Here is what some of the early alumni remember about those first years. Located at what is now the Lloyd Center parking lot, the old Multnomah campus was a conglomerate of stately mansions, a stone castle, a mortuary, plain houses and a little square brick building. The epitome of dilapidated old house- dormitories was the men's dorm, the Shamble Shack. Like most of the other dorms, it was a creaky two-story board building abounding with rooms. The stone castle, old Sutcliffe hall, was used for of- fices, much as new Sutcliffe is used today. The mortuary was used for classrooms upstairs. When the warm weather hit, the upstairs turned into an oven, and parboiled students conked out en masse. At Halloween, the seniors fnice guys that they have always been! had great fun making up stories for the benefit of the bewildered freshmen, about the embalming fluid forgotten in the basement. A tiny brick building on campus called the Matchbox served as a soda fountain for students. Many of them labored under the misconception that the name referred to its size, but actually Dr. Aldrich named it that because so many couples got matched up there. The school had been born in the year 1936. On Valentines Day of that year, a small group of men had met in the home of Emily Neil at the call of Rev. Jack Mitchell. Concerned about the evangelization of the Northwest, Dr. Mitchell had been teaching Bible classes in Portland and several other Northwest cities, along with Simon E. Forsberg and Dr. Aldrich. Six young men had requested that Dr. Mitchell train them in his Bible teaching methods. At the Valentines Day meeting, Dr. Mitchell shared his burden to start a Bible school for the furthering of the work of evangelizing the Northwest. Dr. Mitchell asked if Dr. B. B. Sutcliffe would take the responsibilities for the school. As he con- tinued to share his vision, the others began to recognize the leading of God in the matter and formal planning began. On October 5, 1936, Multnomah School of the Bible began in the former mortuary. The Board of Trustees consisted of Dr. Sutcliffe, president, Dr. Mitchell, vice- presidentg Dr. Aldrich, registrar, and Rev. Forsberg, dean. The four men also did the

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l ll .K it The dean's department looked like a bus stop by the end of each week, with a long queue of girls waiting to get in to see the dean. Each girl had to give the details of every proposed date and get it okayed before she could accept. Prewar dates usually began and ended with a walk. Most kids were too poor to af- ford a car and no one minded too much because everyone else walked too. The few cars that were owned by the more affluent were such rattletraps that it was a good idea to take out a life insurance policy before climbing into one. Walking was a lot safer. Where was the out that they went to? Sometimes in the first few years, it was a drugstore-soda fountain 6 blocks away. That was the closest, Then downtown there was Youth for Christ meetings, restaurants, and concerts seasoned with a lot of fresh air and maybe rain. Yes, they even walked down- town. In 1942, a major portion of the guys were drafted, which didn't do much for Mult- nomah's social life or its enrollment. The annual was discontinued for lack of funds during the war years, so there is no record of school functions. After the war, everything perked up again. The G.I.'s were back, most of them looking for wives, so dating began again full swing. Cars and busses were more available so dates had a little more comfort and a little more variety. Of course dances and movies were always listed taboo. The relationships between the sexes were not as candid as they are today, the alum- nae agree. Notes and gifts between friends of the opposite sex were unheard of and three dates meant you were probably engaged in everyone else's mind. tSome of ae- C. today's students might say that hasn't changedl The social pressure pushed marriage. The only other option most women considered was the mission field. Many MSB girls took that option. Dress length wasn't a problem in the ear- ly yearsg the popular style dictated well below the knees, but pants presented more of a problem. In the last years on the old campus, girls secretly slipped on their ped- dle pushers and jeans Crolled up of coursel, covered them up with long coats and sneak- ed off campus. One day a couple of pant- clad females without the blessings of long coat camouflage, exited campus around behind the buildings and went to a little grocery store, only to be trapped behind a display counter by James Braga. They smil- ed a lot and tried to look unsuspicious, but they were never quite sure if he realized why they remained frozen to their places the whole time he was there. He apparently did not report it, since they were not ap- prehended. Church had its own brand of dress for girls. They all had to wear hats according to school mandate and no Sunday outfit was complete without gloves. For the guys, hair length was not an issue, because their ears were not in the slightest danger of even being tickled by the hairstyles of the day. Makeup, however proved to be a point of real division in the MSB body, especially during the last years as it gained some acceptance. Makeup was not generally accepted in Christian circles prior to this time. Arriving at a spiritual Bible school like Multnomah, they were shocked to find some girls putting on lipstick and others fgaspl even more than that. California girls especially had no qualms about the