|
An Account of How the
Adventist Church
Obtained MBA
by
Lawrence Downing, MBA
'59
The
following is an account
told to me by my uncle,
Emmett Downing on
January 1, 1994.
Capt. Carol Schepplar,
M. D. was living in a
trailer at Emmett's
house located at 35
Wilkey Ave. in
Watsonville. My uncle
was at that time working
for Pep Creamery.(I
assume this is the
George C. Schepplar
listed in the Loma Linda
University Alumni
Directory. He died in
1958. He is the only
Schepplar listed.)
Dr.
Schepplar come to my
uncle one noon time and
announced that Camp
McQuaid had just been
put on the Surplus List
and was to be sold.
"What shall we do?" Dr.
Scheplllar asked my
uncle.
Emmett replied that he
thought they should
contact Leal Grunky,
procurement officer for
the Central California
Conference, and let him
know about this
development.
Dr.
Schepoplar notified Mr.
Grunky who immediately
contacted Army officials
in Washington, D. C,
including a General
Officer who was
favorable toward the
Adventist Church. The
general used his
influence to facilitate
the transfer of Camp
McQuaid to the Adventist
church. The church had
to guarantee a certain
amount of money would go
into improvements over a
specific time period.
Northern California
Conference agreed to
participate in funding
the property
improvements. However,
at the last moment No.
Cal. pulled out of the
agreement and left the
burden of funding the
school with Central
California.
Shortly after learning
that the property had
been put on the Surplus
List, the Catholic
Churched sent four men
back to Washington, D.
C. in an attempt to
halt the disposal
of the property to the
Adventists. They did not
succeed. However, they
did get permission to
have the Roman Catholic
chapel transferred to
the Catholic Church. The
chapel was moved off the
property to another
location.
As an aside, in the late
1800s and early 1900s,
my great grandfather,
Jerome Downing, in
partnership with Dr.
Charles Ford, who
founded Ford's
Department Store in
Watsonville,
operated/owned Camp
Goodall, a resort on or
near the MBA property.
My Uncle Emmett and my
dad, his twin brother,
spent many days as kids
running over the vacant
land that would later
become Camp McQuaid and
then MBA.
BACK TO PREVIOUS PAGE |
