Heritage Snapshot: Part 155

Water delivery to Loma Linda is not just a current challenge. In the early days, the Loma Linda College of Medical Evangelists, now Loma Linda University School of Medicine, found that a serious emergency could motivate giving by people, including students, their friends and family, and faculty. At the close of World War I a typhoid epidemic believed to have been caused by bad water struck Loma Linda. S. P. S. Edwards, M.D, Health Officer for the County of San Bernardino, went to Mr. L. M. Bowen, manager of the Loma Linda Sanitarium, and told him that the water was unfit to use and that the Sanitarium should stop using it. Edwards stated that he would get an order from the state to stop CME from using it if something wasn't done. To provide a temporary source of safe drinking water, CME arranged to pump into its reservoir condensed steam (distilled water) that had returned to the boiler house after heating campus buildings. Dr. Edwards also arranged for CME to obtain water from nearby artesian wells. But because America was at war, CME couldn't buy the pipe needed to connect the wells with the campus. Still Edwards felt that the institution had to do something. He made a presentation to the Board of Trustees, telling members of the dangerous circumstances. Two or three members grabbed their hats and asked, “When is the next train out?” They were leaving! “No,” insisted Edwards, an 1899 graduate of the American Medical Missionary College in Battle Creek, Michigan, and a classmate of Alfred Q. Shryock, MD, Loma Linda’s sixth physician, “we've got to do something. We have to have a new water system.” “But we don't have any money,” they replied. “Will you give permission for us to put in the system if we can get the money and the pipes?” he asked. They agreed, and voted to approve the project. Edwards left that meeting, approached the student physicians, and reminded them of the problem. They knew all about the water by that time because the tests on the water were all made in CME's laboratory. He told them of the need for money to buy pipe to get the clear, clean well water to the campus. “You folks get in contact with your friends and get all the money you can,” said Dr. Edwards, “and we'll try to find the pipe.” The students got busy and raised approximately $7,000. By this time Edwards called Dr. Percy T. Magan, dean of the Los Angeles Division of CME, described the situation, and said, “We need some pipe. We've got to have it.” “I'm sure we can't buy anything in California,” responded Dr. Magan. “Look again,” suggested Dr. Edwards. “I think there is an Irishman on First and Missions Road by the name of Kelly. He has some pipe, and the government doesn't know anything about it. You go to him with your Irish brogue and tell him that we have just got to have some pipe, and see if he can't get it.” Dr. Magan went to see the man whom he had never met. Because they were both Irishmen, Dr. Magan blarneyed with him awhile and soon they were good friends. Then he told Kelly that he needed some pipe. “Why!” he said, “the government took all of our pipe.” “But,” Dr. Magan insisted, “just between you and me as Irishmen, haven't you got some pipe stored away somewhere?” “What makes you think so?” “I just feel impressed.” “Is that so? Yes, to be honest with you, as Irishman to Irishman, I have got some. How much do you need?” Magan showed Kelly a list compiled by Dr. Edwards, including the total length of pipe needed and sizes. Kelly looked at the list for a moment and exclaimed, “Glory to God. That is just the number of feet of pipe I think I've got! Now think of it!” Dr. Magan asked, “How much do you want for it?” “Well,” said Kelly, “it ought to be worth nearly $20,000, but seeing it is for the school, and the school is a missionary school, I will let you have it for $7,000.” Magan pulled a check from his coat and replied, “And that is just the amount of money I have in my pocket.” To keep the deal secret from his neighbors, Kelly loaded the pipe onto his trucks in the middle of the night and delivered them to Loma Linda at 4 a.m. Now the problem was how to get the pipe installed. Mr. Bowen didn't have funds to have the ditches surveyed and dug. So Dr. Edwards, who had been a surveyor, surveyed the ditches and asked the students and teachers to dig them. Then CME installed the pipe which became an integral part of the Loma Linda campus water system. So Providence prepared the way for CME to get a good water system by choosing a man of the world to save the impossible-to-get pipe. He then chose a good Irishman to go and convince him that CME should have it, and put a spirit of helpfulness into CME's students to raise the money to pay for it, and then to dig the ditches to make it all work. This water system was part of the infrastructure of Loma Linda for decades.