Heritage Snapshot: Part 131

Dr. Kate Lindsay led by example. Because she believed in the benefits of exercise, Dr. Kate rarely used the Battle Creek Sanitarium’s elevator. She also contributed to the arsenal of weapons to be used in the fight against disease by originating radiant heat, which later developed into electric light cabinets and other forms of electric light treatments. She taught isolation techniques in the care of patients with communicable diseases. Her Battle Creek Sanitarium’s school of nursing was recognized by outstanding nursing educators of the day as evidenced by the fact that in 1893 a representative was invited to join those at the World’s Fair in Chicago who organized the National League of Nursing Education. By 1933, her school of nursing had graduated 2,095 nurses, more than any other school of nursing in the country. During her address to the graduating class on Nov. 9, 1891, Dr. Kate encouraged her students on to greater achievements: “We trust that our graduates feel that, instead of having completed their studies, they have only just begun them; that they will consider their present attainments only a foundation on which to build further experience.” Twelve of her graduates from one class eventually became physicians. Dr. Lindsay gave female patients at the Battle Creek Sanitarium valuable instruction on how to care for their bodies. During her lectures in the parlor, whenever a man occasionally would appear at the door, she would state to him plainly, “This lecture is for women only,” and he would quickly leave. When Dr. Kellogg opened the American Medical Missionary College in Battle Creek on Sept. 30, 1895, Dr. Kate became professor of diseases of women and children. During this time she encouraged David Paulson, MD, to start the Hinsdale Sanitarium and Hospital near Chicago, a facility that inspired Charles F. Kettering of General Motors fame to donate $11 million to build what are now the Kettering Memorial Hospital and the Kettering College of Medical Arts in Kettering, Ohio. Between 1897 and 1900, during a three-year term of service in South Africa, Dr. Lindsay became the first female Seventh-day Adventist medical missionary. Here she helped establish a training program for nurses at the Claremont Sanitarium in Cape Town, ministered to body and soul in mission stations of the interior, taught preventive medicine, and lectured to African chiefs on sanitation and healthful living. She once traveled on the back of a mule over muddy trails, past the sun-bleached skeletons of starved natives, and could not be persuaded to turn back until she had accomplished her work. During this time she wrote, “Some things have been impressed upon my mind more and more in regard to preparation for missionary labor in a foreign field. I have felt the necessity of going out without any preconceived ideas as to my work, but with a determination to study the field and adapt the work to existing conditions and the minds of the people.” In 1900, asthma caused Dr. Kate to relocate in Boulder, CO., where she joined the staff of the Colorado Sanitarium and organized its school of nursing. She was often seen with the latest journals or new medical books. During this time she became a member of the Boulder County Medical Society. The president of the Society, who also was dean of the Medical Department of Colorado State University at Boulder, stated that Dr. Lindsay was the best informed physician in the Society. In her declining days Dr. Kate Lindsay taught nurses even after being confined to a wheelchair. Student nurses attended classes in her room. It was said of them, “They would all rise up and call her blessed” for the interest she took in them. During her last illness her beloved students tenderly cared for the tiny woman with snow-white hair. Even then, her interest was in others when she asked her nurses, “Well, have you any new babies down there” (in the maternity unit?). Dr. Kate Lindsay was laid to rest on April 2, 1923, at Boulder, CO., at age 80. She had given financial aid to young men and women when greater opportunities would enable them to fill positions of advanced trust and responsibility. She knew nothing of compromise and could express herself with great clarity and earnestness. Dr. Lindsay’s patients admired and respected her because of her kindness to them. She had advanced a type of Christian education and vision that would prepare countless young people for Godly service around the world. In 1936, by recommendation of its School of Nursing faculty, the College of Medical Evangelists Board of Trustees named the original “girls’ dormitory” built in Loma Linda in 1910 “Kate Lindsay Hall.” In 1959, when a new dormitory was to be built, the college retained the name to continue a tradition which was seen to be rich in significance for all who choose a career in the healing arts and sciences. In naming the new Kate Lindsay Hall, CME sought to keep alive the memory and inspiration of a great person and a great life. At the May 26, 1959 groundbreaking ceremony for the new Kate Lindsay Hall, Keld J. Reynolds, PhD, Dean of the Faculties, stated, “It is to be hoped that when women students of this college inquire about the name of this beautiful new residence hall, they will be told that it is named after a person who was a sincere Christian, whose life was dedicated to service in the medical arts, that she was respected as a physician and a scientist in a man’s world, that she helped to create professional nursing, that whether in America or overseas she was always the missionary, her giving strength and talents selflessly to those who needed her, that she loved excellence and virtue above all else and sought to exemplify both. It is hoped that much of Kate Lindsay will rub off on those who for a brief period of their lives call this residence hall their home.”