William A. Loveless

His pre-professional job record portrays his varied interests. In grade school he established a carrot juice business, delivering juice by bicycle in Hinsdale, Illinois. As a teen in Glendale, he sold Sunday morning papers on Colorado Avenue in Pasadena and oversaw watering on the Glendale Adventist Hospital grounds. At La Sierra University he claimed himself “a sweeping success” as a janitor in the gymnasium, and conducted a shoe polishing business Friday afternoons in his dormitory room. Accepting occasional appointments to play in high school dance events, he testified that he never “drank, smoked, cussed, spit, chewed or chased women”; he was there strictly for his love of music--and the $30 he couldn’t hope to make at other jobs in the 40s; however, his musical pursuits weren’t endorsed at La Sierra, so at the end of his sophomore year he was invited to matriculate elsewhere. At Walla Walla College he did Friday afternoon barbering in his dormitory room and also served with fellow student Bud Dopp as the “music department” at a nearby high school. During two college summer vacations he became third cook at Porter Adventist Hospital in Denver, retreating to the phone on occasion to ask his mother such questions as “How do you make gravy?” He continued his interest in cooking by conducting cooking schools throughout his career, as well as turning out successful meals at home.

His early interest in birdwatching brought twelve-year-old Bill an honorary membership in the LaGrange, Illinois, Audubon Society after he led members of the society on a tour of over 150 bird nests he had observed in Salt Creek woods. When the fourteen-year-old surprised his parents by acquiring of a pair of homing pigeons, they helped him build a loft where he housed a flock of racing pigeons. He later wrote Beating Wings, a book describing his adventures with the racing birds.

He completed a theology major at Walla Walla College, College Place, Washington, in 1949, and a religion master’s at The Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., in 1953. Because of his pastoral calling, Bill’s major professor at the University of Maryland actually arranged what she called a boutique doctor’s degree for Bill, including philosophy, sociology, anthropology, psychology, and educational administration; the degree was awarded in 1964.

Becoming the pastor of Spokane, Washington’s Central Church in 1957, Bill took his first steps into television with a Sunday morning “Living in Balance” show. During a pastorate at Sligo SDA Church (1957-70), Takoma Park, Maryland, Bill joined a team that climbed Mt. Ararat; co-hosted with Dr. Winton Beaven Concept, a television show for six years on WMAL, the local ABC channel; conducted the Takoma Academy band, and initiated a student missionary program that became a seminal experience for hundreds of students. The program spread to other Seventh-day Adventist college campuses, in spite of an initial rebuke from church headquarters asking him to cease the program of sending young people to foreign countries.

Subsequently Bill served as senior pastor of Loma Linda University Church, 1970-1976, and 1990-2000, president of the Pennsylvania Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 1976-1978, president of Columbia Union College, Takoma Park, Maryland, 1978-1990, and also became an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland, 1964-66, at Columbia Union College, 1959-63, at La Sierra University 1990-1994, at the University of California Riverside 1999-2001, in the Loma Linda University Faculty of Religion 1990-2000, and in the Department of Educational Services and Behavioral Science Section for Loma Linda University’s School of Dentistry from August 13, 2000-September 20, 2013. Until September 2013 he was also active in Pathways, a Riverside marriage and family therapy practice.

At his death, September 15, 2014, Dr. Loveless left to mourn his wife of 62 years, Edna Maye; two daughters—Marti (husband Eric) Olson of Redlands, California; and Marilynn (husband Frank) Howard of Redlands, California; one granddaughter, Laura Olson of Oakland, California; and his sister, Joan Harding.

The family suggests that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to Loma Linda University School of Dentistry, Calexico Mission School, or Loma Linda Broadcasting Network.