Heritage Snapshot: Part 141

During the Christmas season of 1966, I took a class at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. I had studied in college for a career in public relations and had just begun employment in the University Relations Office of Loma Linda University. The USC class in hospital public relations was sponsored by the Hospital Council of Southern California. About half way to Los Angeles on the South side of Interstate 10, I saw a Christmas star mounted on the side of a large building, outlined in white lights facing North toward the freeway. It looked nice. What a classy Christmas decoration, I thought. Wouldn’t it be nice to have something like that some day on the face of the new Loma Linda University Hospital (it's name at that time)? But the hospital was not yet occupied, nor was it even painted. We moved 125 patients into the new building on July 9, 1967. The next year, because I had been a finish carpenter in college, I started to build a Christmas star in my Loma Linda garage. I used a 4 x 8-foot sheet of prefinished, white plywood, backed it with 1 x 2's, and outlined the star with white, exterior Christmas lights. I took it to the office of C. Victor Way, the hospital administrator, told him the background and asked if he would be willing to have it installed on the exterior wall of the hospital facing North. He declined, saying it would cost $50. So, I took the star back to the administration building where my office was located, and without anybody’s approval, and with the help of a gentleman from the University Housekeeping Service, installed it above the breezeway which separates the administration building from the University Library. Nobody complained. It looked so nice. I took its picture one night with the lights powered through a window into the library’s reading room (now the University’s board room). The next Christmas season, I went to Mr. Way’s office with the picture. He liked it. I asked him if I were to build a 16-foot star, would he have it installed on the North face of the hospital. He said yes. So I built one that was twice as big, and men from the University’s maintenance service installed it. They liked it, too, but decided that a larger version would be a better fit. So, on their own, for the next Christmas season, they built a 37-foot Christmas star out of aluminum, and outlined it also with white, exterior Christmas lights. “Prop wash” from emergency helicopter landings beat it up a little, so they strengthened it with aluminum bracing, and it’s been displayed every Christmas season for more than 40 years. It is stored between Christmas seasons under the nearby heliport. During this commercial time of year, I hope it takes observers back to the Star of Bethlehem and the real reason for the season.