Heritage Snapshot: Part 102

As dean of Loma Linda University School of Medicine and chair of its Department of Surgery, David B. Hinshaw, Sr., MD, played a decisive role in the controversial consolidation of the School of Medicine in Loma Linda. He eventually became the Loma Linda University vice president for Medical Affairs and president of Loma Linda University Medical Center. His life experiences and involvement in some of Loma Linda’s greatest controversies are an historic saga. David B. Hinshaw was born on November 24, 1923, in Whittier, California, to a Quaker family. His father was a carpenter/contractor and his mother a college-educated woman who became a militant advocate for women’s right to vote. David and his parents were members of the First Friends Church of Whittier. When David was about 5 his family moved from Whittier to a two-acre spread with avocado trees in Vista, California, in the northern part of the County of San Diego. He received his elementary and high school education in the public schools of Vista. Even though David’s family suffered through the Depression in the 1930s, he always had something to wear and enough to eat. In 1940, when David was 16 and a junior in high school, something happened that changed his life. His mother’s serious illness had led her the year before to James A. Jetton, Sr., MD, a Seventh-day Adventist physician in nearby Fallbrook, California. When an evangelistic series began in a tent in Vista, the physician and his wife, Marge, a nurse, invited the Hinshaws to attend. (The Jettons eventually became major donors to Loma Linda University, and the Jetton Pavilion in the Centennial Complex is named in their honor.) In January 1940, the Escondido Seventh-day Adventist Church baptized David and his father into membership. Because his mother was too ill to be baptized by immersion, she joined the church on profession of faith. His mother’s death shortly thereafter, possibly from a brain tumor during the second semester of his junior year, also had a big impact on his life. He tended to lose interest in school, and because he was a new convert, felt deeply about his new beliefs. During this time, David became “quite taken” by Mildred Benjamin, a young women his age who belonged to the Escondido church, and decided to pursue a relationship with her. Before the fall of 1940, David decided to drop out of high school and become a ministerial student with a theology major at La Sierra College (now La Sierra University). He had enough credits. Although he had no Biblical background other than what he had learned during the evangelist series, he was interested in history and theology. Furthermore, Mildred’s attendance at La Sierra College allowed him to continue his special relationship. To support himself David worked on the grounds department for 22 cents an hour for one semester and as an English reader for two years for 25 cents an hour. His father also helped him financially. During summer vacations David joined his father building homes in Escondido. Because he had a tuition debt, during the last semester of his Junior year, he became an orderly at the San Bernardino County Hospital. After much prayer and soul searching, because David didn’t know how he would fit into the ministry, and even though nobody in his family had had a medical background, he decided to change majors the next year and became a pre-med student. He felt that becoming a physician would be a better way for him to serve Christianity and the church. In his own words, “I stumbled through pre-med…and ended up with an acceptance [in Loma Linda] at the College of Medical Evangelists.” David dropped out of college after three years and started attending medical school at CME in August 1943. Shortly after his arrival in Loma Linda, because of World War II, the United States Government inducted all medical students into the Army as privates and organized them as units. David and his classmates received pay for tuition and room and board, wore uniforms, and engaged in close order drill twice a week. David and Mildred were married between his freshman and sophomore years, and welcomed their firstborn David Jr. in December 1945. During this time, the government forced all medical schools to implement an accelerated program, which eliminated summer vacations and graduated physicians in three years instead of four. David B. Hinshaw, Sr., a member of the Class of 1947, enjoyed medical school and felt that he received a good education at CME. His favorite teachers included Harold Shryock, MD, Carrol S. Small, MD, and Raymond A. Mortensen, PhD. The new Dr. Hinshaw interned in Los Angeles at the White Memorial Hospital for a year and continued there in an internal medicine residency for another year. Then he spent two years in the Army at Fort Riley, Kansas and Munich, Germany. During the Berlin blockade, he ran a large dispensary as a Captain and even became the post’s appointed “psychiatrist.” David and Mildred, two Californians who hadn’t traveled much before, traveled throughout Western Europe. During this time the Hinshaws entertained church officials, including Maynard V. Campbell, future chair of the CME/LLU Board of Trustees. Mildred distributed boxes of clothing from Dorcas Societies in the United States to the many needy European refugees she encountered. David’s career with the military ended five days before the start of the Korean War. While trying to figure out what to do with himself, he worked with his friend, Bernard Graybill, MD (CME Class of 1924) in Escondido, and decided to start a career in surgery instead of continuing his residency in internal medicine.