Arthur G. Daniells, became the namesake of Daniells Hall (the former men’s residence at Loma Linda University) and the 52-apartment Daniells Residence Complex on the south side of “the Hill” in Loma Linda. He had been a poor farmer boy with little education, but eventually became President of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists (1901 to 1922) and President of the Board of Trustees of the Loma Linda College of Medical Evangelists (1931 to 1935).
Because of the death of his father when he was only five, A. G. Daniells ascribed the spiritual triumphs that marked his life to his mother’s godly influence. He was baptized at the age of 13, and at 16 entered his first active labor for the Seventh-day Adventist cause by selling Health Almanac, by James White.
Because of ill health Arthur Daniells could attend Battle Creek College for only one year. Following their marriage in 1876, Arthur and Mary Daniells taught public school for a year. Then Daniells received a call to the ministry. At first he declined, reasoning that he was too timid, too unlearned, and too hesitant. When Mary kept urging him to pray more fervently over the matter, he poured forth his soul to God, surrendered to His will, and began an apprenticeship as a ministerial licentiate in Texas in 1878, under the tutelage of Pastor Robert M. Kilgore.
In 1886, the General Conference Committee commissioned Daniells to enter New Zealand as a pioneer missionary. He and Mary spent the next 14 years in New Zealand and Australia, where he became president of the New Zealand Conference, the Australian Conference, and the first president of the Australian Union Conference. Eventually, all of the church organizations in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, and other South Sea Islands were under his leadership. In addition to his administrative duties he built a food factory, college, and sanitarium.
In 1901, at age 43, Daniells became president of the General Conference, where his missionary expeditions carried him to almost every land and climate on earth. World War I did not halt his gospel campaign to the remote corners of the earth. He started strong missions wherever he traveled. His faith was renewed when thousands of converts in the Old World joined the church in one year. In 1907, Daniells started the Missionary Volunteer Department of the General Conference. During his 21-year tenure as President of the General Conference, 2,294 young people received appointments as missionaries to foreign lands.
Pastor Daniells became an orator with the dignity and bearing of a general. His administration showed decorum, deep insight, and broad planning. As an executive he was courteous, pleasant, and firm, but genial. Following his General Conference presidency, Daniells started The Ministry magazine and the Ministerial Association.
Percy T. Magan, MD, the namesake of Magan Hall (the administration building at Loma Linda University), described his feelings for Daniells as “an unspeakably deep affection.”
On his death bed Daniells took Dr. Magan’s hands in his and said, “I want to tell you how deeply I have appreciated working with our dear doctors at the medical college. I love you, Percy, my dear, dear brother, with the love of [the biblical] David for Jonathan. I am happy, Oh so happy. I shall soon be at rest, such sweet rest, and my pain all gone. Farewell, dear brother, farewell.”
Thirty-one hundred people attended his funeral services on Loma Linda’s Los Angeles Campus. Daniells’ body lay in state in David Paulson Hall from 12 midnight until 2 pm, March 27, 1935. More than 1,500 persons had passed by their fallen leader as student physicians formed a Guard of Honor every 15 minutes. Later, the City of Los Angeles provided a police escort from Paulson Hall to Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale.