John Burden, the co-founder of Loma Linda University, was a simple, sincere, and self-sacrificing man of God who devoted his untiring labors, wholehearted dedication, and self-denying efforts to establish an institution where Seventh-day Adventist youth could be educated to become medical missionaries. He had an enthusiastic and unwavering faith in the cause he loved.
Burden was born in a rough log cabin chinked and plastered with mud, in Grant County, Wisconsin, on March 24, 1862. His middle name, Allen, was his mother’s maiden name. At 9 years of age, he accompanied her to a Seventh-day Adventist evening meeting, where they were given printed copies of Mrs. Ellen G. White’s early writings, which were read at John’s request after the six-mile ride home in a horse-drawn wagon. In 1874, he took his stand and joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church. His surrender continued throughout his life.
Mr. Burden entered Healdsburg College (the predecessor of Pacific Union College) in Healdsburg, California, in 1880. He married Miss Eleanor Baxter on April 12, 1888, at the Saint Helena Sanitarium, in the Napa Valley of Northern California, where both were employed. From 1893 to 1901 he managed the St. Helena Sanitarium. From 1901 to 1904 he was the business manager of the Sydney Sanitarium in Wahroonga, Australia. In 1904, at Mrs. White’s request, Burden returned from Australia to promote Sanitariums in Southern California.
In 1905, commissioned by Mrs. White, he founded the Loma Linda Sanitarium. In all, he received 76 letters of counsel from Mrs. White for the work at Loma Linda. In December 1915, Burden became the manager of the Paradise Valley Sanitarium. He retired in 1934, the same year the College of Medical Evangelists (CME) named the new college church in Loma Linda “Burden Hall.” Almost eight years later, on June 10, 1942, while walking home from a Bible study in Redlands, Burden was struck by a car about half way between Loma Linda and Redlands and killed almost instantly.
During the March 27 to April 2, 1912 Constituency Meeting, President George A. Irwin reported the significance of CME to the denomination. His report illustrates the dynamics within the church which influenced the fledgling institution and envisioned its future: “The launching of this enterprise was one of the most important moves made by this denomination…the beginning of a work that will have a world-wide influence for good, if the object and principles of the promoters are kept ever in view and rigorously maintained…. While this institution is located within the bounds of the Southern California Conference [now the Southeastern California Conference] and the Pacific Union Conference it is not in any sense a local enterprise. It is the only school of its kind in the whole denomination, and hence of general interest to all parts of the great field.”
To help balance the budget, on April 1, 1912, the Board voted to raise tuition for medical students from $100 to $150 a year, to raise room rates for students from 75 cents to $1 a week, that room and board for employees eating in the patients’ dining room be raised from $4 to $5 a week—all increases to be effective July 1, 1912.
Even with tight finances, Burden observed that the proposed increase in tuition for medical students was excessive. On June 17, 1912, he recommended that CME tuition remain at $100 a year with the addition of a $10 laboratory fee. His motion carried.
Today, Loma Linda University School of Medicine, once projected to be “a one-horse medical school” by the American Medical Association, has graduated 11,156 physicians (almost 2,000 more than any other school of medicine in the Western United States). And it has prepared more physicians who have gone overseas as medical missionaries than has any other school of medicine in the world. Their names are engraved around the stylized mission globe now located in the middle of the basic sciences quadrangle.
In John Burden’s devotion to the advancement of Seventh-day Adventist medical missionary endeavor as advocated by the counsel of Ellen G. White, he pushed on where others often hesitated. If he felt called by God to accomplish a certain task, he moved steadily forward in spite of all obstacles. Without his indomitable faith, creativity, and perseverance Loma Linda University and Medical Center would not have come into existence. These institutions are enduring testimonials to the faithfulness and commitment of this exemplary Christian gentleman.