Alumni A World Community

From the Archives

Shoe-Leather Evangelism

By Hannah Notess (hnotess@spu.edu)

View more photographs from the archives of
Seattle Pacific students in the city.

To Skid Row in their Sunday Best

This gospel team is headed for Seattle's "skid row" to visit a mission there. Do you recognize these Bible-bearing team members? If so, drop us a line at response@spu.edu. The first reader to identify all four students correctly will become the proud owner of an SPU sweatshirt!

Do you have memories of your time on a Seattle Pacific "gospel team"? Share your memories below, and view more photographs from the archives of Seattle Pacific students in the city to see if you recognize yourself or any of your classmates.

From Last Issue's Archives

Contest Winner: Nursing Graduates "Pinned" for Service at Swedish

Congratulations to the first responder to our archive photo contest in the last issue of Response: Nancy Lindblom of LaCenter, Washington. She correctly identified, from left to right, nurses Julie Heinz, Shirley Thompson, Carolyn Peterson, Muriel Mills, and Sheila Collett. We were delighted, also, to hear from Carolyn, who called our office the day her magazine arrived, and from Shirley, who wrote, "We had a fantastic experience being prepared at Seattle Pacific by Lydia Green to become student nurses at Swedish Hospital. Forever grateful for all my professors and classmates. God was so gracious to lead me to SPC."

A Perfect Specimen of Health

We heard from several readers who identified the people in this 1951 photo, but a couple of letters stood out. Marilyn Johnson Frank wrote, "I was surprised to see my brother Paul Kenneth Johnson's photo (left) in Response. Paul, age 26, was 'a perfect specimen of health' when he and I were students at SPC in 1951. I'm glad his picture is preserved in the archives. … Paul lived for 56 years in Port Orchard, Washington, until his death in 1981. He was a World War II veteran who was a track athlete."

And Grant Christensen wrote, "That nurse is my mother, Laura Belle Smith Christensen (right). She was a student at SPC in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and then became a faculty member in nursing. While at SPC as a faculty member she met my father, Ernest Christensen. … They served in Japan as missionaries. … She passed away in 1975. … Momma was a woman of pure compassion, with a wonderful sense of humor and an infectious laugh."

Want to contribute to the SPU Archives?

If you have historic Seattle Pacific artifacts, keepsakes, or documents that you would like to contribute to the University Archives, or if you have any questions about the Archives, contact Adrienne Thun Meier '04, university archivist, at 206-281-2422 or ameier@spu.edu.