La Sierra University’s founding president, beloved scholar Fritz Guy passes to his rest

Dr. Guy passed away following an acute cardiovascular event.

Guy served as president of La Sierra University from 1990 – 1993 during its first years of re-organization following La Sierra’s separation from Loma Linda University. As an institution, La Sierra University was first established in 1922 and following several iterations functioned as a campus of Loma Linda University from 1967 – 1990.

Born in St. Cloud, Minnesota in 1930 and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Guy traveled to California by bus in 1948 to enroll at what was then La Sierra College. Initially studying physics and then English, he switched to theology under the influence of Professor Edward Heppenstall, graduating from La Sierra in 1952. He pastored in the Southeastern California Conference before moving to Washington, D.C., where he earned M.A. and B.D. degrees at the SDA Theological Seminary at Andrews University and served as assistant editor of the Youth’s Instructor.

He joined the La Sierra faculty in 1961; from 1964-68, a study leave took him to the University of Chicago Divinity School, where distinguished historian of American religion Martin E. Marty later recalled: “years after [Guy] left [the University of Chicago Divinity School], . . . Langdon Gilkey . . . was doing some reviewing of our graduates. I remember him saying that when he looked over the cohort of students and graduates, he said that as good a theological mind as he’d met at Chicago, a mind well put to use, was Fritz Guy’s.”

Soon after earning his Ph.D. from Chicago in 1971 for a dissertation that focused on time and temporality in philosophy and theology, Guy became first associate dean and then dean of what was by then Loma Linda University’s College of Arts and Sciences. He left the dean’s office to join the faculty of Andrews University in 1977 before returning to California in 1984 thanks to lifelong friend Louis Venden, then pastor of the Loma Linda University Church, where he took up a position as associate pastor with special responsibility for university faculty and staff relations.

“Being a theologian in and for the church has been an extraordinary privilege and blessing." -- Dr. Fritz Guy in 2009, founding president, La Sierra University

As president of the newly independent La Sierra University in 1990, he guided in the formation of a distinctive university identity, crafted the university’s mission -- “to enlarge human understanding in a contemporary Seventh-day Adventist Christian context” – as well as its aims, and ideals, and supported the development of a robust system of faculty governance. After returning to the faculty as university professor of theology and philosophy, he helped to lead the process of developing a new general education program for La Sierra. The school presented him with a Doctor of Divinity degree, honoris causa, in 2002 and in 2012 honored him as its Alumnus of the Year.

In 2009, he was also honored with the Charles Elliot Weniger Award for Excellence in recognition of his long career in ministry, theology, writing, and education for the Seventh-day Adventist church.

“Being a theologian in and for the church has been an extraordinary privilege and blessing, way beyond anything I have deserved,” said Guy in response to the award, sometimes informally referred to as the Adventist Oscars. “Life in, with, and for the church has been good. Occasional disappointment along the way has been far surpassed by great blessing.”

A committed teacher, Guy mentored multiple budding Adventist scholars during his first stint at La Sierra, where he taught both in what was then the religion department and in the program in Interdisciplinary Studies. Upon his return to campus, he taught in the School of Religion, the University Studies Program, and the Honors Program and both taught in and headed the Program in Philosophical Studies. After retiring from teaching, he returned to the classroom in the late 2002 as research professor of philosophical theology. Multiple current La Sierra University faculty members and at least three current trustees were Guy’s students.

He was particularly committed to nurturing the professional careers of women in ministry, whose work he supported through personal engagement, through his scholarship, and as a participant in the organization of the first service ordaining women in the Southeastern California Conference in 1994. In 2016, he received the Association of Adventist Women’s Champion of Justice award.

In addition to his service at La Sierra, Guy contributed to church and community in multiple ways. For example, he served as secretary of the committee that prepared the initial draft and also on the review committee for final drafts of the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s 1980 Statement of Fundamental Beliefs. Locally he served as a volunteer at the Inland AIDS project. While on the Loma Linda University Church pastoral staff he led the Sabbath School class founded by physician and ethicist Dr. Jack Provonsha; at La Sierra, he played a crucial role in what is now the Fritz Guy and Friends Sabbath School Class. Along with Larry Geraty and the late Jim Cox, former New Testament professor at Andrews Theological Seminary, he was among the three official church representatives to the first SDA Kinship Kampmeeting, and he remained strongly supportive of the Adventist LGBTQ+ community.

An exceptionally clear, well-organized, highly informed teacher, Guy also shone as a scholar. He was among the founders of the Association of Adventist Forums; his name has appeared for more than 50 years on the masthead of the Association’s journal, Spectrum, from its first issue in 1969  to the present, in which he published many articles advancing Adventist theological understanding related to topics including salvation and the relationship between religion and science. He was the author of Thinking Theologically, in which he offered an Adventist approach to theological method, the co-author with Brian Bull of three books regarding the book of Genesis, and the co-editor of at least two other books.

In 1954, Guy married Marcia J. Specht, niece of La Sierra Professor Walter Specht. They became the parents of three children: Linda Davis, Susan Reeder, and Richard – all three siblings and their spouses are alumni of La Sierra University. Marcia Guy died in 2006 and the Guy family established the Marcia Specht Guy Memorial Prize, awarding winners of La Sierra's annual concerto competition in her honor.

Guy loved La Sierra University, which he viewed as a beacon of hope in the Adventist world, and was delighted to live to see it reach its 100th anniversary. He will be remembered as an insightful, generous, rigorous, highly capable scholar, teacher, and pastor who exemplified and fostered the university’s core values. His views are reflected in the following statement made during a homily he delivered a few years ago:

“The best way to be human is to be a person of faith. And the best way to be a person of faith is to be Christian. And the best way to be Christian is to be an Adventist. And the best way to be Adventist is to be at La Sierra.”