Summary
Frederick Griggs was an academy principal, college president, division president, and General Conference educational secretary who served the Seventh-day Adventist Church for fifty-nine years, thirty-five of which were in the field of educational administration. He was one of the most influential individuals in the creation and growth of the worldwide Adventist educational system. From the preparatory school at Battle Creek College to the presidency of Emmanuel Missionary College, from the founding of the Fireside Correspondence School to the leadership of the Far Eastern Division, Griggs left an indelible mark on virtually every level of Adventist education and administration. His successor at the Far Eastern Division, V. T. Armstrong, described him as “a kind, understanding man, one who made friends wherever he went, and greatly endeared himself to the constituency where he labored.”
Early Life and Adventist Heritage
Frederick Griggs was born on March 23, 1867, in St. Charles, Saginaw County, Michigan. His parents were Ezra S. Griggs (1834-1896) and Diantha Mansfield Griggs (1840-1899). He had one younger sister, Emma Griggs Sanderson (1868-1923).
Frederick grew up in a deeply committed Seventh-day Adventist home. His father, Ezra, was an Adventist pastor and evangelist who worked directly with James and Ellen White — the founders and prophetic voice of the denomination. On at least one occasion, Elder and Mrs. Ezra Griggs hosted the Whites in their home, giving young Frederick personal exposure to the movement’s most prominent leaders during his formative years.
Frederick pursued education with determination, attending multiple institutions: Battle Creek College, the Chicago Normal School, the University of Buffalo, and Washington Missionary College. He earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees, equipping himself with academic credentials that would prove essential as he advocated for higher educational standards within the denomination.
Frederick was musically inclined. As a boy, he played the guitar. His musical gifts found expression at significant denominational moments: he sang a solo at a General Conference session on May 13, 1909, performing “How Can I Keep from Singing?” — a hymn whose title seemed to capture his irrepressible spirit. He also sang at Ellen White’s funeral service at Battle Creek on Sabbath, July 24, 1915, performing “Rest for the Toiling Hand,” a fitting farewell to the woman whose family had once been guests in the Griggs home.
He married Blanche Eggleston (1871-1939) on August 16, 1892. After her passing on January 12, 1939, he married Mabel Rebecca Shaffer (1881-1974) in 1940.
Battle Creek College Preparatory School (1890-1899)
Griggs began his educational career at the age of twenty-three as principal of the Battle Creek College Preparatory School, a position he held from 1890 to 1899. Under his leadership, the school grew to encompass grades one through twelve. By 1895, it offered ten grades, accepted children as young as five years old, and maintained an enrollment of 400 with 330 regularly attending — a substantial school by any measure.
Griggs articulated a clear educational philosophy from the outset: “We endeavor to make the Bible and its teachings the great theme through all our work.” This integration of faith and learning would remain the hallmark of his educational leadership throughout his career.
During this period, Griggs became one of the pioneers supporting Battle Creek College President E. A. Sutherland’s visionary plan for a large network of Seventh-day Adventist elementary schools. Griggs advocated vigorously for the creation of a “normal department” — a teacher training school — at Battle Creek College. Recognizing that they needed better preparation for this work, Griggs and two of his teachers undertook graduate work at the University of Buffalo School of Pedagogy.
The normal school was launched in 1896, with Griggs, Sutherland, and Bessie DeGraw as its main teachers. The impact was immediate and far-reaching: Battle Creek began sending out trained church school teachers to villages and hamlets across the region, seeding the Adventist elementary school system that would eventually span the globe.
South Lancaster Academy (1899-1907)
In 1899, Griggs left Michigan for Massachusetts, where he became the sixth principal of South Lancaster Academy, founded in 1882. He taught classes in pedagogics (teacher education) and led the institution through a period of significant growth and transformation. Myron Wehtje, a retired historian of Atlantic Union College (the institution that South Lancaster Academy would become), described Griggs as “an able and energetic principal.”
Under Griggs’s leadership, South Lancaster Academy took its first steps toward becoming a college by offering some post-secondary classes — a pivotal development in the institution’s evolution. In 1904, while still serving as principal, Griggs assumed the additional responsibility of secretary for the General Conference Educational Department, administering that department from South Lancaster. This dual role reflected both the denomination’s confidence in Griggs and his remarkable capacity for work.
General Conference Educational Department (1907-1910)
In 1907, Griggs left South Lancaster Academy and moved to Takoma Park, Maryland, to devote himself full-time to the leadership of the General Conference Educational Department. As executive secretary, he led the development of a comprehensive system of schools — elementary through college — accompanied by appropriate organizational structures for governance and maintenance.
It was during this period that Griggs launched one of his most enduring innovations: the Fireside Correspondence School. Established in 1909, the school was born from Griggs’s vision of providing the benefits of education to those unable to attend traditional schools — whether because of distance, financial constraints, or other circumstances. The Fireside Correspondence School would later be known as the Home Study Institute, and still later was renamed Griggs University in honor of its founder — a rare distinction that speaks to the lasting significance of this initiative.
Griggs also used his position to advocate for two other important causes: the establishment of a full-fledged medical school in Loma Linda and the reinstatement of the program of selling Ellen White’s book Christ’s Object Lessons to relieve Seventh-day Adventist schools of debt.
Union College (1910-1914)
His next assignment took him to the heartland of America: the presidency of Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska, which he held from 1910 to 1914. The move was daunting even for an experienced administrator. He wrote candidly to Ellen White: “It was with much dread and fear that I undertook the work here. There were many problems hard of solution but at every step of the way the dear Lord has gone before me and blessed and helped me.”
As president, Griggs took a personal approach to campus spiritual life. He almost always “took personal charge of the chapel” programs and was especially invested in the college’s annual Week of Prayer meetings. His leadership at Union College was characterized by the same blend of administrative competence and spiritual earnestness that had marked his earlier work.
Emmanuel Missionary College: A “Golden Age” (1918-1925)
In 1918, Griggs returned to Michigan to assume the presidency of Emmanuel Missionary College (EMC), the forerunner of Andrews University. What followed was what the late Andrews University historian Emmett K. Vande Vere described as a “golden age” for the school.
Under Griggs’s leadership, the achievements were impressive: numerous buildings were constructed on campus, a radio station was launched, the college was accredited by both the state of Michigan and the North Central Association — a landmark achievement for Adventist higher education — and enrollment passed the 500 mark for the first time. Griggs left the college in good financial condition, a testament to his administrative skill.
The accreditation of Emmanuel Missionary College was particularly significant. It represented a pivotal moment in Adventist education, demonstrating that the denomination’s institutions could meet the standards of secular accrediting bodies while maintaining their distinctive mission. Griggs had long advocated for academic excellence, and the accreditation of EMC validated his belief that faith and academic rigor were not mutually exclusive.
The Far Eastern Division (1925-1939)
In 1925, Griggs embarked on the most adventurous chapter of his career, moving to Shanghai, China, where he served on the executive board of the Far Eastern Division and various departmental committees. At the 1930 General Conference session, when the Far Eastern Division was reorganized into two parts, Griggs was elected president of the Far Eastern Division, which required relocating to Manila in the Philippines.
Griggs served as president of the Far Eastern Division through the end of his term, overseeing the church’s work across a vast territory encompassing China, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands. V. T. Armstrong, one of his successors, later reflected on this period: “His inspiring leadership proved a great blessing to the field and the work grew and expanded during the six years he served as the leader.”
In 1936, Griggs was elected president of the China Division and moved back to Shanghai. By 1938, with mainland China torn apart by war with Japan, the China Division relocated to Hong Kong, where Griggs navigated the church’s work through increasingly dangerous conditions.
General Conference Field Secretary (1939-1950)
When “health conditions in his family necessitated” his return to the United States in 1939, Griggs was already seventy-two years old. Most people at that age would have embraced retirement. Griggs, characteristically, did not. He continued to serve the denomination for another eleven years as a general field secretary, taking on responsibilities that included chairing the board of the College of Medical Evangelists (now Loma Linda University) and serving as president of Pacific Press Publishing Association.
Educational Philosophy
Throughout his long career, Griggs articulated a consistent educational philosophy that integrated faith, practical learning, and academic excellence. His writings reveal a mind that was both deeply spiritual and pragmatically oriented:
“The concerns of this life and the Bible are the complements of each other in obtaining a true education,” he wrote, capturing his conviction that secular knowledge and biblical truth were not competitors but partners.
“Only God’s written word can give us the true meaning of all other things,” he affirmed, grounding all learning in a theological framework.
His philosophy extended to the home as well: “Love is the ruling power of heaven, and, too, it is the ruling power of every true, healthy home. Warm, true love is the life-blood of the healthy home.”
Death
Frederick Griggs passed away at 7 A.M. on Sunday, August 10, 1952, at the White Memorial Hospital on the Los Angeles campus of the College of Medical Evangelists — an institution he had helped govern during his final years of service. He was eighty-five years old and had served the Seventh-day Adventist Church for fifty-nine years.
Legacy
In the abstract of his doctoral dissertation on Frederick Griggs, historian Arnold Colin Reye provided a comprehensive assessment of his leadership qualities: “In leadership style, Griggs was open, collegial, and democratic. As an administrator he demonstrated competency in such important administrative processes as planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Likewise, he revealed skill in handling the technical, human-relations, and conceptual demands of his work.”
This assessment captures something essential about Griggs: he was not a charismatic visionary who imposed his will on institutions, but a collaborative leader who brought out the best in the people and organizations he served. His “open, collegial, and democratic” style enabled him to succeed in remarkably diverse settings — from a preparatory school in Battle Creek to a college presidency in Nebraska, from the educational bureaucracy of the General Conference to the complex multicultural landscape of the Far Eastern Division.
The institutions that bear the marks of his leadership tell the story of his impact: South Lancaster Academy’s evolution toward college status; the accreditation of Emmanuel Missionary College; the founding of the Fireside Correspondence School (later Griggs University); the growth of the church’s work across Asia. Frederick Griggs did not merely administer Adventist education — he helped build it, from the ground up, across six decades of tireless service.
