1867–1947
Summary
Percy Tilson Magan was an Adventist educator, physician, and institution-builder. Born in Ireland in 1867 and emigrated to the United States in 1884, he was converted to the Adventist faith in 1886 in Nebraska and became a close colleague of Edward A. Sutherland in the relocation of Battle Creek College to Berrien Springs as Emmanuel Missionary College and in the founding of the Madison School in Tennessee. In later life he earned a medical degree and served as president of the College of Medical Evangelists at Loma Linda — predecessor of today’s Loma Linda University. He died in 1947 at the age of seventy-nine.
From Ireland to Nebraska to the Adventist Faith (1867–1886)
Per the Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists (Lisa Clark Diller), Percy Tilson Magan was born November 13, 1867, in Ireland to Percy Magan and Catherine Richards Magan. The family emigrated to the United States in 1884. Magan had four sisters and a younger brother. He became a Seventh-day Adventist in 1886 after attending public meetings in Nebraska where he was doing farm work.
Battle Creek, Berrien Springs, and Madison (1898–1915)
Per ESDA, Magan trained at Battle Creek College and became Sutherland’s closest collaborator. The two led the relocation of Battle Creek College to Berrien Springs, Michigan, in 1901 — where it became Emmanuel Missionary College — and resigned together in 1904 to found the Nashville Agricultural and Normal Institute (Madison School). In 1899 Ellen White wrote Magan a personal letter of pastoral counsel: “Brother Magan, do not let fiction come into the school to be regarded as truth. The gloomy region of doubt can only be expelled by the clear, bright rays of the Sun of Righteousness. Watch, saith the Master, Watch unto prayer” (Manuscript Releases, Letter 163, 1899, par. 13; refcode 14LtMs, Lt 163, 1899, par. 13).
The May 14, 1901 Review and Herald records Magan in the company of the church’s senior leaders at the post-General Conference Indianapolis meeting: “THE first general meeting since the General Conference, was held at Indianapolis, Ind., May 3-5. There were present Elders A. G. Daniells, W. W. Prescott, A. T. Jones, P. T. Magan, W. C. White; and, as Sister White and her party were starting westward just at this time, she went by way of Indianapolis, and was also present” (Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, May 14, 1901, page 316.1; refcode ARSH May 14, 1901, page 316.1).
The August 25, 1903 Review and Herald records Magan as Dean of Emmanuel Missionary College in a major policy conference: “There were present at this conference, E. A. Sutherland, President of Emmanuel Missionary College; P. T. Magan, Dean of Emmanuel Missionary College; Elder A. T. Jones, of the Seventh-day Adventist General Conference Committee; and J. H. Kellogg” (Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, August 25, 1903, page 11.8; refcode ARSH August 25, 1903, page 11.8).
College of Medical Evangelists (1915–1942)
Per ESDA, after his Madison years Magan earned an M.D. and joined the faculty of the College of Medical Evangelists at Loma Linda, where he eventually served as president. Under his administration the school’s medical program received accreditation from the American Medical Association — a critical step that secured the future of Adventist medical education. He continued in administrative leadership at Loma Linda until his retirement.
Death (1947)
Per the Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, Magan died in 1947 at the age of seventy-nine.
