Pearce, Paul Nelson (1891–1954)

Paul N. Pearce was a college professor, a promoter of Adventist radio in its earliest years, an editor, and an active lay member of the church after his relatively brief career in Adventist denominational employment.

Early Years

Paul was born in Cedar Lake, Michigan, on December 4, 1891, the eldest of four children born to Fannie Nelson and Alfred Eugene Pearce.¹ By the time his eldest sister, Esther, was born in 1894, the family had moved to Bay City, Michigan, where his father established a lumber and crate-making business. Paul’s mother died in 1908.²

In 1909 Paul and his sister Esther enrolled at the high school level at Emmanuel Missionary College, Berrien Springs, Michigan (now Andrews Academy and Andrews University).³ In 1913, he continued his studies at Union College in Nebraska, and was active in student leadership. In his first year, Paul joined the Glee Club.⁴ In 1914 he was elected treasurer of the Tennis Club; in 1915 he was appointed treasurer of the Educational Messenger, a 32-page monthly containing news from the college along with articles promoting Christian education more generally. During his senior year (1915-1916) Pearce was elected treasurer of the senior class, and as a student in the advanced composition and the essay class, chaired an editorial committee that provided all the content for the August 1, 1916 issue of the Youth’s Instructor.⁵ He completed the A.B. degree in English with the class of 1916, the first class to graduate in caps and gowns.⁶

Upon graduating, Paul was asked to be assistant editor of the Watchman, an evangelistic periodical published by Southern Publishing Association in Nashville, Tennessee.⁷ That fall, he posted announcements in many Adventist periodicals stating that the Missionary Volunteer Society in Nashville was selling mistletoe bundles to raise funds for Ingathering. They easily surpassed their initial goal of $200, expecting at last report to reach $300.⁸ This would be the first of many promotional campaigns under his byline.

After a year at The Watchman, Pearce moved to the Washington, D.C., area in 1917 and completed a masters degree in English at the George Washington University on June 6, 1918.⁹ While in Washington, he became acquainted with Lillian E. Kirchner, a secretary for E. L. Richmond, assistant manager and superintendent at the Review and Herald Publishing Association located next door to the General Conference office in Takoma Park.¹⁰ Paul and Lillian were married September 3, 1918 in New York City.¹¹

That fall, Pearce began his teaching career as head of the college English department at Emmanuel Missionary College (EMC). His sister Dorothy L. Pearce joined him on the English faculty that fall.¹² A son, Theodore “Ted” was born to Paul and Lillian on February 16, 1920.¹³

When an influenza epidemic hit the communities around EMC in the winter of 1920, students volunteered to go into the homes and nurse those affected by the flu. In addition to the good will this service engendered, EMC President Frederick Griggs had developed many friendly contacts in the community, and the college farm, along with the Home Economics department had befriended and benefited farmers in the region. Thus, when the college launched a drive in 1923 to solicit funds towards a $200,000 expansion campaign, the surrounding community lent strong support. Pearce and two other EMC teachers along with local ministers “combed the countryside and towns, soliciting cash and three-year pledges” during the summer of 1923, resulting in pledges totaling $26,000.”¹⁴

Earlier that spring, Pearce assisted President Griggs and Professor Joseph H. Haughey in beginning a long-standing tradition at EMC—Founders Day. On the morning of March 11, the students and faculty assembled in the College Chapel to celebrate the 49^th anniversary of the institution’s founding. As part of the program, portraits of James and Ellen White were unveiled. The picture of Elder White was the one that had hung over the platform of the chapel at Battle Creek College (the predecessor of EMC).¹⁵

WEMC

In 1922, when radio broadcasting in the United States was in its infancy, President Griggs recruited 21-year-old John Fetzer to enroll at EMC and set up a wireless broadcasting station.¹⁶ Fetzer had taken some wireless courses at Purdue University after completing high school, and now held a first-class broadcasting license as a commercial radio operator. He brought along his friend George Peterson to be his roommate and to assist him in setting up the station. Within a few weeks the Lake Union Herald told its readers that Fetzer was receiving and sending radio signals from his room and the dorm parlor. By late spring 1923, Fetzer and Peterson were ready to broadcast a full program, using the call letters 8AZ.¹⁷ Each evening at 9 o’clock for the remainder of the school year, students and teachers spoke and provided vocal and instrumental music for the station. On Sunday morning, May 13, General Conference youth leader M. E. Kern gave a Mothers’ Day sermon.¹⁸ These programs were heard as far away as Pennsylvania. This was the first radio station operated by a Seventh-day Adventist organization, and the college helped the station by providing studio space in a corner of the attic in the main building.

However, the station’s first transmitter was deemed to be too weak, and Fetzer sold it. John H. Talge, a businessman in Indianapolis, then purchased a used station transmitter for the college, and Fetzer and friends installed it on the campus. The Federal Radio Commission assigned it the call letters KFGZ.¹⁹ The first regular program broadcast on the new equipment was on March 24, 1924. For the rest of the school year, regular programming was broadcast on “The Radio Lighthouse” on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings, with sermons on Sunday morning and night. With a range up to 2,000 miles, listeners wrote in from as far away as Maine, Texas, and Nevada.²⁰

Pearce supported Fetzer in the development of the campus radio station, taking the role of program and publicity manager in the fall of 1924.²¹ For the next several years, Paul’s byline was a familiar one in Adventist publications as he tirelessly promoted the station’s efforts. His articles appeared not only in all the union papers in North America, but also in the Review and Herald and in the Australasian Record.²²

Pearce wrote about the listeners from all walks of life who had written to the station, including railroad executives and ministers from other denominations. Some listeners were intrigued that there was no jazz music on this station; others wrote asking for more information about the Sabbath and other Adventist beliefs. The station, operating at 4,000 watts broadcast power for six and one-half hours weekly, could be heard at night as far away as Seattle and Florida.²³ During that school year, the small attic studio had been enlarged with a reception room, a small office, two control rooms, and a large and small studio.²⁴ In March 1925, the college Board of Trustees set up a Committee on Radio to oversee the radio work that included W.E. Abernathy, secretary/treasurer of the Lake Union Conference, K.F. Ambs, EMC assistant business manager, and J.F. Piper, president of the West Michigan Conference.²⁵

By 1926, a new structure had been built on campus to house the transmitter, with Pearce raising the funds for its construction. Now using the call letters WEMC, the station broadcast at 5000 watts and reached nearly 40 states as far away as 2000 miles.²⁶ Pearce stepped down as head of the English Department and served full-time as the Manager of Program and Publicity.²⁷ Not only did he raise the funds for the new transmitter building, he also raised $8,500 for a new Moller pipe organ installed in the new EMC chapel. The organ manufacturer reduced the cost of the organ from $20,000 because of the publicity it expected to get from national broadcasts using the instrument.²⁸ Live concerts given by Birt Summers, chair of the music department, at the organ became part of the station’s program.²⁹

Elder William A. Westworth was appointed director of the station in the fall of 1926. An experienced pastor and evangelist, Westworth, as president of the Illinois Conference, had been a member of the college board. He quickly saw that radio was “the shortest method for reaching the largest number of people in a direct way.” He estimated that the station had a minimum audience of about 75,000, with a potential audience into the millions.³⁰ In addition to the radio messages from “The Lighthouse,” Westworth developed a series of Bible study lessons for different types of listeners.³¹

By 1927, not only was WEMC broadcasting four evenings a week, but Pastor Westworth had a morning Beacon Light devotional hour each day. Listeners wrote from as far away as Liverpool, England, and Hawaii. That spring, Fetzer, having completed his bachelor’s degree, continued as the salaried chief engineer for the station.³²

The radio station was an expensive operation for the college. Not only were there three full-time administrators, but there was a team of a dozen stenographers correcting and answering Bible lessons. When the first hints of money troubles came in July 1926, the college board asked the Lake Union for financial assistance; over the next few months several steps were taken to provide more funds and oversight to the radio station. In February 1928, the college board requested a joint meeting between the EMC board, the Radio Committee, and the GC treasury to develop a budget for the radio station. With the onset of the Great Depression, however, the financial pressures became too great, and EMC sold the station to Fetzer, who transferred it to Kalamazoo, Michigan.³³

Later Years

Pearce’s involvement with WEMC came to an end in 1928. One factor was the EMC board’s decision in March to hire a music director and, to save money, combine this position with that of the program manager.³⁴ Moreover, Paul’s father had taken seriously ill and wanted Paul’s assistance in running his lumber and crate-making business. Thus, Pearce resigned from WEMC as of May 29 and returned to Bay City.³⁵ On August 5, 1928, his father passed away and Paul assumed management of the business. He and Lillian also built a second home next to Cedar Lake, near the Adventist secondary school, Cedar Lake Academy. There they retired in 1953 after liquidating the lumber and crate-making business in Bay City.

Paul passed to his rest at age 62 on June 27, 1954, in Cedar Lake, Michigan. Lillian then returned to Berrien Springs, where she died on May 17, 1975.³⁶

Legacy

Paul Pearce’s fund-raising and promotional skills not only benefited Emmanuel Missionary College, but also, during his five years with WEMC, helped the first Seventh-day Adventist radio station stay on the air and expand its ministry.

Sources

A junior. “On Seniors.” Educational Messenger, February 1916.

Beaird, Alice. “The New Board.” Educational Messenger, February 1915.

Becker, Warren. “Organs and Their Masters in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.” International Adventist Musicians Association website http://iamaonline.com. Click on SDA Music History on the navigation panel.

Clarke, C. F. “W8AZ to WLZO.” Ca. September 16, 1993. Center for Adventist Research, Andrews University, Berrien Springs, MI.

Clark, C. Fred. “First Radio Lessons.” Letter to editor, ARH, February 11, 1988.

Ellis, M. E. “The Glee Club.” Educational Messenger, June 1913.

Emmanuel Missionary College Board Minutes. Center for Adventist Research, Andrews University, Berrien Springs, MI.

Forrester, Allen. “The Radio Lighthouse.” Senior Paper, 1994. Center for Adventist Research, Andrews University, Berrien Springs, MI.

Hegedus, Carol. John Earl Fetzer: Stories of One Man’s Search. 2004 (cited in Ronald L. Numbers, “From Adventism to Spiritualism: John Fetzer’s Spiritual Journey.” Adventist Today, Fall 2018).

“Items of Interest: Emmanuel Missionary College.” Lake Union Herald, November 10, 1909.

“Lillian K. Pearce.” Find a Grave. Memorial ID 210068520, May 13, 2020. Accessed January 19, 2024. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/210068520/lillian-k-pearce.

“Kirchner—Pearce.” Educational Messenger, December 1918.

“News Notes.” Southern Union Worker, December 21, 1916.

No Title (Commencement Number). Educational Messenger, June 1916.

“North East West South.” Educational Messenger, October 1914.

“Paul Nelson Pearce.” Find a Grave. Memorial ID 210068627, May 13, 2020. Accessed January 19, 2024. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/210068627/paul-nelson-pearce.

Pearce, Paul N. “E. M. College A Capella Choir Over the Air.” Southwestern Union Record, February 14, 1928.

Pearce, Paul N. “Our Wireless Station at Berrien Springs.” Australasian Record, August 3, 1925.

Pearce, Paul N. “Seeking the Lost by Radio.” Atlantic Union Gleaner, July 22, 1925.

Pearce, Paul N. “Special Broadcasts from WEMC.” North Pacific Union Gleaner, February 15, 1927.

Pearce, Paul N. “The Radio Lighthouse.” ARH, January 8, 1925.

Pearson, H. L. “Emmanuel Missionary College.” Lake Union Herald, September 20, 1922.

Rees, David D. and Dick, Everett. Union College: Fifty Years of Service. Lincoln, NE: Union College Press. 1941.

Rowell, Winifred Peebles. “An Explanation.” Youth’s Instructor, August 1, 1916.

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook. General Conference Archives (GCA). 1917, 1919, 1927, 1929. https://documents.adventist.archives.org/Yearbooks/Forms/Alltems.aspx.

Skinner, Lyndon L. “The Third Angel’s Message by Radio.” Youth’s Instructor, August 28, 1923.

The College Bulletin: General Catalog of EMC for 1927-1928. Berrien Springs, MI: Emmanuel Missionary College, 1927.

The Senior Class. The Cardinal. Berrien Springs, MI: Emmanuel Missionary College, 1924. https://focus.andrews.edu/2021/10/20/cardinal-1924/.

The Senior Class. The Cardinal. Berrien Springs, MI: Emmanuel Missionary College, 1926. https://focus.andrews.edu/2021/10/25/cardinal-1926/.

The Senior Class. The Cardinal. Berrien Springs, MI: Emmanuel Missionary College, 1927. https://focus.andrews.edu/2021/10/25/cardinal-1927/.

Titus, Olla. “Emmanuel Missionary College Broadcasts.” Youth’s Instructor, March 25, 1924.

Vande Vere, Emmett K. The Wisdom Seekers. Nashville: Southern Publishing Association, 1972.

Varney, Esther Pearce. Recollections as told to Donald E. Pearce. January 1, 1978. Transcription in personal collection of Ann Pearce Cash.

Westworth, W. A. “Radio and Our Message.” Ministry, November 1928.

“With the Men Behind the Books: Publishing House Notes.” Southern Union Worker, August 31, 1916.

“With the Men Behind the Books: Publishing House Notes.” Southern Union Worker, December 21, 1916.

Notes

1. “Paul Nelson Pearce,” Find a Grave, Memorial ID 210068627, May 13, 2020, accessed January 19, 2024, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/210068627/paul-nelson-pearce.↩

2. The writer is married to Paul Pearce’s niece and is grateful that she has shared family heritage materials for this article. On Paul’s sister and her husband, see R. William Cash, “Varney, Frank Curtis (1893–1957) and Esther Marie (Pearce) (1894–1980),” Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, August 25, 2022, accessed February 5, 2024, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=GJJM.↩

3. “Items of Interest: Emmanuel Missionary College,” Lake Union Herald, November 10, 1909, 7.↩

4. M. E. Ellis, “The Glee Club,” Educational Messenger, June 1913, 37.↩

5. “North East West South,” Educational Messenger, October 1914, 14-18; Alice Beaird, “The New Board,” Educational Messenger, February 1915, 16-17; “On Seniors,” Educational Messenger, February 1916, 7-8; Winifred Peebles Rowell, “An Explanation,” Youth’s Instructor, August 1, 1916, 16. His sister Dorothy was also enrolled at Union for the 1915-16 school year (Educational Messenger, October 1915, 17).↩

6. Educational Messenger, June 1916; David D. Rees and Everett Dick, Union College: Fifty Years of Service (Lincoln, NE: Union College Press, 1941), 217.↩

7. “With the Men Behind the Books: Publishing House Notes,” Southern Union Worker, August 31, 1916, 1; “Southern Publishing Association” in Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook for 1917, GCA.↩

8. Display advertisements were published in the Columbia Union Visitor (December 7, 1916, 5), North Pacific Union Gleaner (December 7, 1916, 7), Pacific Union Recorder (December 14, 1916, 8), Southwestern Union Record (November 21, 1916, 3), Southern Union Worker (November 23, 1916, 8), and noted in the Sligonian (December 1916, 18); “With the Men Behind the Books: Publishing House Notes,” Southern Union Worker, December 14, 1916, 1; “News Notes,” Southern Union Worker, December 21, 1916, 6,7.↩

9. Registrar, George Washington University, email message to author, April 4, 2022.↩

10. Esther Pearce Varney, Recollections as told to Donald E. Pearce, January 1, 1978, transcription in personal collection of Ann Pearce Cash.↩

11. “Kirchner—Pearce,” Educational Messenger, December 1918, 10.↩

12. “Emmanuel Missionary College” in Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook for 1919, GCA.↩

13. Carolyn Pearce Ballard, text message to Ann Pearce Cash, January 23, 2023.↩

14. Emmett K. Vande Vere, The Wisdom Seekers (Nashville: Southern Publishing Association, 1972), 148-149.↩

15. Ibid, 152-153.↩

16. Carol Hegedus, John Earl Fetzer: Stories of One Man’s Search,” 2004, 43 (cited by Ronald L. Numbers, “From Adventism to Spiritualism: John Fetzer’s Spiritual Journey,” Adventist Today, Fall 2018, 12-23).↩

17. C. F. Clarke, “W8AZ to WKZO,” ca. September 16, 1993, Center for Adventist Research (CAR), Andrews University, Berrien Springs, MI; Clarke cites the call letters as W8AZ, but Andrews University’s Focus (Opal Hoover Young, “On the Roots of Radio at Andrews,” Focus, Fall 1979, 37-9) uses 8AZ, as does the website for WAUS-FM, the current radio station at Andrews University (https://www.waus.org/about, accessed April 4, 2022).↩

18. H. L. Pearson, “Emmanuel Missionary College,” Lake Union Herald, September 20, 1922, 12; Lyndon L. Skinner, “The Third Angel’s Message by Radio,” Youth’s Instructor, August 28, 1923, 7.↩

19. Clarke, “W8AZ to WKZO.” The John H. Talge who donated the transmitter is apparently the same individual appears to be the same John H. Talge who generously contributed to Southern Junior College a decade earlier (see Louis A. Hansen, From So Small a Dream, Nashville: Southern Publishing Association, 1968, 161), for whom the men’s residence Talge Hall is named.↩

20. The Senior Class, The Cardinal (Berrien Springs, MI: Emmanuel Missionary College, 1924), 63. https://focus.andrews.edu/2021/10/20/cardinal-1924/, accessed January 9, 2024; Olla Titus, “Emmanuel Missionary College Broadcasts,” The Youth’s Instructor, March 25, 1924, 4, 14; Clarke, “W8AZ to WKZO.”↩

21. Paul was titled “Director of WEMC Broadcasting” in the Lake Union Herald (“A New Radio Lighthouse,” February 3, 1926, 3), “Director of Broadcasting” in the Atlantic Union Gleaner (“To Alumni and Friends of E. M. C.,” March 3, 1926, 8), and “Program Director” in several articles published in 1927 (eg. “Special WEMC Program,” Atlantic Union Gleaner, November 2, 1927, 6).↩

22. Paul N. Pearce, “Our Wireless Station at Berrien Springs,” Australasian Record, August 3, 1925, 2; an example of the same article published in different publications is Paul N. Pearce, “Seeking the Lost by Radio,” Atlantic Union Gleaner, July 22, 1925, 6, 8, which also appeared in Field Tidings (April 1, 1925, 1), Eastern Canadian Messenger, (February 24, 1925, 4), and Southern Union Worker (February 24, 1925, 2-3).↩

23. Paul N. Pearce, “’The Radio Lighthouse,’” ARH, January 8, 1925, 22.↩

24. Clarke, “W8AZ to WKZO”; Allen Forrester, “The Radio Lighthouse,” Senior Paper, 1994, CAR, 2.↩

25. EMC Board Minutes, March 3, 1925, CAR.↩

26. The Senior Class, The Cardinal (Berrien Springs, MI: Emmanuel Missionary College, 1926), 72-3. https://focus.andrews.edu/2021/10/25/cardinal-1926/, accessed January 9, 2024; Forrester, 2-3 states that it was Pearce and Fetzer who petitioned the change in call letters.↩

27. “Emmanuel Missionary College” entry in Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook for 1927, GCA; The College Bulletin: General Catalog of EMC for 1927-1928, (Berrien Springs, MI: Emmanuel Missionary College, 1927), 121.↩

28. Clarke, “W8AZ to WKZO”; Warren Becker, “Organs and Their Masters in the Seventh-day Adventist Church,” International Adventist Musicians Association website http://iamaonline.com (click on “SDA Music History” on the navigation panel), accessed January 19, 2024.↩

29. An example is mentioned in Paul N. Pearce, “E. M. College A Cappella Choir Over the Air,” Southwestern Union Record, February 14, 1928, 8.↩

30. W. A. Westworth, “Radio and Our Message,” Ministry, November 1928, 8-9.↩

31. C. Fred Clarke, “First Radio Lessons,” letter to the editor, ARH, February 11, 1988, 2.↩

32. The Senior Class, The Cardinal (Berrien Springs, MI: Emmanuel Missionary College, 1927), 23, 118. https://focus.andrews.edu/2021/10/25/cardinal-1927/, accessed January 9, 2024.↩

33. Forrester, 8; after the station was moved to Kalamazoo, it became the foundation for Fetzer’s growing media empire.↩

34. EMC Board minutes (March 12, 1928, CAR, 5) show that Clarence Dortch, a music professor at Southwestern Junior College, was offered the position. When he declined, Willard “Bill” Shadel became program and publicity manager (“Lake Union Conference,” SDA Yearbook for 1929, 51)—a start to his brilliant career in radio broadcasting.↩

35. Board minutes April 12, 1928; Ann Pearce Cash, personal knowledge.↩

36. “Paul Nelson Pearce,” Find a Grave; “Lillian K. Pearce,” Find a Grave, Memorial ID 210068520, May 13, 2020, accessed January 19, 2024, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/210068520/lillian-k-pearce.↩