Cady, Marion Ernest (1866–1948)

Marion Ernest Cady was an Adventist educator, author, and administrator who served as the president of four Adventist Colleges over the span of his career. He also served as education and Missionary Volunteer secretary for several conferences. He was a proponent of practical, biblically-based education, and was widely received as a public speaker.

Family and Early Years

Cady and his twin sister, Mary Emeline, were born in Poy Sippi, Wisconsin, on October 20, 1866, to Philander Cady and Nancy Jane Hall (married March 17, 1850). They were two of eleven children. Another sibling, Jacob, became a missionary and sailed to the South Pacific on the second voyage of the schooner Pitcairn. Philander Cady, a farmer and carpenter, joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church after attending a series of meetings in 1857. He later built the first Adventist church in Poy Sippi (a town in which his father, Jacob Cady, was among the first of four inhabitants) and was ordained as an Adventist minister in the early 1880s. Unable to afford the $300 commutation fee that would have exempted him from service, Philander was among the Adventists drafted by the Union Army during the American Civil War. He served with the 37th Wisconsin Infantry.¹

Marion Cady was baptized at age sixteen. In 1886 he enrolled at Battle Creek College. He interrupted his education to work in the Minnesota Conference for several years. He assisted with evangelistic tent meetings in Minnesota and North Dakota between 1888 and 1891, and held a ministerial license from the Minnesota Conference.² Returning to Battle Creek College, he received Bachelor of Arts degree in 1893. While a student at Battle Creek College, Cady joined a group of students conducting evangelistic meetings in Augusta, Michigan. A local school teacher, Minnie G. Case, attended the meetings. She was baptized and enrolled at Battle Creek College as well. Cady married Minnie G. Case on June 21, 1894.³

Early Career

Following his college graduation, Cady joined the faculty of Union college as head of the science department in 1894.⁴ In 1897, he published a series of Bible nature studies in the Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, which were so popular that, after he moved to teach at Battle Creek College in 1898, they were reprinted in pamphlet form. The pamphlets were part of the Christian Educators series, later combined into the book published by the Pacific Press Publishing Association between 1901 and 1913.⁵ “These lessons [were] especially designed for the use of teachers in our church schools, and in the home studies of our own people.” Cady based his studies “on the Bible and the Testimonies, with observations on common things” and “adapted” them “to the season of the year.”⁶

Cady was elected president of Healdsburg College (now Pacific Union College) in 1899. He arrived at a time when the school was struggling as it had lacked adequate leadership for the two years preceding his arrival. Under Cady’s administration, which lasted until the end of 1903, the student body grew and the teacher training (normal) program was revived. Cady was also influential in making the school’s curriculum more practical, in line with Ellen White’s counsel, and relaxing the earlier “heavy emphasis on the classics.” ⁷ Yet, by the end of Cady’s term as president, the school was still heavily in debt and the growth of the town of Healdsburg was encroaching on the college campus.

During at least part of the time that Cady was president of Healdsburg, he was also education secretary of the Pacific Union. He also published a compilation of Ellen White’s comments on “true science” in 1900⁸ and a companion compilation of science in the Bible in 1903.⁹ The two volumes were later combined into a single volume and republished as part of the True Education series. However, it was his talent for administration, in fact, which led to his departure from Healdsburg College at the beginning of 1904. In January 1904, the General Conference (GC) called Cady to join the GC education department as a general secretary in charge of the campaign to sell Ellen White’s book, Christ’s Object Lessons, which she had written to raise funds for Adventist schools.¹⁰

Cady’s name had been floated as a possible president for Walla Walla College (now Walla Walla University) in 1895 when he was still teaching science at Union College, but an invitation never materialized because he was not a minister. When Walla Walla College again considered Cady for president in 1904, he declined. Cady finally accepted the presidency of Walla Walla College in 1905. He inherited a school that was struggling with enrollment and debt. During his six-year tenure, he placed “the school on solid footing as a four-year college.”¹¹ Cady introduced the semester system, published a college bulletin that fully outlined the requirements for diplomas and certificates, and awarded the first bachelor of arts degree. His aggressive approach generated results. From the 164 students enrolled the year before Cady’s arrival, enrollment grew to 375 by the 1908-1909 academic year.¹²

While he was president of Walla Walla College, Cady also continued to serve the Pacific Union Conference as education secretary in 1905 and then became education secretary of the the North Pacific Union when it formed in 1906.¹³ He remained in these dual positions until 1911.¹⁴ In the autumn of 1910, Cady “became seriously ill.” He subsequently spent a year in the hospital. Prior to his illness, he had expressed a desire “to do more research and writing.”¹⁵

Graduate School and Educational Philosophy

Upon his recovery, Cady took the opportunity to pursue a master’s degree at the University of California in Berkeley. He pursued his M.A. in education and in 1916 completed his thesis titled, "Seventh-Day Adventist Denominational Schools on the Pacific Coast."¹⁶ In his master’s thesis, Cady chronicled the history of Adventist education from a combination of his own memory and other sources. He frequently referenced Ellen White’s 1873 treatise on “Proper Education” and felt it was the most influential work in galvanizing Adventists to create their own education system. He called it “the nicest work ever assumed by men and women to deal with youthful minds.”¹⁷ Cady strongly advocated for many of the principles Ellen White supported-- principles that supported a holistic education in which parents and teachers worked together to educate the whole child, spiritually, mentally, and physically. This education also recognized the importance of a child’s individuality and self-respect.¹⁸ Like White, Cady repeatedly emphasized that moral character is of greater need and importance than great intellect.

Later Career

Cady became educational secretary of the Columbia Union in July 1920, where he helped its the elementary schools implement guidelines adopted by the General Conference education department in 1918. He was also expected to “give special attention” to Washington Missionary College and the academies.¹⁹ This may have led to his presidency of Washington Missionary College (now Washington Adventist University), which began just a year later in July 1921.²⁰

In 1923, Cady became a field secretary of the General Conference education department where he served for four years.²¹ In January 1927, Cady became interim president of Southern Junior College (now Southern Adventist University), completing the school year after its president, H. H. Hamilton, accepted a mid-academic-year call to become president of Washington Missionary College.²²

Later Life and Death

Cady was placed on the General Conference retirement list effective January 1, 1928.²³ He continued to hold honorary ministerial credentials and served in advisory roles in education.

In retirement, Cady was finally able to research and write as he had desired to do in 1910. Collaborating with Charles A. Russell and Daniel A. Ochs, Cady published a compilation titled Early Educational Material for the General Conference in 1936.²⁴ In 1937, he published his second book to be produced by a secular publisher, The Education That Educates; Evaluation of Hebrew Education as Compared with Ancient and Modern Systems and an Application of Its Principles and Methods to Present Day Educational Problems published by Revell.²⁵

Cady was also well-known for his skill in public speaking, and he frequently lectured on the topic during his later years. At Walla Walla College in 1928 he told ministerial students, “A worker labors under a fifty per cent handicap if his voice is not commanding and musical.”²⁶ He also emphasized ideas about using one’s voice correctly that were earlier advocated by Ellen White. At the Michigan Conference’s Adelphian Academy, he repeated her statements that “many have died who might have lived had they been taught to use the voice correctly,” and that “one over-exertion or strain of the vocal organs may not be recovered from and may cost the life of the speaker.”²⁷ Cady published at least two works on the use of the voice in public speaking: a compilation of Ellen White comments called The Ministry of the Voice, published in 1931,²⁸ and an original work titled Better Voice for Better Speech in 1935, his first book to be published by a secular publisher.²⁹

Cady attended the 1946 General Conference Session as a delegate-at-large.³⁰ He and his wife continued to live in Takoma Park, Maryland, until about 1945 when they moved to California. Cady passed away on July 6, 1948, in San Marino, California, leaving behind his wife and a foster daughter, Mrs. Lindsay Semmens.⁸

Influence and Legacy

Cady was widely viewed as energetic and enterprising, supporting the efforts of teachers to improve the Adventist education system across the country. He encouraged teachers to publish their research and methods when he deemed it of high quality. While at Healdsburg College, for example, he encouraged elementary teacher Alma E. McKibbin to print her Bible lesson plans so that other educators could benefit from the prepared Bible lessons.³¹

To contextualize his work and education, Cady had entered college during a time of fierce debate between Adventist educators and conference officials about the philosophical direction of Adventist education. In her book, Education, Ellen White proposed a distinctive model of Adventist education; she asserted that the Bible was by far the most effective textbook and that spiritual formation, alongside manual labor, helped to shape student character. Conference officials typically took this view of education, whereas teachers did not universally accept it. Many teachers believed that Adventist schools were to be comparable to and competitive with surrounding public schools. Such teachers emphasized grammar education, classical literacy, and secular authors, and there was a conspicuous lack of Adventist-specific content in their classrooms. Battle Creek college was shut down by the General Conference in 1882, which declared that the “policy of the school has been gradually changing, becoming more and more like that of the worldly schools around it,” though it likely had changed very little since its recent inception.³²Battle Creek College reopened in 1883, three years before Cady matriculated. Though it continued to feature a classical curriculum at first, most of the successive presidents attempted to execute a Bible-based and labor-oriented program of “practical” training for future denominational professionals.³³

While he was highly educated and enthusiastic about educating Adventist students to be competitive in a range of classical categories (evidenced by his admonition for excellence in public speaking), Cady seems to have strongly sided with Ellen White’s educational philosophy. Adventist institutions should be philosophically and practically distinct from public schools, training leaders for ministry, education, and healthcare, he believed. The published accounts of his public speaking at various churches and academies seem to be uniformly positive. One columnist explained that Cady “presented evidence from prominent educators that there is a great lack in popular education,—the lack of moral training. How refreshing it is, with such evidence before us, to turn to our own book ‘Education’ and learn that character-building, moral training, is the true and only right education!”³⁴

When Cady gave the commencement address at Emmanuel Missionary College (now Andrews University) in 1926, he spoke of the “Education that Educates,” contrasting the education system of the ancient Hebrews with ancient pagan and modern secular education. He attributed the immoral character of graduates to the failure of “godless” education.³⁵

In the 1930s, the idea of a liberal arts education underwent a revival in North America, in conjunction with the emergence of the national accreditation process for colleges. Concerns in Adventist education shifted away from the conversations of previous decades about the proper curriculum for Adventist colleges and toward institutional survival and accreditation. Though Cady was right to foresee challenges to his educational philosophy, his voice was effectively overridden as schools pivoted to be able to match national standards.

Nonetheless Cady was not forgotten. In 1958, Walla Walla College presented a lecture series in Cady’s honor on the major areas of human knowledge and experience. The series was “[D]esigned to broaden the cultural and intellectual horizons of the student. The lectures [would] be representative of the major areas in human knowledge and experience…”³⁶ Though Cady functioned publicly as a strong advocate for a model of uniquely Adventist education that was disputed by some early teachers, he was remembered primarily as an educator and a proponent of a deep and broad education.

Sources

Aamodt, Terrie Dopp. Bold Venture. College Place, WA: Walla Walla College, 1992.

Barnhurst, Esther. “Adelphian Academy.” Lake Union Herald, January 20, 1938.

Bull, Malcolm and Keith Lockhart, Seeking a Sanctuary: Seventh-day Adventism and the American Dream. 2^nd edition. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2007.

Butler, Lulu W. “Commencement Week at Emmanuel Mission College.” Lake Union Herald, June 2, 1926.

Cady, Marion Ernest. Better Voice for Better Speech: A Study of Foundation Principles Underlying, and Laws Governing Voice Production and Delivery in Private and Public Life, Especially as Related to Gospel Service. Washington: Better Voice Studio, 1935.

Cady, Marion Ernest. Bible Nature Studies: A Manual for Home and School. Oakland, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1902.

Cady, Marion Ernest. The Education That Educates; Evaluation of Hebrew Education as Compared with Ancient and Modern Systems and an Application of Its Principles and Methods to Present Day Educational Problems. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1937.

Cady, Marion Ernest. Science in the Bible: A Compilation of the Holy Scriptures under Topics Alphabetically Arranged, Designed to Help the Student of Nature to Perceive That All True Science Has for Its Foundation the Word of God—the Bible. Healdsburg, CA: Healdsburg College Press, 1903.

Cady, Marion Ernest. “Seventh Day Adventist Denominational Schools on the Pacific Coast.” MA thesis, University of California, 1916.

“Collegedale Notes.” Southern Union Worker, February 2, 1927.

Curtis, E. A. and M. E. Cady. “Minnesota.” ARH, July 30, 1889.

Flaiz, C. W., M. E. Cady, and W. J. Green. “North Dakota.” ARH, August 19, 1890.

General Conference Committee. General Conference Archives. Accessed February 13, 2025. https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/GCC.

Hill, Max. “Educational Interests in Imperial Valley.” Pacific Union Recorder, March 21, 1918.

“Marion Ernest Cady obituary.” ARH, September 30, 1948.

McKibbin, Alma E. “Meeting New Challenges.” ARH, April 12, 1962.

“Nature Study Lessons,” ARH, December 6, 1898.

“News Notes.” Columbia Union Visitor, May 26, 1921.

“News Notes.” North Pacific Union Gleaner, March 6, 1928.

Riley, Sabrina. “The Trial which I am Called to Endure.” Outlook: News and Inspiration from Mid-America, December 14, 2017. Accessed February 23, 2024. https://www.outlookmag.org/the-trial-which-i-am-called-to-endure/.

Robbins, F. H. “The Work to be Done for Our Children.” Columbia Union Visitor, October 14, 1920.

Russell, Charles A., Marion Ernest Cady, Daniel A. Ochs, and Seventh-day Adventists General Conference Department of Education. Early Educational Material. Washington, DC: General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Department of Education, 1936.

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook. Takoma Park, Washington, DC: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1907-1948.

Tenney, G. C. “Changes in the Faculties.” ARH, August 21, 1894.

Utt, Walter C. A Mountain, A Pickax, A College: A History of Pacific Union College. Angwin, CA: Pacific Union College Alumni Association, 1968.

Wahlin, J. H. “Mrs. Marion Cady: She Enjoyed Listening to Ellen G. White’s Counsel and Advice.” Pacific Union Recorder, December 25, 1972.

“Walla Walla College: The 1958 Summer Session.” North Pacific Union Gleaner, April 28, 1958.

White, Ellen G., and Marion Ernest Cady. The Ministry of the Voice. 2^nd ed. Takoma Park, DC: Washington College Press, 1931.

White, Ellen G., Marion Ernest Cady, and General Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists. Principles of True Science. A Compilation of Extracts from the Writings of Mrs. Ellen G. White. [Healdsburg CA.]: Healdsburg College Press, 1900.

Notes

1. Sabrina Riley, “The Trial which I am Called to Endure,” Outlook: News and Inspiration from Mid-America, December 14, 2017, accessed February 23, 2024, https://www.outlookmag.org/the-trial-which-i-am-called-to-endure/; “Marion Ernest Cady obituary,” ARH, September 30, 1948, 20.↩

2. E. A. Curtis and M. E. Cady, “Minnesota,” ARH, July 30, 1889, 490 (10); C. W. Flaiz, M. E. Cady, and W. J. Green, “North Dakota,” ARH, August 19, 1890, 507 (11).↩

3. J. H. Wahlin, “Mrs. Marion Cady: She Enjoyed Listening to Ellen G. White’s Counsel and Advice,” Pacific Union Recorder, December 25, 1972, 5.↩

4. G. C. Tenney, “Changes in the Faculties,” ARH, August 21, 1894, 544 (16).↩

5. Marion Ernest Cady, Bible Nature Studies: A Manual for the Home and School (Oakland, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1902).↩

6. “Nature Study Lessons,” ARH, December 6, 1898, 14.↩

7. Walter C. Utt, A Mountain, A Pickax, A College: A History of Pacific Union College (Angwin, CA: Pacific Union College Alumni Association, 1968), 30.↩

8. Ellen G. White, Marion Ernest Cady, and General Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists, Principles of True Science. A Compilation of Extracts from the Writings of Mrs. Ellen G. White (Healdsburg CA: Healdsburg College Press, 1900).↩

9. Marion Ernest Cady, Science in the Bible: A Compilation of the Holy Scriptures under Topics Alphabetically Arranged, Designed to Help the Student of Nature to Perceive That All True Science Has for Its Foundation the Word of God--the Bible (Healdsburg, CA: Healdsburg College Press, 1903).↩

10. General Conference Committee, September 24, 1904, 62-63, General Conference Archives, accessed February 13, 2025, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/GCC/GCC1904-01.pdf.↩

11. Terrie Dopp Aamodt, Bold Venture (College Place, WA: Walla Walla College, 1992), 46.↩

12. Ibid., 42-47.↩

13. “North Pacific Union Conference, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Takoma Park, Washington, DC: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1907), 65.↩

14. Compare Terrie Dopp Aamodt, Bold Venture (College Place, WA: Walla Walla College, 1992), 42 and “Pacific Union Conference” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Takoma Park, Washington, DC: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1915), 65.↩

15. Terrie Dopp Aamodt, Bold Venture (College Place, WA: Walla Walla College, 1992), 42.↩

16. Marion Ernest Cady, “Seventh Day Adventist Denominational Schools on the Pacific Coast” (MA thesis, University of California, 1916).↩

17. Ibid., 15.↩

18. Ibid., 23.↩

19. F. H. Robbins, “The Work to be Done for Our Children,” Columbia Union Visitor, October 14, 1920, 1; “Columbia Union Conference, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Takoma Park, Washington, DC: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1921), 29.↩

20. “News Notes,” Columbia Union Visitor, May 26, 1921, 3; “Washington Missionary College,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Takoma Park, Washington, DC: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1922), 183-184.↩

21. “Marion Ernest Cady obituary,” ARH, September 30, 1948, 20; “Department of Education,” (Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Takoma Park, Washington, DC: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1924), 10.↩

22. “Collegedale Notes,” Southern Union Worker, February 2, 1927, 7; “Southern Junior College,” (Takoma Park, Washington, DC: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1927), 262-263.↩

23. General Conference Committee, December 22, 1927, 456, General Conference Archives, accessed February 19, 2025, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/GCC/GCC1927.pdf.↩

24. Charles A. Russell, Marion Ernest Cady, Daniel A. Ochs, and Seventh-day Adventists General Conference Department of Education. 1936. Early Educational Material. [Washington, D.C.]: [General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Department of Education?].↩

25. Marion Ernest Cady, The Education That Educates; Evaluation of Hebrew Education as Compared with Ancient and Modern Systems and an Application of Its Principles and Methods to Present Day Educational Problems (New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1937).↩

26. “Walla Walla College: News Notes,” North Pacific Union Gleaner, March 6, 1928, 8.↩

27. Esther Barnhurst, “Adelphian Academy,” Lake Union Herald, January 20, 1932, 8.↩

28. Ellen G. White and Marion Ernest Cady, The Ministry of the Voice, 2^nd ed. (Takoma Park, DC: Washington College Press, 1931).↩

29. Marion Ernest Cady, Better Voice for Better Speech: A Study of Foundation Principles Underlying, and Laws Governing Voice Production and Delivery in Private and Public Life, Especially as Related to Gospel Service (Washington: Better Voice Studio, 1935).↩

30. General Conference Committee, June 4, 1946, 2439, General Conference Archives, accessed February 19, 2025, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/GCC/GCC1946-05.pdf.↩

31. Alma E. McKibbin, “Meeting New Challenges,” ARH, April 12, 1962, 3.↩

32. Malcolm Bull and Keith Lockhart, Seeking a Sanctuary: Seventh-day Adventism and the American Dream, 2nd ed. (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2007), 317.↩

33. Ibid., 318.↩

34. Max Hill, “Educational Interests in Imperial Valley,” Pacific Union Recorder, March 21, 1918, 5.↩

35. Lulu W. Butler, “Commencement Week at Emmanuel Mission College,” Lake Union Herald, June 2, 1926, 1.↩

36. “Walla Walla College: The 1958 Summer Session,” North Pacific Union Gleaner, April 28, 1958, 8.↩