Bull, Brian Stanley (1937–2022)

Brian S. Bull was a Seventh-day Adventist physician, educator, research scientist, inventor, administrator, and philanthropist, who worked during most of his professional career for Loma Linda University (LLU) in Southern California.

Early Years

Brian Stanley Bull was born September 14, 1937, in Watford, England. He was the son of Stanley Bull (1904-1993), also born in Watford, and Agnes Mary “Nancy” (nee Murdoch) Bull (1907-2000) who was originally from Scotland.

Both of Brian Bull’s parents were Seventh-day Adventist missionaries and educators. Stanley Bull studied to become a minister at the Stanborough School in Watford. After completing the ministerial course, Stanley Bull accepted a call to Beirut, Lebanon. Following a six-year term of service in Lebanon, Stanley returned to England, where he married Nancy Murdoch in 1932. The newlyweds served as missionaries in Cairo, Egypt, where their first child, Berryl, was born. During the family’s time in Cairo, Stanley completed a baccalaureate degree from Cairo University.

As the threat of war grew ever stronger, mission work in Egypt became more difficult. The Bull family returned to England where Stanley served as a minister and Nancy as a teacher. Their second child, Brian, was born in 1937. During the war years in England, Brian was never able to attend a school for more than a few weeks at a time. The threat of German bombs and rockets made it necessary to relocate repeatedly to safer locations.

Before World War II ended, the family moved again, this time to Kingston, Jamaica. Because of the danger of torpedoes from German submarines, women and children were not allowed to make the Atlantic crossing. Stanley Bull traveled first, followed several months later by Nancy and the two children, Berryl and Brian.

In Kingston, the only class available to nine-year-old Brian was ninth grade in the high school. After a year in Kingston, the family moved to Mandeville, in the mountainous central area of Jamaica, where Stanley and Nancy both taught at West Indies Training College (now Northern Caribbean University). In 1947, a year after the move to Mandeville, a second daughter, Nancie Lee was born. Brian attended a one-room school that included children from the ages of six to fourteen, taught by a single teacher named Dell Brodie. Here, Brian was able to complete elementary school and also take the ninth grade a second time.

While in Jamaica, Brian developed an appreciation for cultural and racial diversity, and he became fluent in Jamaica’s Patois creole dialect. He was usually the only student of European heritage among the predominantly Afro-Caribbean student body. This experience gave him a life-long love for Jamaica and its people. During his time in Mandeville, Brian also made his decision for the Christian faith. On December 2, 1950, he was baptized by Pastor B. G. Butherus, and became a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.¹

In 1953, after their service in Jamaica, the Bull family moved to the United States. Stanley Bull pursued doctoral studies in educational psychology at the University of Michigan while Nancy studied for a master’s degree in English at Pacific Union College in Angwin, California. Brian had started his college-level studies in Jamaica at the age of 15. He continued for one year at Pacific Union College, and then transferred to Walla Walla College (now Walla Walla University) in College Place, Washington where both of his parents were hired as professors and where Brian studied to complete his undergraduate degree. Because he was deemed too young to enter medical school at the age of 18, Brian stayed on for another year at Walla Walla College. His light academic load for what amounted to his second senior year, allowed Brian to work in Oregon at a pea-freezing plant. He was promoted to the job of quality control manager and earned enough money to pay for the first two years of medical school tuition.

Medical School and Marriage

Bull entered medical school in 1957 at the age of 19. He was an outstanding medical student, but at the end of two years, he was out of money to pay for his tuition. He told the dean of the medical school about his plan to drop out of school for a year to return to his job at the pea-freezing plant in Oregon in order to earn tuition for his final years in medical school. The dean asked him to wait a couple of weeks before making a final decision. At the end of the two weeks, the dean informed Bull that the administration had found a way to fund a scholarship that would provide the tuition for his final two years of medical studies. In subsequent years, this award became known as the Loma Linda University President’s Award.

With his tuition secured during his final years in medical school, Bull worked nights doing histories and physicals for emergency patients to earn money for his room and board. He graduated with his MD in 1961 at the top of his class. Then he traveled east to Yale University’s teaching hospital, Grace New Haven Medical Center, for his internship. He continued at Yale to complete his residency in anatomical pathology.

In 1962, during his residency at Yale, Bull returned home to Southern California for spring break during which he became reacquainted with Maureen Huse, a physician who was working as an anesthesiologist at a rehabilitation center for post-polio patients. Brian and Maureen had been childhood playmates in England during the World War II years, but had not met since then. However, their mothers, Nancy Bull and Doris Huse, had been schoolmates at the Stanborough School in the 1920s, and had maintained a long-term friendship. Family friends arranged to have Brian and Maureen meet at a Sabbath social gathering. They enjoyed each other’s company so much that Brian invited Maureen a few days later to a retreat for pathologists. Before the retreat weekend was over, Brian asked Maureen if she would be willing to move to New Haven if he could arrange a research fellowship for her at Yale University’s School of Medicine. The plan succeeded, and Maureen began research in Yale’s Department of Anesthesiology. At Christmas, 1962 the two became engaged. They were married the following year, on May 31, 1963, at the Arlington Seventh-day Adventist Church in Riverside, California.²

Research and Scientific Achievements

Following his residency at Yale, Bull moved with his wife Maureen to Bethesda, Maryland, where he continued his studies and research in clinical pathology at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). His research focused especially on hematology, an area for which he became an internationally acclaimed leader. For example, while at NIH, Bull observed medical technologists spending hours of their day counting blood platelets by looking at blood smears through a microscope. This tedious process was essential for managing the treatment of leukemia patients. Bull saw the need for greater speed and efficiency, so he developed an automated method for counting platelets. His work on counting platelets saved countless hours of labor and became the basis for establishing the reference standards for such analyses worldwide.

It was also during this time at the NIH that Brian and Maureen welcomed their first child, Beverly, born September 29, 1965.

The excellence of Bull’s work at the NIH led to an invitation to pursue a post-doctoral fellowship in hematology with Sir John Dacie at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School at the Royal Hammersmith Hospital (now part of the Imperial College School of Medicine) in London, England. Bull’s research on the possible causes of damage to circulating red blood cells resulted in an important publication in Lancet.³

During this time in England, a second daughter, Beryl, was born at the Royal Hammersmith Hospital on September 6, 1967.

Bull successfully passed board examinations in Anatomical and Clinical Pathology and the specialty board examination in Hematology in 1966. When he joined the faculty of the Loma Linda University School of Medicine in 1968, he continued his innovative research in hematology. In the decades that followed, his work garnered widespread recognition for generating new theoretical perspectives and for major clinical findings in hematology. For example, in the early 1970s, Bull developed an algorithm for maintaining the in-process calibration of blood cell counters.⁴ Known worldwide as Bull’s Algorithm, it continues to be the standard for such work.

Another of Bull’s highly significant contributions to medical research had to do with establishing a new way to calculate the best dosages of blood thinner when patients were undergoing cardiothoracic surgery. Prior to this research, the dosing formulae were based solely on body mass indices. Bull discovered that some patients were far more responsive to blood thinners than were other patients. His work on this topic led to a publication that has been ranked among the top ten publications of all time in the field of medical anesthesia, and the application of this knowledge has been credited with saving innumerable lives of surgical patients.⁵

Most of Bull’s medical publications were related to various aspects of hematology, including platelet structure and physiology, mathematical analysis of whole blood analyzers, and the diagnosis of bleeding and clotting disorders. Of the seventeen patents held by Bull, thirteen involved the development of blood analysis equipment.

In 1985, Bull became editor-in-chief of the prestigious journal, Blood Cells, with his wife, Dr. Maureen Bull serving as managing editor. The two continued this editorial work for a decade.

Throughout his career, even during years of heavy administrative burdens, Bull continued his research and publication. This resulted in over 200 articles in peer-reviewed medical journals as well as many other book chapters, reviews, and commentaries. For example, he conducted new research on the effects of COVID-19 in the formation of microscopic blood clots.⁶ This became one of the journal’s most downloaded papers during 2021. Even in his final weeks of life, while ill with cancer, he continued to work on publication of his research.

Teaching and Administration

Early in his academic career, Bull became known for his exceptional administrative skills. He combined a keen capacity for strategic planning with the practical abilities to lead complex organizations. In 1973, just five years after joining the Loma Linda University faculty, Bull was chosen to be the chairman of the Department of Pathology and Human Anatomy—a position he continued to hold for over forty years. During his time in this role, Bull oversaw the development of a multimillion-dollar endowment sufficient to support the teaching functions of the department in perpetuity solely from the endowment’s income.⁷

In 1993, Bull was named associate dean for academic affairs for LLU’s School of Medicine. The following year, he accepted the position of dean of the School of Medicine, and served in this role for a decade. For many years, he also served as secretary of the LLU Board of Trustees, and for nearly forty years he served alternately as the vice chair or chair of the administrative oversight committee for the Center for Christian Bioethics.

During his time as dean, Bull took a personal interest in the success of the medical students, even meeting with individual students to help them with their studies. He also led students in exploration of their various learning styles and temperament types with the goal of helping them achieve higher levels of academic excellence.

As dean of the School of Medicine, Bull gave special attention to the recruitment and retention of faculty members who shared the faith commitments of the university.

Theological Explorations

Throughout his adult life, Bull was keenly aware of living in what he called the “incommensurate worlds” of evidence-based science and biblical faith.⁸ In his workday life as a research scientist, he sought to follow the rigorous standards of the scientific method. However, as he wrote of himself, when Sabbath arrived “I was a child of the Adventist Church, raised in the mission field by Seventh-day Adventist parents and taught from childhood the stories of the Old Testament.”⁹ He was especially interested in seeking new understandings of the Bible’s creation stories in light of contemporary scientific interpretations of paleogeology and evolutionary biology. In his efforts to navigate between the two “worlds” of faith and science, Bull set forth three “non-negotiables” that flowed from his abiding belief that God is the Creator of everything:

• Human beings are created to choose God and his kingdom.

• They are free to choose to do that or to ignore God’s claim.

• God is a God who intervenes in the world.¹⁰

In a poetic passage, Bull added, “When my musings of a sleepless night come to an end, I think once more of Adam and Eve and a perfect garden where nothing ever died. Time-hallowed stories from that setting beautifully contain all I need to know ethically and theologically. I still call on them to undergird meaning and purpose in my life.”¹¹ This is no simplistic expression of a literalist reading of Scripture. Bull looked to science for the ever-developing answers it could provide, and he looked to biblical faith for a foundational understanding of God and of moral responsibility.

Late in his career, Bull collaborated with theologian Fritz Guy in writing three books that continued the theological exploration of the two realms of science and biblical faith.

The first of these, God, Sky, and Land, is an in-depth study of Genesis 1. The book attempts to bridge the gulf between current scientific understandings of Earth’s history with the creation story of Genesis. The authors write, “Our intention in writing this book is to re-create what the first Hebrew audience heard when Genesis 1 was read or recited to them.”¹² By entering the ancient world of the Hebrew Bible and thinking in terms of the explanatory concepts available to the people of that time, Bull and Guy seek to reveal the differences in the way the biblical creation story was understood then and the way we read the story today. For example, when ancient Hebrews heard about sky, or “the heavens,” they seem to have imagined a bowl-like dome covering the land and providing a lodging for the sun, moon and stars. Today, when we think of “the heavens” we are likely to imagine billions of galaxies each with hundreds of billions of stars in an expanding universe. By refusing to impose modern scientific views on the ancient text and by reading that text for what both we and the ancient Hebrews may learn about God and God’s intention for creation, we may establish a better basis for harmony between biblical faith and contemporary science.

In their second book, God, Land, and the Great Flood, Bull and Guy carefully consider the biblical story of Noah and the Flood. The goal is similar to that of their first book: “We are convinced that most of difficulties encountered in understanding the Flood narrative are the result of a failure to recognize the conceptual chasm between the ancient world and ours.”¹³ By understanding the ancient text in light of the explanatory concepts available to the ancient Hebrews, contemporary readers may better interpret the story as it was likely understood originally, without superimposing modern cosmological thinking. The authors conclude: “The purpose and function of Scripture is not to instruct its hearers and readers in geology, paleontology, or cosmology, any more than ophthalmology or nuclear medicine. The purpose and function of Scripture is to give insight into the meaning of our existence by revealing who God is, what God does, and what Gods wants for us.”¹⁴

The third book by Bull and Guy, God, Genesis, and Good News, is devoted to what can be learned from the creation story about God’s character and intention for human beings and our planet. Once people gain a clearer understanding of what Genesis meant to those for whom it was originally written, the theological task of deepening faith in the Creator is enriched. After reviewing the main points of the two earlier books, the authors dwell on the good news about God in the creation story. In their words, “As for who God is, God is the divine actualization and personification of infinite, unconditional, unending love. What God does is to express this love in continuing action for the benefit of created reality. What God wants for human reality is its flourishing—the fulfilment of its great potential for life, happiness, and satisfaction.”¹⁵

For Brian Bull, the enterprise of science and its relation to faith will be eternally engaging. In one of his earlier publications, he offered this vision of eternity with the Creator: “In the final analysis, research, broadly defined, is what the hereafter is all about. It is the one activity common to this life that can be carried almost unchanged into the world to come. As we cross the portals of that new existence, sickness will vanish and the need for healers will disappear. The preacher will no longer carry the message to the unconverted; the pastor will no longer bind up the brokenhearted.”¹⁶ Then, quoting Ellen White, Bull writes that the researcher and the teacher will have “new heights to surmount, new wonders to admire, new truths to comprehend, fresh objects to call forth the powers of body and mind and soul. All the treasures of the universe will be open to the study of God’s children.”¹⁷

Later Life

In February 2014 Bull retired from his administrative duties. He spent his final years enjoying time with his family, continuing with his medical research, and pursuing his successful efforts to develop scholarship funds for future medical students. He also devoted much of his time to writing about the relationship of science to Christian faith. In August 2021, just months before his death, Bull traveled to the Galapagos Islands with a group of other Seventh-day Adventists to consider how the rich biodiversity of this region might best be related to convictions about the origins and development of life on Earth. One of Bull’s final publications offered his reflections on the Galapagos creatures and the creation story of Genesis.¹⁸ The last sentence of that article sums up his abiding faith in the Creator and in the biblical story of creation: “If we too understand that we exist because a gracious God chose to make existence possible and further to ensure that humans would flourish upon the land, then we truly are inheritors of that original creation story.”¹⁹

Prior to his brief, final illness, Bull remained remarkably active, including regularly playing tennis. He became ill in January 2022 and was found to have cancer. He died quietly at his home in Loma Linda on February 22, 2022, at the age of 84.

Philanthropic Legacy

Throughout his professional life, Bull sought to secure important benefits for future generations. The endowment to support the teaching of medical pathology, mentioned above, is but one noteworthy example. By his choice, most of Bull’s philanthropic efforts were carried out quietly with little or no public fanfare.

Near the end of his life, Bull led in the establishment of the Health Ministry Fellows Endowment, with the sole purpose of selecting a cohort of dedicated medical students each year to receive full tuition support for their medical education. To be selected as one of the Health Ministry Fellows, Seventh-day Adventist medical students must express credible commitments to pay the tuition gift forward by their willingness to 1) sacrificially serve in mission assignments associated with Adventist hospitals in needed areas around the world, or 2) return to LLU as a faculty member in the School of Medicine, or 3) establish a community medical practice with an emphasis on Christian service and provide financially for the education of future medical students.

For his excellence in teaching and administration and for his service to his community and to his church, Brian Bull received many awards, including:

• Walla Walla University Alumnus of the Year, 1984

• Loma Linda University School of Medicine Alumnus of the Year, 1987 and 2005

• Loma Linda University Humanitarian Award, 1991

• Loma Linda Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year, 1997

• Loma Linda University Distinguished Service Award, 2003

• Weniger Society for Excellence Award, 2017

Sources

Aamodt, Alex. “In Admiration of Brian Bull.” Spectrum, February 25, 2022.

Bessis, Marcel. Dr. Brian Bull’s Scientific Achievements. Unpublished manuscript, 1992.

Bull, Brian. “Living in Incommensurate Worlds.” Spectrum, Spring, 2003, 17-23.

Bull, Brian, and Fritz Guy. God, Sky and Land: Genesis 1 as the Ancient Hebrews Heard It. Roseville, CA: Adventist Forum, 2011.

Bull, Brian, and Fritz Guy. God, Land, and the Great Flood: Hearing the Story with 21^st-Century Christian Ears. Roseville, CA: Adventist Forum, 2017.

Bull, Brian, and Fritz Guy. God, Genesis and Good News: God, the Misreading of Genesis, and the Surprisingly Good News. Roseville, CA: Adventist Forum, 2019.

Bull, Brian S., Fritz Guy, and Ervin Taylor, editors. Understanding Genesis: Contemporary Adventist Perspectives. Riverside, CA: Adventist Today Foundation, 2006.

The Life of Dr. Brian Bull, based on an interview of Dr. Bull by his granddaughter, Annelise Rigsby conducted October 7, 2020 and published privately.

Oliver, Ansel. “In Memoriam: Dr. Brian Bull, Legendary Hematologist and Inventor, Was Former Dean of School of Medicine.” February 23, 2022, Loma Linda University Health (online). Accessed April 23, 2023. https://news.llu.edu/community/memoriam-dr-brian-bull-legendary-hematologist-and-inventor-was-former-dean-of-school-of-medicine

“Pathology Professor Named Editor of International Hematology Journal.” LLU Observer, 16, no. 1 (January 8, 1985), 1 and 6.

Notes

1. Maureen Bull, personal communication to the author, April 5, 2023.↩

2. Ibid.↩

3. B.vS. Bull, M.vL. Rubenberg, J.vV. Dacie, and M.vC. Brain, “Red-Blood-Cell Fragmentation in Microangiopathic Haemolytic Aneamia: In-Vitro Studies,” Lancet 290, no. 7526 (November 25, 1967): 1123-1125.↩

4. Ellen S. Lunetzky and George S. Cembrowski, “Performance Characteristics of Bull’s Multirule Algorithm for the Qualtiy Control of Multichannel Hematology Analyzers,” American Journal of Clinical Pathology 88, no. 5 (December 1987): 634-638.↩

5. Brian S. Bull, W. M. Huse, F. S. Brauer, R. A. Korpman, “Heparin Therapy During Extracorporeal Circulation: The Use of a Dose Response Curve to Individualize Heparin and Protamine Dosage,” Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery 69, no. 5 (May 1975): 685-689.↩

6. Brian S. Bull and Karen L. Hay, “A Macrophage Attack Culminating in Microthromboses Characterizes COVID-19 Pneumonia,” Immunity, Inflammation and Disease 9, no. 4 (July 7, 2021): 1336-1342.↩

7. “Pathologists Raise $12 Million for Endowment,” Loma Linda University Today, November 7, 1990, 1 and 8.↩

8. Brian Bull, “Living in Incommensurate Worlds.” Spectrum, Spring 2003, 17-23.↩

9. Ibid., 17.↩

10. Ibid., 23.↩

11. Ibid.↩

12. Brian Bull and Fritz Guy, God, Land and Sky: Genesis 1 as the Ancient Hebrews Heard It (Roseville, CA: Adventist Forum, 2011), xii.↩

13. Ibid., 17.↩

14. Ibid., 190.↩

15. Brian Bull and Fritz Guy, God, Genesis, and Good News: God the Misreading of Genesis and the Surprisingly Good News (Roseville, CA: Adventist Forum, 2019), 178.↩

16. Brian Bull, “A Christian View of Scientific Research,” Ministry, August 1980, 25.↩

17. Ellen White, Education (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1903), 307.↩

18. Brian Bull, “Creation Stories ‘Then’ and Creation Stories ‘Now,’” Spectrum, December 2021, 70-75.↩

19. Ibid., 75.↩