Bartlett, Virgil Louis

By Benedicto R. Borja, and Ma. Venus F. Borja

Benedicto R. Borja, Ph.D. in educational administration (Central Mindanao University, Musuan, Bukidnon, Philippines), is a licensed professional teacher (LPT) and a professor in the School of Theology of Mountain View College, Mt. Nebo, Valencia City, Bukidnon. Philippines Borja is an ordained minister born in Pastrana, Leyte. He worked as a district pastor in the Negros Oriental-Siquijor Mission prior to his current teaching assignment in the School of Theology at Mountain View College (MVC). He is married to Maria Venus F. Borja and they have three children.

Ma. Venus F. Borja (nee Fernandez), Ph.D. in nursing (Silliman University located in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental, Philippines), is a registered nurse and an assistant professor in the College of Nursing of Ha’il University, Ha’il Region, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. She is an active member of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. Borja has a B.S. in nursing from Mountain View College (MVC), Mt. Nebo, Valencia City, Philippines, and an M.S. in medical/surgical nursing from Silliman University, Dumaguete City, Philippines. She had served as nursing theories teacher for 16 years and as a research coordinator in the School of Nursing at Mountain View College, Mt. Nebo, Valencia City, Bukidnon, Philippines. She is married to Benedicto R. Borja and they have three children.

First Published: June 13, 2024

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Virgil Louis Bartlett was an Adventist administrator and educator in Texas, New York, the Philippines, Guam, North Dakota, Indiana and Michigan.

Early Life (1916-1939)

Virgil Louis Bartlett was born to an Adventist family in Roswell, New Mexico, on March 20, 1916. His parents, Brant Lewis and Elsie Mert Allee Bartlett (1888-1928; 1884-1979), were a farmer manager and a school teacher, respectively. Bartlett was the second of five surviving children–William Everett (1912-2001), Frances E. (1919-), Alvin M. (1920-2009), and Nancy Louise (1925-2008). Three other siblings died in infancy. In 1925, the family moved to Wilson, Michigan, where it was hoped the climate would be better for his father’s weak heart. Unfortunately, his father died three years later, leaving Virgil, at age twelve, responsible for many of the chores on their small farm. Under their mother’s spiritual training, all of the Bartlett children were raised to serve the Church.¹

Education and Marriage (1936-1971)

During the Great Depression, Bartlett’s widowed mother moved her family of five children to Arpin, Wisconsin, where they attended Bethel Academy (now Wisconsin Academy). Bartlett graduated in 1936. After finishing academy, Bartlett attended Emmanuel Missionary College (now Andrews University) where he majored in religion and history with a minor in business administration. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1944.² Bartlett completed a Master’s degree from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas, and a doctorate in education in 1971 from Ball State University.³ On July 3, 1939, he married a teacher, Frances Irene May (1916-2006), in Milford, Indiana. Throughout their long marriage Frances taught in nearly every location to which the Bartletts were called. The Bartletts had two daughters, Verlyne, born in 1949, and Sandra, born in 1951.⁴

Ministry (1945-1983)

Bartlett’s long administrative career began in the Texico Conference where he was first Book and Bible House manager in 1944, and then business manager for one year at Southwestern Junior College beginning in 1945.At Southwestern Junior College, Bartlett held various positions including teaching math, science, religion, and commerce.⁵ He became principal of Union Springs Academy in New York in 1948. In 1951 the Bartletts moved to the Philippines, serving first at Philippine Union College in the northern Philippines,⁶ and then in the southern Philippines, where, in 1952, he helped found Mountain View College in Mt. Nebo, Valencia City, Bukidnon. Bartlett was Mountain View College’s first president serving from 1953 to 1955.⁷ His final international position was principal of Far Eastern Island Academy in Guam (1955-1956).⁸

Bartlett permanently returned to the United States in 1956.⁹ After teaching Bible at Maplewood Academy for a brief time in 1956, he became principal of Sheyenne River Academy.¹⁰ Although Bartlett was primarily an educator, he was ordained on June 9, 1956 by the Minnesota Conference.¹¹ In 1959, he became principal of Indiana Academy, a position he held until 1970 when he moved to Andrews University where he became director of student teaching¹² in the College of Education.¹³While at Andrews University, Bartlett was elected chairman of the Michigan chapter of the professional association, Deans and Directors of Teacher Education.¹⁴

Later Life (1983-2008)

Upon Bartlett’s retirement from Andrews University in 1983, he was awarded the status of professor emeritus. He remained active in community organizations, both in Berrien Springs, Michigan and Collegedale, Tennessee, where he and his wife relocated in 1999. Bartlett died in Ooltewah, Tennessee on October 19, 2008.¹⁵

Contribution

During Bartlett’s long years of denominational service in Texas, New York, the Philippines, Guam, North Dakota, Indiana and Michigan, he mentored countless students who became missionaries and leaders locally and internationally. His honesty, wisdom and common sense earned him the respect and love of his students.

Sources

“Academy Principals.” Northern Union Outlook, July 30, 1957.

“Andrews Professor Speaks at Muscatine.” Northern Union Outlook, November 30, 1973.

“Anniversary: Virgil and Frances May Bartlett.” Lake Union Herald, September 1989.

“Bartlett Studies S.D.A. Secondary Schools.” The Lake Union Herald, May 4, 1971.

Bartlett, V. L. “Department of Business Administration.” Southwestern Union Record, April 23, 1947.

General Conference Committee Minutes. General Conference Archives. Accessed January 21, 2019. http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/GCC/GCC1956-02.pdf.

“Indiana Academy.” Lake Union Herald, September 19, 1961.

Johnson, Kimber D. “Bartlett to Sheyenne River.” Northern Union Outlook, July 17, 1956.

“Life Stories: Virgil Louis Bartlett,” Focus: The Andrews University Magazine, Fall 2008.

Minner, Ray. “Bartlett Elected Chairman of Deans and Directors of Teacher Education.” Lake Union Herald, July 5, 1977.

“Minnesota Camp Meeting.” Northern Union Outlook, June 19, 1956.

“Mission Notes.” Pacific Union Recorder, May 7, 1956.

“News Notes.” Southwestern Union Record, June 20, 1944.

“The 1956 Minnesota Camp Meeting.” Northern Union Outlook, July 3, 1956.

North American Division Committee Minutes. General Conference Archives. Accessed January 21, 2019. http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/NAD/NAD1956-03.pdf.

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook. Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1944-1970.

Tanamal, Job Garcia. Mountain View College: The Miracle School. Valencia City, Bukidnon, Philippines: Diamond, 2013.

“Very Important—Take Notice.” Southwestern Union Record, September 27, 1944.

“Very Important—Take Notice.” Southwestern Union Record, October 18, 1944.

“We Present Our Texico Conference Workers.” Southwestern Union Record, May 16, 1945.

“Wisconsin Conference News Notes.” Lake Union Herald, June 5, 1984.

Notes

“Life Stories: Virgil L. Bartlett,” Focus: The Andrews University Magazine 44, no. 4 (Fall 2008): 42; “Memories by Virgil Bartlett,” excerpted from The Brant Bartlett Family and posted on Ancestry.com. Alvin M. Bartlett was president of the East Indonesian Union Mission, and Nancy Louise served in the Far Eastern Division with her husband Roy Andrew Wolcott (1921-2010).↩
“Life Stories: Virgil L. Bartlett,” Focus, 42; “Wisconsin Conference News Notes,” Lake Union Herald 76, no. 12 (June 5, 1984): 4.↩
“Bartlett Studies S.D.A. Secondary Schools,” Lake Union Herald 63 no. 18 (May 4, 1971): 16; Virgil Louis Bartlett, “A Study to Determine the Effect of Dormitory Experience and Non-Dormitory Experience on Students in Seventh-day Adventist Secondary Schools” (Ph.D. diss., Ball State University, 1971).↩
“Anniversary: Virgil and Frances May Bartlett,” Lake Union Herald 81, no. 9 (September 1989): 28, 30; Focus (Fall 2008): 42.↩
News Notes,” Southwestern Union Record 43, no. 25 (June 20, 1944): 8; “Very Important—Take Notice,” Southwestern Union Record 43, no. 38 (September 27, 1944) 6; “Very Important—Take Notice,” Southwestern Union Record 43, no. 41 (October 18, 1944): 6; “We Present Our Texico Conference Workers,” Southwestern Union Record 64, no. 20 (May 16, 1945): 6; V. L. Bartlett, “Department of Business Administration,” Southwestern Union Record 66, no. 16 (April 23, 1947): 8; Seventh-day Adventist Year Book (Washington, D.C.: Review & Herald Pub. Assn., 1945-1948.↩
Focus (Fall 2008): 42.↩
Job Garcia Tanamal, Mountain View College: The Miracle School (Valencia City, Bukidnon, Philippines: Diamond, 2013), 11, 13.↩
Kimber D. Johnson, “Bartlett to Sheyenne River,” Northern Union Outlook 20, no. 10 (July 17, 1956): 7; “Mission Notes,” Pacific Union Recorder 55, no. 41 (May 7, 1956): 10.↩
General Conference Committee Minutes, February 1956, General Conference Archives, 523, accessed January 21, 2019, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/GCC/GCC1956-02.pdf.↩
North American Division Committee Minutes, March 1956, General Conference Archives, 17, accessed January 21, 2019, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/NAD/NAD1956-03.pdf; Northern Union Outlook (July 17, 1956): 7.↩
“The 1956 Minnesota Camp Meeting,” Northern Union Outlook 20, no. 8 (July 3, 1956): 4; “Minnesota Camp Meeting,” Northern Union Outlook 20, no. 6 (June 19, 1956): 7; Northern Union Outlook (July 17, 1956): 7; Academy Principals,” Northern Union Outlook 21, no. 12 (July 30, 1957): 1.↩
“Andrews Professor Speaks at Muscatine,” Northern Union Outlook 37, no. 30 (November 30, 1973): 3.↩
North American Division Committee Minutes, March 19, 1959; “Indiana Academy,” Lake Union Herald 53, no. 37 (September 19, 1961): 4.↩
Ray Minner, “Bartlett Elected Chairman of Deans and Directors of Teacher Education,” Lake Union Herald 69, no. 26 (July 5, 1977): 6.↩
Focus (Fall 2008): 42.↩