Greenleaf, Floyd Lincoln (1931–2022)

Floyd Greenleaf was a history professor, academic administrator, and author of several influential works on Seventh-day Adventist history.

Early Life (1931-1949)

Floyd Lincoln Greenleaf was born on September 23, 1931, in Braintree, Vermont, to Calvin Warren Greenleaf (1903-1997) and Evelyn Gertrude Ladeau (1900-1985).¹ Calvin Greenleaf, a textile worker, farmer, and violinist, joined the Seventh-day Adventist church during his youth; Evelyn Ladeau, a church school teacher in Keene, New Hampshire, was a second-generation Adventist.² They were married on August 25, 1924, in the Ladeau farmhouse at Braintree Hill, Vermont.³ To this marriage were born three children: Clayton David, Velma Ida, and Floyd Lincoln.⁴

Finding life “a battle for bread”⁵ during the Great Depression, the family moved in 1934 into a farmhouse near the Nashua River on Neck Road in Lancaster Center, Massachusetts, where Calvin worked on a farm.⁶ Floyd survived a four-month bout of pneumonia and the Category 5, 120-mile-per-hour coastal hurricane of 1938 (called “the Long Island Express”) that toppled trees and closed roads. In 1939 the family moved to Four Ponds, Massachusetts.⁷ In nearby South Lancaster, Floyd attended grades one through eight at the church school and grade nine at South Lancaster Academy, where he was a stellar student who enjoyed reading, stamp collecting, baseball, and singing tenor in a boys’ quartet.⁸ He was baptized at age 12 in South Lancaster, Massachusetts, on December 18, 1943, by Elder Orville Wright.

Because New England winters were hard on Floyd’s weak lungs, the family moved in 1946 to Weslaco, Texas, in the Lower Rio Grande Valley about seven miles north of the Mexican border.⁹ Two years later, they moved to Orlando, Florida, where Floyd graduated from Forest Lake Academy in nearby Apopka in May 1949.¹⁰

Education and Marriage (1949-1955)

In September 1949 Floyd enrolled at Southern Missionary College (now Southern Adventist University) in Collegedale, Tennessee. He financed his education by working at the College Broom Shop.¹¹ In an early morning section of English 101 he met Betty June Wallace (b. 1931) of West Palm Beach, Florida, a fellow freshman, whose attractive appearance and skill at making pineapple upside down cakes won his heart.¹² They were married on June 22, 1952, at a church wedding in West Palm Beach.¹³ To this marriage three children were born: Vickie Sharon (b. 1953), Vanessa Lynne (1957-2013), and Kelvin (Kelly) Wallace (b. 1968). Following their honeymoon to Homestead, Florida and the Everglades, Floyd and Betty returned to Southern Missionary College where Floyd graduated in the spring of 1955 with bachelor of arts degrees in history and religion.¹⁴

Teaching Career (1955-1966)

After graduation Greenleaf was hired by the Alabama-Mississippi Conference (now Gulf States Conference) to teach grades four through eight in the church school at Pensacola, Florida in 1955-1956. In 1956 the family moved to Birmingham, Alabama, where Floyd taught from 1956 to 1958 at Brakeworth Junior Academy. Between 1958 and 1961 Greenleaf was principal and taught the upper grades at Mobile Junior Academy in Mobile, Alabama. In 1961, after completing a master of arts degree in history at George Peabody College (now part of Vanderbilt University) in Nashville, Tennessee, he was hired to teach Spanish, French, and history (and occasionally serve as registrar) at the newly established Bass Memorial Academy near Hattiesburg, Mississippi.¹⁵

College Professor and Administrator (1966-1997)

In 1966 Greenleaf joined the History Department at Southern Missionary College as an instructor. In May 1977 he earned a Ph.D. in history from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.¹⁶ During his 31-year career at Southern, Greenleaf would advance from instructor, assistant professor, associate professor, and full professor to chair of the History Department before serving as Vice-President of Academic Affairs for nine years prior to retirement.

Over three decades, he taught hundreds of history majors and thousands of general education students in his Western Civilization courses. He was especially adept at showing majors how to analyze, interpret, and critique what they read and wrote in their test essays, book reviews, and term papers.¹⁷ Although other professors graded on a subjective scale, Greenleaf’s grading methods seemed as mathematically precise as the Periodic Table. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on Mexican-U.S. relations during the Mexican Revolution of 1910 while teaching a full-time load of four classes each semester (primarily courses in Medieval European, Latin American, 20^th Century United States, and Adventist history) and serving on 13 committees at the college.¹⁸

Floyd’s hobbies included playing on the faculty baseball team, woodworking, writing poetry, and fine-line ink drawing. He gave evidence of the latter two skills in his annual Christmas cards, which often portrayed historic buildings in the 46 countries he and Betty visited. A multilinguist, Floyd studied his weekly Sabbath School lesson in Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and English.¹⁹

Publications

From 1980 to 1983 Greenleaf took a sabbatical granted by the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists to research and write the history of the Adventist work in Latin America and the Caribbean. The resulting two-volume work, also translated into Spanish and Portuguese, was published as The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Latin America and the Caribbean.²⁰ Subsequently, the General Conference Department of Education asked him to revise and update Richard Schwarz’s denominational history college textbook Light Bearers to the Remnant (1979). Greenleaf’s expanded textbook Light Bearers appeared in 2000.²¹

Further developing his special interest in Adventist education, Greenleaf completed his book In Passion for the World: A History of Seventh-day Adventist Education in 2005.²² This was followed in 2011 by A Land of Hope: The Growth of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South America, which appeared in English, Portuguese, and Spanish editions.²³ He co-authored, with Jerry Moon, the chapter entitled “Builder” in Ellen Harmon White: American Prophet, edited by Terrie Dopp Aamodt, Gary Land, and Ronald L. Numbers (Oxford University Press, 2014). Greenleaf’s other works included Nearly Forgotten: Seventh-day Adventists in Jamaica, Vermont, and Their Place in Vermont History (TEACH Services, 2017) and Fate of Our Fathers (2019), a genealogical and autobiographical history of both his and Betty’s family roots.

Legacy

After 45 years in Adventist education, Greenleaf retired in 1997. He and Betty moved to Punta Gorda, Florida. During the next 23 years, they were active members of the Port Charlotte Church, where Floyd produced a monthly church newsletter. He and Betty enjoyed hunting for sharks’ teeth on the beach, entertaining friends, and playing Mexican Train.²⁴ In April 2021 they moved to an Adventist retirement center at Fletcher, North Carolina. There Floyd Greenleaf passed away on April 1, 2022, at the age of 90.²⁵ A memorial service was held on May 15, 2022, at the Collegedale Seventh-day Adventist Church, Collegedale, Tennessee.²⁶

Along with his distinguished contributions as an educator an historian of Adventism, Floyd Greenleaf is remembered for his integrity, thoughtfulness, spiritual leadership, scholarship, and caring attitude toward his students and colleagues.

Editor’s Note: Floyd Greenleaf passed away a day after completing a peer review of an article for the Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists (ESDA). It was just one of several articles of major importance that Dr. Greenleaf reviewed for ESDA. The editors are profoundly grateful for his exceptionally gracious and effective participation in this essential component of preparing articles for publication.

Sources

“Celebrating the Life of Floyd Greenleaf.” Funeral Service Bulletin, May 15, 2022, Collegedale Seventh-day Adventist Church, Collegedale, Tennessee.

Greenleaf, Floyd. Fate of Our Fathers: A Genealogical Narrative. Tampa: A&A Printing, 2019.

Greenleaf, Floyd. In Passion for the World: A History of Seventh-day Adventist Education. Nampa, ID: Pacific Press, 2005.

Greenleaf, Floyd. A Land of Hope: The Growth of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South America. Tatui, SP Brazil: Casa Publicadora Brasileira, 2011.

Greenleaf, Floyd. The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Latin America and the Caribbean, 2 vols. Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 1992.

Robertson, Marvin L. “Floyd Lincoln Greenleaf Life Sketch.” Funeral Presentation, May 15, 2022, Collegedale Seventh-day Adventist Church, Collegedale, Tennessee.

Schwarz, Richard W. and Floyd Greenleaf. Light Bearers. Silver Spring, MD: General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Department of Education, 2000.

Strayer, Brian E. “My Tribute to Dr. Floyd Greenleaf.” May 15, 2022, Collegedale Seventh-day Adventist Church, Collegedale, Tennessee.

Notes

1. Marvin Robertson, “Floyd Lincoln Greenleaf: Life Sketch,” Memorial service presentation, May 15, 2022, Collegedale Seventh-day Adventist Church, Collegedale, Tennessee, 1; Floyd Greenleaf, Fate of Our Fathers: A Genealogical Narrative (Tampa: A&A Printing, 2019), p. 171.↩

2. Greenleaf, Fate of Our Fathers, 177, 191, 210↩

3. Ibid.,194.↩

4. Robertson, “Life Sketch,” 1.↩

5. Evelyn Greenleaf, Memoir, quoted in Floyd Greenleaf, Fate of Our Fathers, 213.↩

6. Greenleaf, Fate of Our Fathers, 211.↩

7. Ibid., 213-229.↩

8. Robertson, “Life Sketch,” 1.↩

9. Greenleaf, Fate of Our Fathers, 223.↩

10. Robertson, “Life Sketch,” 2.↩

11. Ibid.↩

12. Greenleaf, Fate of Our Fathers, 223-225.↩

13. Ibid., 226.↩

14. Robertson, “Life Sketch,” 2.↩

15. Ibid., 2, 4.↩

16. Ibid., 2.↩

17. Brian E. Strayer, “My Tribute to Dr. Floyd Greenleaf,” May 15, 2022, Collegedale SDA Church, Collegedale, Tennessee, 1.↩

18. Ibid., 2.↩

19. Robertson, “Life Sketch,” 7.↩

20. Floyd Greenleaf, The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Latin America and the Caribbean, 2 vols. (Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 1992).↩

21. Richard W. Schwarz and Floyd Greenleaf, Light Bearers (Silver Spring, MD: General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Department of Education, 2000).↩

22. Floyd Greenleaf, In Passion for the World: A History of Seventh-day Adventist Education (Nampa, ID: Pacific Press, 2005).↩

23. Floyd Greenleaf, A Land of Hope: The Growth of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South America (Tatui, SP Brazil: Casa Publicadora Brasileira, 2011).↩

24. Robertson, “Life Sketch,” 5.↩

25. “Celebrating the Life of Floyd Greenleaf,” Memorial Service Bulletin, Collegedale Seventh-day Adventist Church, May 15, 2022.↩

26. Ibid.↩