A TRIBUTE TO LEONA GLIDDEN RUNNING AND SKETCH OF HER SCHOLARLY CAREER

Transcription

1 A TRIBUTE TO LEONA GLIDDEN RUNNING AND SKETCH OF HER SCHOLARLY CAREER Leona Glidden Running is the only member of the AUSS staff who has served this journal in an official capacity continuously ever since its founding 25 years ago. And that longeviv of service has also been characterized by the utmost in faithjidness and competence. Indeed, how frequently in her busy schedule has she made time to read, evaluate, and copy-edit manuscripts or to check and correct galley proofs and page proofs--often on the very short notice that characterizes certain stages in our editorial process! And her broad competence in both modern and ancient languages, her editorial expertise, and the care and indefatigability with which she always pursues her work have made, and continue to make, her input to AUSS immeasurable. We must take note here also of a few of the other highlights in her outstanding scholarly career. With a college major in French and minors in German, English, and Education, she had her first academic appointment at Laurelwood Academy in Gaston, Oregon, from 1937 to 1941, teaching French and German. For the last three of those years she also served as the school's librarian. She then moved to Glendale, California, where in 1942 she married Leif H. Running, whose untimely death in 1946 brought a sudden tragic end to this happy and meaningful relationship. During the years from 1942 to 1950, she served in Glendale and elsewhere in various capacities wherein she could put to good use her language, secretarial, educational, and editorial skills. She was responsible, for instance, for Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Italian scripts for Voice-of-Prophecy radio broadcasts; and she also prepared various religious study materials in German. From 1950 to 1954 she served as copy editor for Ministry magazine, headquartered in the Washington, D.C., area It was during the latter year that she decided to do advanced study in Biblical Greek and Hebrew at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary in Takoma Park, Maryland. Upon completion of her Master of Arts program in 1955, she joined the teaching staff of the Seminary as a teacher of biblical languages, and she has served this institution ever since-first in Takoma Park until 1960, and thereafter in Berrien Springs, Michigan. (In , the Seminary and its affiliated Graduate School of Potomac University made a two-stage move to Berrien Springs, merging with Emmanuel Missionary College to become Andrews University.) Leona earned her PhD. in Semitic Languages in 1964 at Johns Hopkins University, where she had the privilege of acquaintance with the world-renowned archaeologist and orientalist, William Foxwell Albright. During the academic year , she was privileged to serve

2 6 SEMINARY STUDIES as Albright's research and editorial assistant during a leave of absence granted her for this purpose by Andrews University. Although Professor Running's main contributions have been in the field of biblical languages (her doctoral dissertation was on Syriac manuscripts, and her Seminary teaching has concentrated on Biblical Greek, Biblical Hebrew, Syriac, Akkadian, Egyptian, and other ancient languages), she has also taken an active interest in archaeology of the Middle East. Among her Seminary courses have been some dealing with archaeological exploration in the Bible lands, and her publications include travel and archaeology titles, such as 36 Days and a Dream (1952) and From names to Tigns (1958). Perhaps her most outstanding published work is the authoritative and definitive biography of Albright, entitled Wlliam Fmell Albright: A Twentieth- Cen fury Genius (New York: The lko Continents Publishing Group, Ltd./Morgan Press, 1975)-a major undertaking in which David Noel Freedman collaborated. (This hardback volume of nearly 450 pages [list price, $15.00] is currently available through Andrews University Press, Bell Hall, Berrien Springs, MI 49104, at the special price of $9.95.) Another area in which Leona has made outstanding contributions is that of "Women in Church and Society," and in 1981 she donated her sizable collection of materials on that subject to the Adventist Heritage Center, an archive and research center in the James White Library of Andrews University. This collection includes some 85 published books and pamphlets, 40 cassette tapes, and 70 folders of newspaper and magazine clippings, manuscripts, and other items. It is a valuable resource, which she continues to update. It was also in 1981 that Dr. Running "retired" from her long and distinguished career of teaching at the Seminary, as Professor Emerita of Biblical Languages. Nonetheless, she still teaches Seminary courses on a part-time basis, is in demand by doctoral students for their dissertation committees, and continues her much-needed and muchappreciated service for AUSS. On the immediately following pages of this issue of AUSS, we include two further tributes to Leona--one by AUSS founding editor Siegfried H. Horn (also a former dean of the Seminary) and the other by current Seminary Dean Gerhard F. Hasel. As editor, I wish to extend herewith my own personal appreciation and thanks to her for her excellent service. In doing so, I know I express also the sentiment of all the colleagues, both past and present, who have been privileged to associate with her on the Seminary faculty and on the AUSS staff. -Kenneth A. Strand Editor

3 A NOTE OF APPRECIATION FROM AUSS' FIRST EDITOR It is a real honor to be asked to express appreciation to Dr. Leona Glidden Running, a coworker, colleague, and friend, who during the first twelve years of the life of Andrews University Seminary Studies was one of my main assistants in my editorial work on the young scholarly journal. As I tried to establish AUSS as a respected and reputable vehicle of communication of the biblical, theological, and archaeological work carried out by the faculty, and by former and current students and friends of the Seventh-day Adventist Seminary, Leona was a faithful adviser, an ever-ready consultant, and a willing helper in reading, evaluating, and editing articles that were submitted for publication. I want to join the present editor, therefore, in thanking Dr. Running for what she did for the journal and for me, and for what she has continued to do for AUSS to the present day. And I wish her many more years of fruitful association with a journal that during its life of two dozen years must have grown close to her heart and undoubtedly has become a beloved chid of hers which she has helped to nurture to maturity. -Siegfried H. Horn Jerusalem, Israel A NOTE OF APPRECIATION FROM THE SEMINARY DEAN It is a special privilege to contribute a few words in appreciation to a most outstanding teacher, colleague, church woman, and friend, Dr. Leona Glidden Running. It was my grand opportunity over a quarter of a century ago to have Dr. Running introduce me to Biblical Hebrew while I was a graduate student at the Seminary. Her indefatigable enthusiasm in teaching this language has instilled a deep and lasting love for it in my heart as well as in the hearts of unnumbered Seminarians over the years. Dr. Running's seemingly inexhaustible knowledge of the comparative relationships of ancient Near Eastern Semitic languages and their developments have awed students time and again and given evidence of the larger connections of Biblical Hebrew with its sister languages. Dr. Running has endeared herself also to students and colleagues for her expeditious and speedy editorial help when such assistance was needed for papers, reports, scholarly manuscripts, books, theses, and dissertations. Who could have had a better editor, with professional skills in this area and additionally the knowledge of more than a dozen languages, both ancient and modern? There is truly only

4 A NOTE OF APPRECIATION FROM AUSS' FIRST EDITOR It is a real honor to be asked to express appreciation to Dr. Leona Glidden Running, a coworker, colleague, and friend, who during the first twelve years of the life of Andrews University Seminary Studies was one of my main assistants in my editorial work on the young scholarly journal. As I tried to establish AUSS as a respected and reputable vehicle of communication of the biblical, theological, and archaeological work carried out by the faculty, and by former and current students and friends of the Seventh-day Adventist Seminary, Leona was a faithful adviser, an ever-ready consultant, and a willing helper in reading, evaluating, and editing articles that were submitted for publication. I want to join the present editor, therefore, in thanking Dr. Running for what she did for the journal and for me, and for what she has continued to do for AUSS to the present day. And I wish her many more years of fruitful association with a journal that during its life of two dozen years must have grown close to her heart and undoubtedly has become a beloved chid of hers which she has helped to nurture to maturity. -Siegfried H. Horn Jerusalem, Israel A NOTE OF APPRECIATION FROM THE SEMINARY DEAN It is a special privilege to contribute a few words in appreciation to a most outstanding teacher, colleague, church woman, and friend, Dr. Leona Glidden Running. It was my grand opportunity over a quarter of a century ago to have Dr. Running introduce me to Biblical Hebrew while I was a graduate student at the Seminary. Her indefatigable enthusiasm in teaching this language has instilled a deep and lasting love for it in my heart as well as in the hearts of unnumbered Seminarians over the years. Dr. Running's seemingly inexhaustible knowledge of the comparative relationships of ancient Near Eastern Semitic languages and their developments have awed students time and again and given evidence of the larger connections of Biblical Hebrew with its sister languages. Dr. Running has endeared herself also to students and colleagues for her expeditious and speedy editorial help when such assistance was needed for papers, reports, scholarly manuscripts, books, theses, and dissertations. Who could have had a better editor, with professional skills in this area and additionally the knowledge of more than a dozen languages, both ancient and modern? There is truly only

5 8 SEMINARY STUDIES one Dr. Running. We are grateful that she still is active as a teacher, counselor, and editor, after formally retiring in 1981, at which time she was honored as the first Seminary female faculty member to become Professor Emerita AUSS and the Seminary could not be what they are without Dr. Running. Andrews University as a whole would be impoverished had she not left a lasting stamp on all of us who were and are her students and who are senring with her at this institution of excellence as well as in church and society at large. As dean, I consider it a distinct honor to extend to Leona my own personal appreciation for distinguished senrice and lasting inspiration; and on behalf of faculty, staff, and students, I wish her God's continued blessing. --Gerhard F. Hasel Dean