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DeutschAlma White College
Alma White College was a Bible college in Zarephath, New Jersey from 1921[1] to 1978. It was an institution of the Pillar of Fire Church.[2] The academic institution is now succeeded by Pillar College.
History
[edit]In June 1917 an elderly German professor came to Zarephath, the headquarters of the Pillar of Fire, and offered to teach college level classes. Several other classes were organized around a standard college curriculum.[3]
The college was first allowed by the New Jersey Department of Education to grant Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees in 1921 and the name Alma White College was chosen.[3][4][5][6][2] Alma White's son, Arthur Kent White was the first president starting in 1921.[7][8] Alma White was the founder of the church.
In 1923 the Ku Klux Klan in New Jersey provided funding for the school, allowing it to become "the second institution in the north avowedly run by the Ku Klux Klan to further its aims and principles." Alma White said that the Klan philosophy "will sweep through the intellectual student classes as through the masses of the people."[9][10] At that time, the Pillar of Fire was publishing the pro-KKK monthly periodical The Good Citizen. In 1927 the college conferred its first Doctor of Divinity degree.[11] Arthur Kent White retired as president in 1971.[7][8]
The college made the decision to shut down its liberal arts and science programs. The state gave the school permission to allow the students already enrolled to complete their studies until graduation.[citation needed]
It graduated its last student in June 1978.[12]
The buildings suffered heavy damage in 1971, 1999, and 2011 from flooding on the Delaware and Raritan Canal and the Millstone River.[13][14]
After the closing of the college, the Pillar of Fire continued to operate Zarephath Bible Institute [ZBI], which historically had operated on the campus. In early 2001, on the same campus, the Pillar of Fire founded Somerset Christian College.[15][2]
Following the flooding caused by Hurricane Irene in 2011, the Zarephath campus buildings have been condemned, and all classes meet at Stonecrest Church in Warren, New Jersey.
Administration
[edit]- Arthur Kent White was president from 1921 to 1971.[7][8]
- Gertrude Metlen Wolfram (1888–1959) was the dean of the college.[3]
Notable and noteworthy graduates
[edit]- Arthur Kent White honorary D.D. (1927) [8]
- Alton Milford Young, D.D. (1927) [11]
- Donald Justin Wolfram, B.A.[16]
- Robert Barney Dallenbach, B.A.[17]
- Joseph Gross, current general superintendent, Pillar of Fire International
- Johannes Maas (B.A. 1958), president of Worldwide Faith Missions[18]
- John Gross, former president, WEC International
- James P. Butler class of 1971. Retired after 38 years as a Team Leader with the N.J. Superior Court Criminal Division. Earned a master's degree from FDU in 1986. Six other graduates in 1971 went on to become Probation Officers, Chief of Detectives/Public Safety Director, Supervisor of the New Mexico Highway Patrol, Funeral Director
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Erbon W. Wise, The Bridwell family in America (1978), 105.
- ^ a b c "New Jersey's Klan-connected college: Alma White". WHYY. Retrieved November 26, 2023.
- ^ a b c Gertrude Metlen Wolfram (1954). The widow of Zarephath. Pillar of Fire.
- ^ Susie Cunningham Stanley (1993). Feminist Pillar of Fire: The Life of Alma White. The Pilgrim Press. ISBN 0-8298-0950-3.
assumed the deanship of Alma White College when it was founded in 1921 at Zarephath. Alma White College offered Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, ...
- ^ Robert McHenry (1983). Famous American women. Dover. ISBN 0-486-24523-3.
- ^ The New Jersey almanac. 1963. p. 587.
In 1921 the New Jersey Board of Education granted to Alma White College the authority to confer the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science. ...
- ^ a b c "Alma White College Exercises". The New York Times. June 14, 1937. Retrieved December 11, 2009.
- ^ a b c d "Bishop Arthur White, 92, Dies. Headed Pillar of Fire Church". The New York Times. September 18, 1981. Retrieved July 21, 2007.
- ^ "Klan Will Sweep Colleges, She Says. Princeton Will Soon Be Vitally Interested in the Order, Woman Bishop Asserts. Back From Ku Klux Tour. University Paper Declares Institution Should Not Be Influenced by Specious Arguments". The New York Times. November 1, 1923. Retrieved December 16, 2009.
That the Ku Klux Klan is on the verge of 'sweeping through the colleges of the country as it has swept through the masses,' was the assertion of Bishop Alma White, founder of the 'Pillar of Fire,' a religious sect and the head of a small institution called the Alma College, fifteen miles north of Princeton at Zarephath, in an interview published this morning in the Daily Princetonian.
- ^ "Klan Buys College Close to Princeton". The Harvard Crimson. October 31, 1923. Retrieved July 6, 2009.
Bishop Alma White, the founder of the Pillar of Fire Church, and an author of various religious works, is President of the institution under the new regime. In an interview for the Princetonian today Bishop White deplored the present indifference of the undergraduate to the Klan and predicted that in the near future "it will sweep through the intellectual student classes as through the masses of the people."
- ^ a b "Zarepath Colony Institution in New Jersey Confers High Honors for First Time. ... Dr. A. M. Young, recipient of a degree at the commencement, was at one time King Kleagle of the New Jersey Klan". The New York Times. June 19, 1927. Retrieved July 6, 2009.
- ^ "Closed & Renamed New Jersey Colleges & Universities". New Jersey. Archived from the original on January 1, 2010. Retrieved December 11, 2009.
- ^ "Hurricane Floyd Devastates Pillar of Fire International Headquarters". Pillar of Fire Church. September 17, 1999. Retrieved December 13, 2009.
- ^ "DEP Aims To Update Its Flood Maps". The Star-Ledger. November 9, 2004. Retrieved December 13, 2009.
- ^ "Mission, Vision and History". Somerset Christian College. Archived from the original on January 30, 2010. Retrieved December 13, 2009.
- ^ "Promoted to Glory: Donald Justin Wolfram, 83, Bishop". Belleview College. Archived from the original on February 6, 2007. Retrieved February 14, 2007.
- ^ "Board of Trustees". Somerset Christian College. Archived from the original on September 6, 2009. Retrieved December 11, 2009.
- ^ "Feed the Orphans website". Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved May 2, 2016.
Further reading
[edit]- Alma White College: a history of its relationship to the development of the Pillar of Fire; Evan Jerry Lawrence (1966)
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