Series 5: West Coast Bible College, Director of Development

In December 2009, the Administrative Bishop of California/Nevada, Bishop Stephen Darnell transported a truckload of West Coast Bible College materials to Cleveland, Tennessee. Library books designated as the J.H. Hughes Collection were shipped to Peniel Ministries in Pennsylvania to be added to the Ray H. Hughes Library there, and the Church of God Division of Education retained the WCBC student transcripts. The remaining materials (30 banker’s boxes) came to the Dixon Pentecostal Research Center. In September 2015, Bishop Fischer mailed another 12 boxes to the DRC.

The Research Center re-boxed these materials into standard storage boxes totaling 66 cubic feet and completed a brief inventory. This inventory reveals that about half of the materials are administrative records and publications of the college at various stages of its existence. The other half contains audio and video recordings, books, state papers, and other materials which have been separated to the Dixon Pentecostal Research Center.

Among those records are board of directors minutes, administrative council minutes, academic council minutes, faculty minutes, student council minutes, commencement programs, presidential and board correspondence, newsletters and news releases, college catalogs (Bulletin), college yearbooks (Sentinel), employee manuals, photographs and slides, administrative reports, budget reports, and other publications of the college. There are also some materials related to the International Preparatory Institute (student records), Western School of Christian Ministries, Patten College, and Master’s Commission that will be processed into their own record groups.

The history of WCBC is a critical component of the history of Church of God ministry in the western United States. The life of WCBC is significant to larger issues of evangelism, church planting, and ministerial development. Many men and women sacrificially devoted their lives at West Coast for the purpose of ministerial training and building the Kingdom of God in the west. Some of these include J. H. Hughes, H. B. Ramsey, Ralph Williams, Robert E. Fisher, J. H. Walker Sr., Floyd Timmerman, Paul L. Walker, David Bishop, R. Edwin King, R. Terrell McBrayer, Horace Ward, Hubert Black, H. B. Thompson, Dan Petty, Mark Baily, Henry Smith, Louis Cross, and Doug Small. West Coast Bible College trained and shaped numerous pastors and church leaders who have served the Church of God around the world with distinction. Some have gained national and international attention, while others have served faithfully in positions of relative anonymity. A few of West Coast alumni include Robert E. Fisher, Gary Tygart, Alan Humphries, Frank Crank, Charles and Alice Fischer, Rob and Donna Baker, Oliver McMahan, Bryan and Cheryl Walker, Dean Steenburgh, Dan Moore, Johnny Bunch, Don Price, Craig Green, Waymon Miller, Johnny Taylor, Kevin and Deena Querry, Glenn Gattenby, and David and Kim Roebuck.