Remembering Leona Running
Leona Glidden Running, 97, professor emerita of biblical languages at Andrews University, died on January 22, 2014, in Berrien Springs, Michigan, after nearly six decades of service to the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary and Andrews University.
Niels-Erik Andreasen, president of Andrews University, shared the following statement: “During her long and productive life Dr. Running broke new ground in the University and in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. She was the first female professor at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary in Takoma Park, Md., and later here at Andrews. She was the first Adventist woman to earn a doctorate in Ancient Near Eastern Studies (Johns Hopkins University), with a specialization in ancient Syriac texts. She overcame the grief of losing her husband early in life and built her exemplary academic and professional calling. Following her retirement she continued to share her linguistic skill with graduate students (Syriac, Egyptian, Akkadian, Hebrew, Aramaic, and almost any other language these students cared to learn). And she served the University with her editorial talents, improving a good many of its publications over the years… She was an inspiration to many and an example to us all.”
Jiři Moskala, dean of the Andrews University Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, says: “Dr. Running holds a special place in the hearts of her Old Testament and Seminary colleagues and former students, who greatly appreciated her mentoring during their Seminary years. She was the first woman professor at the SDA Theological Seminary and was indeed a woman of remarkable skills and influence… We praise the Lord for her life and faithful ministry!”
William Shea, a close colleague, estimates that “Leona assisted more students in writing doctoral dissertations than any other faculty member of Andrews University. She has probably touched the educational lives of more Seventh-day Adventist ministers than any other woman except Ellen White.”
Born on August 24, 1916, in Flint, Michigan, to Charles Comstock Glidden and Leona Mary Bertha Boat Glidden, Leona showed an early attraction to languages. Her mother, a teacher, began coaching her in reading skills when she was 3 or 4, and she entered Grade 4 at age 8. She graduated from Adelphian Academy in Holly, Michigan.
Running graduated from Andrews University (then Emmanuel Missionary College) as valedictorian in 1937 with a Bachelor of Arts with a concentration in modern languages. She went on to earn an M.A. in Greek and Hebrew from the Adventist Theological Seminary in 1955, and a Ph.D. in Semitic languages from Johns Hopkins University in 1964.
She married Leif (“Bud”) Running on May 17, 1942. On August 20, 1946, when Bud was 37 and Leona almost 30, he died while undergoing his third lung operation.
During her early professional years, Running served the Seventh-day Adventist Church in many capacities. From 1944–1948 she worked in the Foreign Language Division of the radio program Voice of Prophecy, translating programs and typing scripts in German, Spanish and Portuguese. In 1950 she moved to Washington, D.C., to become the copy editor for Ministry magazine. During these early years, Running often earned far less than her male counterparts for doing the same amount of work. Nevertheless, she continued to do God’s work, traveling to many European countries, promoting the Seventh-day Adventist Church and, at the same time, expanding her cultural experience.
Running began working for the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary in 1955, teaching Greek and Hebrew. At the time, the president of the seminary was skeptical about a woman’s ability to teach male students, and male students’ willingness to be taught by a woman. She began teaching on a trial basis, but in 1956 she was granted regular status and, shortly after, full tenure.
Not content to sit on the sidelines and watch her students, Running was actively involved in their professional and personal development, and her guidance helped countless individuals find their voice. Her strength and determination during a time when women were not always treated as equals with men, even within the church, were an inspiration to many.
When the Seminary was moved from Takoma Park, Maryland to Berrien Springs, Michigan in 1960, Running came with it, continuing on as a valuable and dedicated professor of biblical languages. Siegfried Horn, professor of history of antiquity at the seminary, nominated her to the Chicago Society of Biblical Research, and she served as the first female president from 1981–82.
Among her many interests, Running traveled extensively. In 1951, she traveled with Del Delker to the Paris Youth Congress and to seven European countries. Later she published 36 Days and a Dream, recounting her trip. In 1957, she joined Siegfried Horn’s first guided study tour to Europe and the Middle East. She wrote another travelogue of this trip, published in 1958 as From Thames to Tigris. In 1965 she traveled through Europe and studied six weeks in Israel, ending with a trip through Western Turkey and a cruise of the Aegean isles. In 1970, she again traveled through Europe to spend eight days in Iran, a weekend on Cyprus, and 10 days in Israel. In 1974, she taught in a summer session at Newbold College, England, then spent three weeks in both France and Germany.
For many years Leona collected articles, journals and books on women in ministry. She donated the collection to the Center for Adventist Research in the James White Library. The most notable of her multiple publications is William Foxwell Albright: A Twentieth-Century Genius, published by Morgan Press in 1975, a 436-page biography on the “Dean of Biblical Archaeologists.”
She retired from teaching at her 65th birthday, but for 21 years she continued to teach Egyptian, Akkadian and Syriac in the seminary, finally quitting in May 2002. At the May 2012 commencement ceremony, Leona was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Andrews University.
In 2012, at the age of 96, Leona Running published An Open Letter to Ted Wilson from your Hebrew Teacher about “the Church’s gender discrimination,” which was the most-commented-on Spectrum blog post for the year.
