1971 President Brown's "real and specific" instruction from the Lord about the move to San Diego.

In 1971 Dr. Beryl Dillman returned from a conference at United States International University's California Western campus in San Diego and told Brown that the campus was for sale. The site in San Diego's Point Loma neighborhood had so many advantages that Brown called USIU president Rust to confirm the news. Brown, Wes Mieras, and the new business manager Robert Foster flew to San Diego and toured the campus. It must have been similar to Bresee's experience walking the Hugus Ranch site sixty years earlier. It was a place for a new beginning with potential for dreams and destiny. Ninety acres of bluff top overlooking the Pacific Ocean to the west and San Diego Bay on the east and a full complement of buildings including a track and field that Pasadena College never had.

Back in Pasadena Brown and Foster conferred on how they could finance the purchase. As hard as they tried, they could not make it work. But how could they let it go? Brown called together a small group of his closest friends and advisors and took them to Palm Springs for a weekend of analysis. They considered every issue, every angle, every pro and con. At the end of their discussions Brown asked them to vote for or against the purchase. It was a unanimous vote-do not move.

After the meeting Brown called USIU president Rust to tell him they could not arrange the purchase and to drop them as a potential buyer. Like the Diamond Bar site, it was not a realistic possibility. Brown traveled to Hawaii to give his report to the annual District Assembly. He remained unsettled about the San Diego site and spent a lot of time in prayer about it while he was there. He was not going to say "We can't afford it but we'll take it anyway." He would be "tarred and feathered" by future churchmen if he did not take this opportunity, his wife said, but he could also "lose the whole institution" if he did.

With the college's long history of economic struggle, he just could not bring himself to take that risk. It was 3 a.m. in the morning when he was awakened out of his sleep by a full awareness of the presence of God, and he heard the Lord tell him he had to move the college. It was not a general feeling of oughtness; it was an encounter, a definite, specific, clear word from the Lord. He later told his friend Lewis Shingler "the instruction of the Lord was so real and so specific," and "I believe he told me to call that Board together and tell them that we had to move the college to Point Loma." But how? He could not see how it could be done, but he knew now he had to make the decision to move.

When he returned to Pasadena there was a message to call President Rust. Brown made the call and Rust offered to lower the price of the campus by 25%. That was it! He still couldn't really afford it, for Foster said they would have to run a $500,000 deficit for at least five years if they bought it, but it was now feasible and Brown felt it was no longer a choice. Brown called a meeting of the full board of trustees. He presented the opportunity and the significant risks. He also said the Lord had told him that he had to move the college, and being under that mandate, he could not remain their president if they were not willing to move.

There was a lot of discussion. Brown was at the height of his popularity with the trustees, and they took his Hawaii encounter seriously, and voted unanimously to relocate the campus to San Diego. "I wish we had been wise enough to know the future and could take credit for the wise decision in the face of all the obstacles," trustee Paul Simpson said, "but we knew Shel had heard from Heaven on it." So they voted to move.

From Promise and Destiny Grace in the History of Point Loma Nazarene University, by Ron Kirkemo


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