Brother Mac Remembered

The E.W. McMillan Library is pleased to announce a permanent exhibit honoring Dr. Edward Washington McMillan. As a faithful Christian servant and scholar, Dr. McMillan strongly supported the cause of Christian higher education and diligently worked to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world.

Born in New Baden, Texas, on September 27, 1889, McMillan died on February 15, 1991. Nurtured in the non-Sunday School Churches of Christ, he attended Gunter Bible College and Austin College, and received his master’s degree in 1921 from Baylor University. He completed coursework for his doctorate at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas and received the LLD from Abilene Christian College.

Dr. McMillan served on the faculties of Abilene Christian College (Chair of the Bible Department from 1929-1935), Lubbock Christian College (Chair of the Bible Department 1962-1963), Pepperdine College, and Columbia Christian College in Portland, Oregon (1971-1982). He was founder and president of Ibaraki Christian College in Japan (1948-1952, 1963-1965) and was the founder and first president of Southwestern Christian College in Terrell, Texas (1950-1953).

He served congregations in Texas, Tennessee, and California. His evangelistic works took him to China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, India and Brazil. Dr. McMillan edited The Christian Leader from 1938 to 1941 and authored hundreds of articles for religious publications. Among his other publications are Class Notes on Sacred History, volumes 1 and 2 (College Press, 1932), The Church and the Adult (Gospel Advocate, 1937), Worldliness in the Church (Gospel Press, 1951), and The Minister’s Spiritual Life (Firm Foundation, 1958).

Dr. June Breninger, Professor of Psychology, reflects that “I feel very blessed to have known and to have shared the Columbia Christian experience with Dr. McMillan. He was one of the truly great persons I have met and I admire how greatness and humility characterized his life. Fondly, I remember his stories of growing up on the wrong side of the tracks (according to the mother of a young lady he admired) and of him pitching in the minor leagues. It has been said that if the Church of Christ had apostles, Columbia Christian would have had two: JP Sanders and E.W. McMillan.”