In 1947, Dr. Milton Fish was serving as head of the Greek and Bible department of the National Bible Institute in New York City when he heard that Los Angeles Baptist Theological Seminary was in serious trouble. The school was experiencing a crisis of leadership, and unless someone stepped up, it was doomed to close.

So, together with his wife and the Hotchkiss Family, Fish moved his life to Los Angeles to help keep the vision of LABTS alive — moving at his own expense and with no promise of salary from the school. He became dean of the seminary, and because LABTS had no president at the time, Fish, a Harvard graduate, effectively served as acting president, continuing in that capacity until Dr. Carl Sweazy assumed the presidency in 1955.

One anecdote recorded by Thomas Price might best summarize Fish’s character. According to Price (longtime faculty and staff member at LABTS), Fish once needed an operation that might result in permanent blindness. So, in the months before the operation, he memorized large sections of his Greek New Testament so he would have plenty of material to meditate on, even if blind. However, the operation was successful, and Price recorded that Fish “was able to use his beloved New Testament for many more years.”

In Sweazy’s booklet on the first 50 years of the school’s history, he writes, “I have felt that in reference to Paul’s ‘Honor to whom honor is due’ (Romans 13:7), we have never done justice in bestowing proper honor on Dr. Fish. His was a poured-out life of spiritual endeavor for Christ in behalf of the school.”

To learn more about TMU’s history, visit our Centennial website here.