Who was Arthur W. Spalding
Arthur Whitefield Spalding (1877–1953) was an Adventist educator, writer, and minister remembered as one of the pioneering figures in Seventh-day Adventist youth ministry. Curiously, his own surname changed spelling midway through his life: it was written Spaulding, with a "u," until 1916, when it began to be written Spalding.
His most lasting mark may be in his words. He wrote the Pledge and Law for a small group of young people organized in 1919 — words that, over time, became the basis for the Pledge and Law that still open Pathfinder meetings around the world today.
An educator by calling, he also pioneered family-life education in Adventist schools and colleges, and he left behind an extensive body of books and articles.
The Pledge and Law born from the Mission Scouts
In 1919, Spalding organized a group called the Mission Scouts, adapted from the Boy Scouts program. For this group, he wrote a Pledge and a Law.
That text had a long life. The Mission Scouts' Pledge and Law became the basis for the Pathfinder and JMV Pledge and Law we know today — a direct thread linking that small 1919 group to today's clubs.
There is also a connection, albeit an indirect one, to the very name "Pathfinder." Spalding liked to tell stories about the explorer John C. Fremont (1813–1890), nicknamed "The Pathfinder." It was from these stories that, at the first ten-day summer camp in Idyllwild, California, in June 1928, John McKim drew the name "Pathfinder." The name, then, belongs to McKim; the inspiration came by way of Spalding's stories.
Read alsoHow the Pathfinders Arrived in BrazilTwenty years at the head of the Home Commission
Spalding started and led the General Conference Home Commission for more than twenty years — the forerunner of today's Family Ministries department.
In 1921 he was invited to become secretary of the newly formed Home Commission and served as full-time secretary from 1922 to 1941. It was during this period that he pioneered family-life education within Adventist institutions.
JMV camps, Fletcher, and the church's history
Spalding helped pioneer the Junior Missionary Volunteer (JMV) Summer Camps. He took part in the first denominationally organized camp, held in Michigan in 1926, and later started and visited junior camps throughout North America.
Before that, in 1910, he had co-founded the Fletcher Institute (Fletcher Academy) in North Carolina.
Late in life, the General Conference commissioned him to write a comprehensive history of the denomination, published as Captains of the Host and Christ's Last Legion (1949) and revised posthumously (1962) into the four volumes of Origin and History of Seventh-day Adventists.