List of Seventh-day Adventists

This is a list of people who have been associated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church. They are listed here, at least in part, for their faith or for their role in the history of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It also includes members who left the church.

Academia

• Niels-Erik Andreasen - President of Andrews University
• Gordon Bietz - President of Southern Adventist University, former pastor and president of the Georgia-Cumberland Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.
• Bruce N. Cameron, J.D - Reed Larson Professor of Labor Law at Regent University School of Law,
• Gary Chartier - Legal philosopher and anarchist theorist.
• Larry Geraty - Academic and former president of La Sierra University.
• Fritz Guy - Theologian and former president of La Sierra University.
• Heather Knight - President of Pacific Union College.

Writers, literature, linguists and authors

• Ellen G. White – a woman of remarkable spiritual gifts who lived most of her life during the nineteenth century (1827-1915), yet through her writings she is still making a revolutionary impact on millions of people around the world. During her lifetime she wrote more than 5,000 periodical articles and 40 books; but today, including compilations from her 50,000 pages of manuscript, more than 100 titles are available in English. She is the most translated woman writer in the entire history of literature, and the most translated American author of either gender. Her writings cover a broad range of subjects, including religion, education, social relationships, evangelism, prophecy, publishing, nutrition, and management. Her life-changing masterpiece on successful Christian living, Steps to Christ, has been published in more than 140 languages.
• Ray Garton – horror novelist raised Adventist, who credits his interest in horror to a reaction to the beasts in Bible prophecy (see: Seventh-day Adventist eschatology)
• Arthur S. Maxwell - known as Uncle Arthur, author of the Bedtime Stories series, and The Bible Story set of books, among 112 books he is known to have written.
• Roger Morneau – author on faith and prayer
• Christopher Mwashinga Author. He has published ten books in the area of theology, Adventist history, and practical Christianity.
• Andrew Nelson – Missionary and linguist.
• Cherie Priest – Former Seventh-day Adventist and an American novelist and blogger living in Seattle, Washington.
• Steven Spruill – novelist

Movies, actors, television, and radio

• Fretzie Bercede - Filipino actress, television personality, and former reality show contestant. She ranked as the 3rd big placer of Pinoy Big Brother: Teen Clash 2010.
• Clifton Davis - Former actor of That's My Mama and Amen
• DeVon Franklin – Vice President for production at Columbia Pictures
• Angus T. Jones - Former child actor, who played Jake Harper in Two and a Half Men (2003-2013)
• Darwood "Waldo" Kaye – Former Our Gang actor who spent his adult life as a pastor
• Heather Kuzmich – fashion model and reality show contestant on America's Next Top Model (2007 series)
• Kenneth "Chi" McBride is a famous actor and singer-songwriter. He first became known for his singing when he came out with the song "He’s the Champ." McBride starred in "Boston Public," "Pushing Daisies," "Human Target," "Golden Boy," and many others. He currently has a role in "Hawaii Five-0." He has also been in several films and played 8 different roles in the play "Nagataki Sake," which was directed by Robert Downey Sr.
• Phil McDonald, M.D. - Medical Analyst for National Basketball Association Television NBA TV. Physician, specializing in sports medicine radiology. (2010–)
• Nǃxau – starred as a Kalahari Bushman in The Gods Must Be Crazy, who converted in later life
• André Ramiro - Brazilian actor, who played Mathias on the film Elite Squad (2007) and Elite Squad: The Enemy Within (2010)

Poets

• Christopher Mwashinga. Mwashinga has published two books of poetry in English and one in Kiswahili.
• Annie R. Smith
• Rob Ridder

Art and music

• Harry Anderson – Prolific American illustrator whose early works were popular paintings illustrating short stories in magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post and Redbook. Later became well known for his religious paintings commissioned by the Seventh-day Adventist Church and the Mormons. He is a member of the Illustrators Hall of Fame.
• Herbert Blomstedt – Conductor who does not rehearse on Saturdays due to his Adventist faith.
• Joyce Bryant - actress and singer
• Kasey Chambers – (former) - Australian Country Singer. Left church in 80s because her family did not support the Investigative Judgment doctrine.
• Fred Cline - film and television animation artist
• Jerome Fontamillas – Filipino American musician
• Muma Gee - Nigerian pop singer-songwriter and actress residing in Port Harcourt.
• Nathan Greene – Artist. His painting "Family of God" hangs prominently at the Loma Linda University Medical Center and the painting "Chief of the Medical Staff" hangs in Florida Hospital Orlando.
• Wayne Hooper - Musical Director for "Voice of Prophecy" radio program, composer, baritone.
• The Isley Brothers – Grammy Award winning American musical group consisting of brothers Ron and Ernie Isley.
• IYAZ – R&B Singer, Rapper and songwriter - Born Keidran Jones of the Virgin Islands. Grew up in church and still goes from time to time.
• Hugh Martin – American theater and film composer.
• Brian McKnight – Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter, producer, radio host and 2009 Celebrity Apprentice contestant
• Vernon Nye - b. 1915, Artist, Art Professor.
• Brandon October – A South African pop singer-songwriter, who rose to fame after being runner-up in the first season of the reality television show Idols. October grew up in the Adventist church and regularly sang in church services in Johannesburg and Cape Town. He was also a member of a number of Christian music groups within the Adventist community in South Africa, including No Compromise where he featured on their 2001 album Strange
• Kevin Olusola - Cellist and beatboxer, member of Grammy Award-winning a cappella group Pentatonix.
• Wintley Phipps – Singer and songwriter. He is also an ordained pastor.
• Prince – (former) - raised in the church, later converted to the Jehovah's Witnesses.
• Busta Rhymes – (former) - American rapper, producer and actor, raised in Brooklyn by Seventh-day Adventist Jamaican-immigrant parents, he later converted to Islam.
• Little Richard – (former) - raised in the church, later became a preacher, attends the Ephesus Adventist church in Los Angeles and others. He considers himself an active Adventist still. He has been reported as an ordained Adventist minister, although the denomination has denied this, suggesting he may be ordained in another denomination, hence ordained and Adventist; rather than ordained as an Adventist minister
• Robert Edwin Seamount – Member of The King's Heralds quartet, Second Tenor 1941-1947, 1949-1961. Pastor 1961–1964 for churches in the San Juan Islands. Public Relations for Texas Conference 1969-1974.
• NOTA – Winner of NBC's "The Sing-Off" first season. The Sing-Off is an a cappella singing competition.
• Committed – Winner of NBC's "The Sing-Off" second season, with members Dennis "DJ" Baptiste, Jr., Alain "Tommy" Gervais, Geston Pierre, Robert "Robbie" Pressley Jr., Maurice Staple and Theron "Therry" Thomas.
• Virtue - Dove Award Winning, Gospel Recording Artists consists of sisters: Ebony Holland, Karima Kibble, and Heather Martin

Business

• Will Keith Kellogg – promoted breakfast cereals (particularly corn flakes), and started the Kellogg Company.
• Dale Twomley - Former president of Worthington Foods, Inc.

Law

• Mary Ang'awa – High Court of Kenya judge
• Justice Samuel Bosire. – Appeal Judge of the High Court of Kenya appointed the chairman of the Goldenberg Commission of Inquiry by President Mwai Kibaki.
• James E. Graves, Jr., Federal Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit since February 2011
• Daniel David Ntanda Nsereko – International Criminal Court judge.
• The Honourable Sir Gibuna Gibbs Salika KBE- Deputy Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea
• Mathew Staver – Former Seventh-day Adventist pastor, an American lawyer, academic professor, founding member and Chairman of Liberty Counsel since 1989, and dean of Liberty University School of Law since 2006.

Pioneers

This section includes Millerites (followers of William Miller) who did not necessarily become Seventh-day Adventist:

• J. N. Andrews – Early missionary for the church and former President of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. Often considered first Adventist scholar
• Nelson H. Barbour – Millerite pastor
• Joseph Bates – A founder of the church. Wrote a tract on the seventh-day Sabbath which convinced James and Ellen White to start observing it
• Sylvester Bliss – Millerite pastor, editor of The Signs of the Times
• Charles Fitch – Millerite evangelist
• Joshua (Josiah) Himes – Millerite evangelist and promoter
• William Miller – Founder of the Millerite movement from which Seventh-day Adventism and other groups emerged
• T. M. Preble – Millerite pastor, early Sabbath supporter
• Uriah Smith – Editor and author of Daniel and the Revelation and other works
• Jonas Wendell – Millerite evangelist
• Ellen G. White – A founder of the church who is considered by the denomination to have had the biblical gift of prophecy.
• James White – A founder of the church and former President of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. Husband of Ellen White

See also Category:Adventism.

Politics and government

Ben Carson was a Republican candidate for president in 2016.

• Sir Patrick Allen – Governor-General of Jamaica (2009–present)
• Sir Silas Atopare – seventh Governor-General of Papua New Guinea 1997-2003
• Roscoe Bartlett – 6th district representative from Maryland
• Simeon Bouro – Solomon Islands Ambassador to Cuba since March 2013; member of Solomon Islands National Parliament 2001-2006
• Percival Austin Bramble – Former – Chief Minister of Montserrat British West Indies (1970–1978).
• William Henry Bramble – First – Chief Minister of Montserrat British West Indies.
• Sir James Carlisle – second Governor-General of Antigua and Barbuda (1993–2007)
• Nelson Castro - New York State Assemblyman, 86th District, 2008–Present.
• Phetsile Kholekile Dlamini - Swaziland Minister for Health and Social Welfare 1996-
• Andrew Holness - Prime Minister of Jamaica 2011-2012, 2016-present; Leader of the Opposition (Jamaica) 2012-
• Samson Kisekka - Prime Minister of Uganda 1986-1991; Vice President of Uganda 1991-1994
• Jioji Konousi Konrote - President of Fiji 2015- ; Fiji High Commissioner to Australia 2001-2006; former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations, retired Major-General in Fiji armed forces
• Sheila Jackson Lee - U.S. Representative, 18th congressional district of Texas (Houston)
• Sherman McNichols - Chief Magistrate, Trinidad and Tobago.
• Floyd Morris – Jamaican senator and minister of state; president of senate
• Dr. George Nga Mtafu - Malawian Statesman, Former Cabinet Minister, and Malawi Parliament Chief Whip
• Sam Ongeri – Kenyan Minister for Education and a Committee member of the Power Sharing between ODM and PNU after post election violence. Also a professor.
• John Pundari CMG, Papua New Guinean Member of the National Parliament, former Speaker and Deputy Prime Minister, currently Environment Minister
• Raul Ruiz - U.S. Congressman from California.
• Desley Scott – Australian politician - member for Electoral district of Woodridge in the Parliament of Queensland 2001–present
• Manasseh Sogavare - Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands 2000-2001, 2006-2007, and 2014-present. Leader of the Opposition in Solomon Islands 2007-2010
• John F. Street – Mayor of the City of Philadelphia (2000–2008).
• Bienvenido V. Tejano - Philippines Ambassador to New Zealand since August 2005; Philippines Ambassador to Papua New Guinea 1998-2005
• Marianne Thieme - founder and parliamentary leader of the Dutch animal rights party Animal Party.
• Ronald Sapa Tlau - member for Mizoram in the Rajya Sabha (the upper house of the parliament of India) since June 2014.
• Sojourner Truth - African-American abolitionist and women's rights activist of the 19th-century
• James Ronald Webster - led Anguilla Revolution of 1967; later twice Chief Minister of Anguilla
• Jorge Talbot Zavala - Ecuadorian Representative and Secretary of the Camara de Diputados, Quito, Ecuador. Nomina de Legisladores Nacionales 1950-1955, Archivo Nacional del Ecuador 1950-1955.
• Tony Zirkle – attorney and repeated candidate for Congress in Indiana, United States.

For former United States Adventist politicians see "The Political Graveyard" website.

Science, health and engineering

• Leonard L. Bailey – World-renowned heart surgeon who transplanted a baboon's heart into premature-born baby with underdeveloped heart.
• Leonard R. Brand – Loma Linda University paleobiologist and authority on the relationship between science and faith.
• Ben Carson – Physician and author who became the Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital at 32 years of age, subject of the film Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story starring Cuba Gooding, Jr., recipient of the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2008, and candidate for President of the United States, 2016.
• Robert Gentry - A nuclear physicist and young Earth creationist, known for his claims that radiohalos provide evidence for a young age of the Earth.
• Frank Jobe, orthopedist and sports medicine pioneer
• John Harvey Kellogg – prominent medical doctor, who later left the church.
• Will Keith Kellogg - inventor of cornflakes and founder of Kelloggs
• George McCready Price – Missionary and leading early creationist.
• Frank Lewis Marsh – Creationist and the first Adventist to earn a doctoral degree in biology.
• Walter Veith - South African Zoologist, creationist and end times lecturer.

See also Category:Seventh-day Adventists in health science.

Sports

• Edwin Correa – former Major League Baseball pitcher.
• Grace Daley – former WNBA basketball player.
• Carlos Roa – Argentine football goalkeeper who does not play on Friday nights or Saturdays due to his religion.
• Magic Johnson (former) – NBA Player
• Andrea Silenzi – Italian soccer player
• Carlos Edwards – Trinidadian football player
• Darren Sammy – St Lucian, West Indies Cricketer
• Priscah Jeptoo – Kenyan marathon runner, won silver medals in the 2011 World Championships and 2012 Olympics
• Abel Kirui – Kenyan marathon runner, twice winner of the World Championships, and won silver in the 2012 Olympics
• Vinicius Chuim – Brazilian soccer Player (Esporte Clube Vitória)
• Carlos Vítor da Costa – Brazilian soccer Player (Londrina Esporte Clube)
• Archie Moore - Professional Boxer (Light Heavyweight World Champion December 1952 – May 1962)
• Luis Aponte – (former) Venezuelan baseball player
• David Alaba - Austrian football (soccer) player

Theologians, ministers and personalities

See also: Seventh-day Adventist leaders, administrators, and theologians

• Ellen G. White – a woman who lived most of her life during the nineteenth century (1827-1915). During her lifetime she wrote more than 5,000 periodical articles and 40 books; but today, including compilations from her 50,000 pages of manuscript, more than 100 titles are available in English. She is the most translated woman writer in the entire history of literature, and the most translated American author of either gender. Her writings cover a broad range of subjects, including religion, education, social relationships, evangelism, prophecy, publishing, nutrition, and management. Her life-changing masterpiece on successful Christian living, Steps to Christ, has been published in more than 140 languages. (http://www.whiteestate.org/)
• M. L. Andreasen – theologian, protested against the book Questions on Doctrine, and was influential in "historic Adventism"
• Samuele Bacchiocchi – authored From Sabbath to Sunday, based on his study at the Pontifical Gregorian University, at which he is the only non-Catholic to have enrolled
• Admiral Barry Black, Phd, DMin, DD – First African American and current chaplain to the United States Senate
• Richard M. Davidson – Old Testament scholar, and author of Flame of Yahweh
• Herbert E. Douglass – American theologian
• Jon Dybdahl – theologian and college administrator
• Mark Finley – evangelist
• Le Roy Edwin Froom – scholar and historian, one of the leading Adventist apologists [defenders] of his time
• Gerhard Hasel – Old Testament theologian whose theology textbook(s) have been widely used at Christian seminaries
• Siegfried Horn – prominent archaeologist
• George R. Knight – historian, author, educator, theologian
• Väinö Kohtanen - pioneer, evangelist, college president and conference president in Finland in the first half of the 20th Century.
• "Uncle Arthur" Maxwell – children's author and Adventist spokesman for church-state affairs in Britain
• F. D. Nichol – Adventist apologist, authored a classic defense of Ellen White
• Jon Paulien – leading expert on Revelation
• H. M. S. Richards – founded the Voice of Prophecy radio ministry
• Richard Rice – developed the "open theism" understanding of God, and authored the theology textbook Reign of God
• Randy Roberts – senior pastor of the Loma Linda University Church
• Ángel Manuel Rodríguez – director of the Biblical Research Institute (now retired)
• Samir Selmanovic – author of It's All About God
• Alfred Vaucher – French theologian
• George Vandeman – popular evangelist who founded the It Is Written television ministry
• Benjamin G. Wilkinson – theologian whose writings influenced the American fundamentalist King-James-Only Movement
• Norman Young – New Testament scholar

War and peace

• Harlon Block – one of the six U.S. Marines captured in the famous photograph Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima. Block appears on the right of the photo, holding the base of the flag pole. He won a Purple Heart and other military awards
• Desmond Doss – first conscientious objector to receive the U.S. Medal of Honor.
• Laurent Nkunda – Congo warlord who claims to be an Adventist pastor, but the church denies this saying he is not even an active member
• Johan Hendrik Weidner – Organized the Dutch-Paris underground network to coordinate the escapes of more than 1,000 persons from Nazi-occupied France. Later emigrated to the United States and operated a chain of health-food stores
• Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana – Solomon Islanders who rescued the surviving crew of the sunken United States boat PT-109 including its commander, future U.S. president John F. Kennedy, during the Pacific Ocean theatre of World War II. Gasa and Kumana were educated at Adventist missionary school(s)

Other

• Many Pitcairn Islands residents became Seventh-day Adventists, (they were apparently already keeping the seventh-day Sabbath)
• Jack Staddon and David Biehl – winners of the U.S. National Geographic Bee, winning in 1989 and 1999, respectively
• Irene Morgan – African-American who refused to surrender her bus seat and was taken to court, analogous to yet preceding the famous Rosa Parks case
• Cameron Slater, controversial New Zealand blogger
• Lindy Chamberlin was an Australian Adventist famous for being wrongfully convicted of the murder of her daughter Azaria at Uluru. It was later shown that a dingo took Lindy's baby.

Former members

See also: Category:Former Seventh-day Adventists

Individuals should be listed in this section only if they are prominent as ex-Adventists

• Wayne Bent – former pastor who founded Lord Our Righteousness Church
• Robert Brinsmead – edited Present Truth Magazine
• D. M. Canright – Pastor who left over difficulties concerning Ellen White.
• Daniel Cooper (New Zealand murderer) (1881-1923)- child murderer and illegal abortionist; expelled from church in January 1918, although previously member for over a decade.
• Desmond Ford – Australian preacher dismissed for criticizing the investigative judgment teaching, resulting in the most controversial dismissal ever in the church.
• Victor Houteff – founder of the Shepherd's Rod offshoot.
• Moses Hull – Former pastor who converted to spiritualism.
• Steve Durkac - Former pastor in Southern Union who is now pastor of West Mobile Bible Fellowship in Mobile, Alabama and a leader in the simple church movement.
• David Koresh – The American leader of the Branch Davidians religious sect, believing himself to be its final prophet.
• Jesse Martin – boy sailor; his parents were Adventists
• Shirley Ardell Mason, known as "Sybil" – famous dissociative identity disorder patient. Her parents were apparently Adventists
• Judge Greg Mathis - Born and raised Seventh-day Adventist. Membership lapsed.
• Elizaphan Ntakirutimana – ex-pastor and Rwandan Genocide participant
• Ronald Numbers – science historian and author of The Creationists, and former Adventist lecturer.
• David Pendleton – former member of the Hawaii House of Representatives and 2002 candidate for lieutenant governor, now a Catholic.
• Paul Rusesabagina – internationally honored for saving 1,268 civilians during the Rwandan Genocide; the subject of 2004 film Hotel Rwanda. Describes himself as a "lapsed Adventist" in his autobiography.
• Richard Wright – author whose autobiography Black Boy mentions clashes with his Adventist family.
• Malcolm X – Raised Adventist by his mother.
• Augusto César Sandino – Nicaraguan revolutionary and politician, cooperativist, member of Adventist church in his youth, adopted vegetarianism due to church teachings
• Sirhan Sirhan – Palestinian convicted of the assassination of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
• Mark "Chopper" Read - Notorious Australian ex-criminal and author of real and fictional crime books. In his books Chopper claims to have been raised Adventist by a strictly devout mother.

See also

• Alumni of any of the universities and colleges affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church
• List of former Roman Catholics#Seventh-day Adventism
• Seventh-day Adventism in popular culture

External links

• Famous Seventh-day Adventists at the Famous Adherents website