Elizabeth Grandia Dale Memorial Scholarship Fund
Set up by family and friends, the Elizabeth Grandia Dale Memorial Scholarship helps Simpson Students interested in becoming church leaders.
Elizabeth was a 4.0 student when she attended Simpson in the 1930s. Her husband, the Rev. Charles Dale, graduated from Simpson in 1938. At that time the college was a bible institute based in Seattle.
The Dales served several Christian and Missionary Alliance churches in the denomination's western districts and started the Balboa Alliance Church in San Diego. While serving at a Richmond, California church, Elizabeth helped grow the Sunday school to the sixth largest Alliance Sunday school in the U.S. and Canada.
In San Diego, Elizabeth led many church programs. Through her door-to-door community visitation, the Sunday school school grew to 500 in three years. The church eventually had to purchase three buses to haul all of the youngsters.
Charles stated, "Elizabeth had the ability to meet total strangers in the grocery store, engage them in small talk, and soon they would be telling her their life story."
Elizabeth, who passed away in 1998, had a tremendous love for children and was a skillful teacher. "She often taught more than 50 children at a time in the Balboa Church Preschool, where she taught for more than 10 years without any pay," her husband said. "She did this up until a few weeks before her homegoing."
Charles described Elizabeth as the greatest lady he has ever met. "She would do almost anything within her ability for almost anyone she could help in some way. Her love for music and Christian education was fostered during her time as Simpson and carried throughout her entire ministry.
The Elizabeth Grandia Dale Memorial Scholarship Fund will be used to assist future church leaders to accomplish many of the same goals Elizabeth had.
