Editor’s note: The Master’s University (previously Los Angeles Baptist Theological Seminary, Los Angeles Baptist College, and The Master’s College) is nearing its 100th year. As we approach the milestone in 2027, this is the third in a series of stories about men and women used mightily by the Lord in our history.
“The First Fifty Years of L.A.B.C.” is a booklet that tells the story of this institution’s opening decades. Its narrative centers on key administrators and faculty members who shaped LABC’s trajectory and whose names remain well-known today.
But there is one rare exception: a woman whose name few people on campus now would recognize. She wasn’t a professor or executive. She was, in fact, a secretary.
“Secretaries are many times forgotten in their patient efficient toil while those whom they serve receive credit and plaudits which could never have been theirs without the understanding service of their secretaries,” records the booklet’s author, Carl Sweazy, before writing a paragraph to honor one such secretary.
Harriet Ishii has no buildings or programs named after her, but ask anyone who was around LABC during the years she served as an administrative assistant, and their eyes light up with immediate recognition.
Ishii served at what became TMU from 1966 to 1990, an assistant first to President John Dunkin and later to Bob Provost, who was the first executive vice president at the school after Dr. John MacArthur became president. Though she entered glory in 2023 and her years at TMU are long over, Ishii’s love for the school and commitment to serving those around her continue to energize those who knew her.
“We’ll only know the extent of her service if we’re allowed to see her at the bema seat of Christ,” says Dr. John Hotchkiss, professor emeritus at TMU and a 1967 graduate of LABC. “She was a dear, dear soul. Talk about somebody with a servant’s heart. She was exhibit A.”
Ishii was born in Seattle on Oct. 7, 1932 — the daughter of Japanese immigrants and the sixth of seven siblings. Her upbringing was chaotic, upended first by the death of her parents and then by World War II, which brought a forced relocation to the Midwest.
By the time Ishii was in eighth grade, she found herself holed up in a two-bedroom apartment in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with her stepmother and two youngest siblings.
Harriet’s family had a largely Catholic background, but their new apartment was only one block from Garfield Avenue Baptist Church. Soon, Harriet and her brother and sister made a practice of walking there on Sunday mornings, and all three became gripped by the truth of God’s Word and came to trust in Christ.
Soon after she was saved, Harriet read straight through the Bible. When she came to 1 Samuel 12:24, it became her favorite verse: “Only fear Yahweh and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for see what great things He has done for you.”
The spirit of that verse colored the rest of her life.
Once Ishii was independent, she moved back to Seattle and found administrative work. Then, through her pastor, Dr. Forrest Johnson at Tabernacle Baptist Church, she met a man who was visiting from California. Impressed by her professional skills, the man asked if she would consider moving to California and working as his secretary at the school where he was president.
The man was Dr. John Dunkin. Ishii said yes.
Ishii moved to Santa Clarita in 1966, and for the next 18 years, she served as Dunkin’s right-hand lady. And because every employee at LABC wore multiple hats in those days, her service extended far beyond keeping the president organized. At times she lived in Hotchkiss Hall and functioned as what would be considered a “resident director” today. In the summers, she even traveled with LABC’s music groups, which performed at camps and churches up and down the coast in order to raise awareness of the school.
Pete Reese, who joined LABC as athletic director a year before Ishii arrived, says that if something was happening on campus, Ishii was always involved. It didn’t matter if it was music or athletics or academics.
“She was amazing,” Reese said in a 2023 interview. “What a lady. She always had a positive attitude, and students loved her. I don’t think I ever talked to a student — or anybody — who didn’t like her. I heard a lot of students say, ‘She doesn’t have a negative bone in her body.’ She was the epitome of a true servant of God, and just a refreshing person to be around.”
Ishii also became a member of Placerita Baptist Church at a time when the congregation only had about 30 members and met on the upstairs level of Rutherford Hall, which then housed LABC’s cafeteria.
Between work and church and student life duties, much of Ishii’s life revolved around campus. Her red Mustang convertible was an iconic feature of the canyon.
“She was not there for personal advancement, or financial gain, or prestige,” Hotchkiss says. “And she was so knowledgeable about the workings of the school. She was a tireless worker and saw her work as a major ministry.”
Hotchkiss says that Ishii learned a “careful and precise” way of working from her earlier years in the banking industry. “She had the perspective of, ‘You don’t make mistakes, because bad things happen when you do. Get it right.’ And that she did,” he says.
Then, in 1984, Dunkin resigned the presidency. The next year, MacArthur took his place, and Ishii stayed on as the assistant to Bob Provost, the new executive vice president.
But as it happened, Ishii and Provost shared a desire for greater involvement in missions. And in 1991, Provost learned of an opportunity to work with a missions agency called SEND International.
He asked if Ishii would be willing to follow him to Michigan to continue as his secretary. She said yes, agreeing to leave LABC and her home of 25 years to help equip missionaries.
On April 2, 1990, the morning’s chapel meeting at The Master’s College was set aside to honor Ishii in light of her upcoming departure. The retired Dunkin was there, and he took the microphone to speak about his long-time assistant.
“It’s a very real privilege for me to be able to share in this, because this woman has meant so much to the college,” Dunkin said. He then went on to quote Ecclesiastes 9:10, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.”
“Harriet has illustrated that better than almost anyone I know,” he continued. “Now, there are an awful lot of dedicated and committed people in this institution. But I think that over the years here, it would be hard to compete with the investment of life that this lady has made.”
Dunkin went on.
“She has given her life to this institution. She has given her time, her energy, and her tremendous abilities. She’s given her kitchen and her automobile to it. She has been a chaperone for gospel teams. She’s attended practically every sports event and music event and social event. Only the Lord is able to compute what it has meant to this school to have Harriet Ishii here.”
Three students also spoke. They highlighted Ishii’s love for the Word of God and for the people around her, along with her unfailing joy, her ministry of prayer, and her enthusiasm for sharing Christ with others.
“She’s just like a mother to us,” said Lorin Jones. “I just want to say I love you and I appreciate you.”
Afterward, Ishii stood to say a brief goodbye. “I thank you,” she said. “I’ve had many, many happy memories here. I go knowing that it is the will of God for me to take on this new adventure before He takes me home to heaven.”
And indeed, she spent all of her final years before glory in service to global missions.
For the first couple of years, Ishii and Provost worked out of Michigan. Then they moved again, this time to Illinois, where Provost became the president of Slavic Gospel Association (SGA), a missions organization that supports churches in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
For the next three decades, Ishii worked with SGA. She helped facilitate communication between churches in SGA’s target countries and American churches interested in providing support. She also helped arrange travel for the organization, and she even led short-term missions teams herself at times.
As the years wore on and she entered her 80s, Ishii continued to serve — both at SGA, through tasks like writing letters to donors, and at her church, where she taught a women’s Bible study for two decades. Even when she moved into an assisted living facility in Rockford, Illinois, she continued to work part-time.
Ishii passed away on August 6, 2023, at the age of 90.
Her obituary, in part, reads, “Harriet lived life as a true Christian witness, showing unconditional love to everyone she met, never ever sitting in judgment of anyone. She was greatly loved by family and friends and her warmth, joy and giving heart will be truly missed.”
Hotchkiss agrees: “She loved the Lord and served her church and her workplace. She was a very, very special lady.”
