Dema Malvina Zachary Taylor

1906 - 1992

Malvina Taylor, a violinist and conductor, taught for nearly forty years in four colleges and an academy in the Seventh-day Adventist school system. She was born in Buffalo, Oklahoma, the younger of two daughters of Bourne J. and Dema Marie Van Nostrand Zachary.

She began her career at Southern Junior College, now Southern Adventist University, in 1923 at age seventeen, teaching violin and directing the orchestra while still a student in the music program. Following completion of her studies in 1926, Malvina continued as a teacher until 1930.

During the next four years, while teaching violin and assisting with the orchestra and smaller ensembles at Emmanuel Missionary College, now Andrews University, Zachary completed a four-year degree in music, graduating in 1934. She had married Harry W. Taylor, an English major, in 1933, and he would serve as president of their senior class. The Taylors adopted a daughter, Dahna.

In the next nineteen years, Taylor and her husband taught at Bethel Academy, now Wisconsin Academy (1934-37); Oshawa Missionary College in Ontario, Canada, now Kingsway College (1937-45); and Atlantic Union College (1945-53). She ended her career teaching at EMC from 1953 until 1960. The Taylors were living in Berrien Springs, Michigan, when she died at age 85.

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Sources: 1926 Southern Junior College Yearbook; Obituaries, Andrews University Focus, September 1992 and Adventist Review, 23 July 1992, 22; “Harry Taylor honored as Professor Emeritus,” Lake Union Herald, 14 October 1975, 16; “Seniors Present Cardinal; Reveal Graduation Plans,” The Student Movement, 8 February 1934, 1; 1920 U.S. Census; Border Crossings from Canada to U.S., 5 July 1945.