A Seventh-day Adventist corporation, founded in 1904 as a school and carried forward today as a home for ministries that share its charter.
Established 1904 · Incorporated in Oregon
Where things stand
Laurelwood Academy no longer operates a boarding school, a campus or a farm. Classroom instruction ended, the dormitories emptied, and the work that filled this institution for more than a century came to a close.
In November 2019 the board voted not to dissolve. Laurelwood Academy, Inc. remains registered with the Oregon Corporation Division and holds its 501(c)(3) status — and it puts that standing to work as a legal and financial home for Seventh-day Adventist ministries whose aims line up with the original charter.
Five ministries operate under it now. A sixth is welcome.
Under the umbrella
Each operates independently and answers for its own work. What Laurelwood provides is the corporate and non-profit standing underneath it — so that a small ministry can receive gifts, hold agreements and keep its books without building a legal entity from scratch.
PNCE
Door-to-door outreach across the Pacific Northwest, built around offering Bible studies in person, house by house, and following up with those who accept.
Founded by John Peacock, formerly a teacher at the academy.
Publishing
An online Bible-study ministry reaching an international audience, with course material published in several languages.
Founded by Merlin and Vonda Beerman.
Relief
Also known as Adventist Relief.
Established by Kim Busl.
Youth
Outdoor, family-oriented camps for young people — faith-building work in the field rather than the classroom, the closest thing here to how the academy itself taught.
Led by William Hurtado.
Led by Jay Cameron, attorney.
The charter
The shield at the center of the seal is quartered, and each quarter carries a word. It is not decoration — it is the school's whole theory of education, which held that a person is not schooled until all four are schooled together.
An open Bible. The first quarter, and the one the other three were meant to serve.
A burning lamp. Academic work, and the conviction that students should be thinkers rather than reflectors of other people's thoughts.
Crossed tools. Manual labor was a subject here, not a chore — the school ran a farm, and students worked it.
Music and the arts. Laurelwood kept a music director on staff for as long as it kept a campus.
To provide an opportunity to intimately know Jesus Christ, personally experience mission service, and develop outstanding academic and vocational skills through Christian education.
A safe and gracious community of learners, dedicated to personal devotion to Jesus Christ, personal mission service, academic excellence and fiscal independence.
“This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” John 17:3 NKJV — carried on the school's statement of mission
Heritage
Laurelwood was not a continuous institution. It closed once and was bought back by its own alumni; it moved once and never recovered its size. The record is worth keeping straight.
In the field
Laurelwood set aside the month of March each year for mission service, and every student went. Some years the teams crossed oceans; some years they worked an hour from campus. Students raised their own fare through donations and physical labor.
Alongside it ran outreach at home, all year, deliberately varied so that whatever a given student was good at could be put to use.
Where the teams went
Compiled from the school's own outreach pages and trip galleries, 2008–2011.
Support the work
Every ministry under this umbrella raises its own funds and pays its own way — that is a condition of joining, set by the board. Gifts are received by the corporation and passed to the ministry you name.
By mail
Checks payable to Laurelwood Academy, Inc.
Laurelwood Academy, Inc.Name the ministry on the memo line — PNCE, Revelation Publications, Cross Cultural Ministries, Highest Education or Imminent Ministries — and the gift is directed there. A check with no ministry named supports the corporation's general work.
By phone
Call the corporation
Joan Holbrook Payne
(503) 887-4235
For questions about designating a gift, giving to a specific project, or arranging something other than a check.
Tax status
501(c)(3) non-profit
Registered with the Oregon Corporation Division
Gifts to a qualified 501(c)(3) organization are generally tax-deductible. The corporation can provide a receipt for your records; consult your own tax advisor as to deductibility in your situation.
Inquiries
Laurelwood Academy, Inc. is open to merging with Seventh-day Adventist ministries whose work fits the original charter. If yours might benefit from operating under an established Oregon non-profit — its registration, its 501(c)(3) standing, its board — write and say what you do.
Gifts in support of the ministries under the umbrella are received through the corporation as well.
Write to the boardCorrespondence and inquiries go to the mailing address below.