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Sepia photograph of Waller Hall after a fire. The roof is missing and many windows are damaged.

George Whitaker

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Written by Monte Remer, Class of 2026

As newly-appointed president, George Whitaker arrived at Willamette demanding complete and rigid control over the university. He didn’t stay for long. Whitaker’s two-year presidency was defined by the school’s financial disarray, bitter interpersonal conflict, and the 1891 fire which consumed part of what is now Waller Hall. At the start of the 1893 school year, he resigned out of the belief that he was granted insufficient power to ensure Willamette’s success. Students, faculty, and staff might have breathed a collective sigh of relief. 

Strict, devoutly religious, and prone to micromanaging—Whitaker’s personality traits suggest a need for structure and stability. This need may have formed in his impoverished youth as the boy stared down an uncertain future. George Whitaker was born May 14th, 1836 in Boston, Massachusetts. He was raised on a farm by his father who jumped between jobs, and by his mother until she died when Whitaker was young.1 Biographer Samuel Atkins Eliot writes, “The family resources were limited so that it was not easy for him to obtain the education he wished; but he was fond of reading in a general way, especially of the biographies of successful men.” He managed to become the youngest student to graduate from Bridgewater State Normal school at seventeen, going on to graduate from Wesleyan University at eighteen. In addition to his studies, “he also acted as steward of a boarding club, as a book agent, and peddled campaign medals during the presidential contest of 1860, being obliged to almost entirely depend upon his own exertions for the attainment of his education.”2

While he was raised Unitarian, the course of Whitaker’s life was altered by a Methodist sermon he attended as a young teacher in Cape Cod. The content of the sermon itself escapes the historical record, but we know that it was powerful enough to make him convert. In the following years, he served as a Methodist pastor in various parts of New England, acquired his Doctor of Divinity from Fort Worth University, and served as president of the Methodist-affiliated Wiley University in Marshall, Texas. His resume was extensive in both educational and clerical work. To a university short on faculty, money, and stability, he appeared as a beacon of hope.

On July 25th, 1891, Willamette’s Board of Trustees elected George Whitaker president on the recommendation of a former University Agent.3 The University Agent at that time was a position which administered the school’s finances, while the President oversaw academics and discipline. The Agent usually dealt with the finer details and bureaucratic minutiae. The Board seemed to believe that Whitaker’s leadership would correct the university’s dire prospects. The school was hemorrhaging money. Its faculty was depleted, and many students had followed former president Thomas Van Scoy to the newly-established but ultimately short-lived Portland University. C.H. Payne, Secretary of the Board of Education for the Methodist Episcopal Church, wrote to Whitaker in 1892 expressing regret at the state of schools across the Pacific Northwest, noting that it would “require great wisdom to solve the problem.”4

Before the new president could focus on the University’s finances, however, there was a fire on the top floor of its central hall. At the start of the 1891 school year, Whitaker reported to the Board in a hushed tone, “on the eighth day of the school term, fire destroyed the roof of our University hall. It caused a delay of two and one-half hours of school work and much inconvenience to our pupils and teachers, and expense to bail out the plentiful cloud droppings when no roof protected our property or ourselves.’”5 He suggested that the building be renamed Waller Hall when it was rebuilt. His suggestion was rejected, even though this renaming would eventually occur after Whitaker’s time.Whitaker was already finding himself with few allies at Willamette.

Former student Floyd Field described Whitaker as a “long legged lank New Englander who knew nothing about young men and women.’”6 The new president held strong beliefs about gender roles in which women, despite their educational endeavors, belonged ultimately to the domestic sphere.Later in life, he wrote an article for The Pacific Monthly which reads, “No matter what her other accomplishments, that girl is a beggar in heart and home who is lacking in domestic knowledge and skill. Forty domestics are no substitute for one domesticated daughter.”7 He implemented this worldview as president by instituting his version of Blue Laws, which prohibited talking between students of opposite gender.

The Blue Laws faced immediate backlash. Whitaker “announced one day that no boy or girl should walk together without a ‘ten foot pole between them.’” The next day, he looked outside his office window to see that a boy and girl were walking together, separated by a literal ten-foot pole.

In a 1951 Collegian interview, former student Eugene Prescott remembered Whitaker’s despotism as a defining feature of his youth at Willamette. “That Whitaker was a strict one,” he recalled, “you couldn’t even talk to young ladies in the halls or mix with them in any activities. If you met him on the street and didn’t tip your hat, he would step right up to you and tip it for you, and if your shoes were only shined on the toe and not the heel, he would call your attention to it.”8 On one occasion, Whitaker reprimanded a professor for speaking to a young man and a young woman at the same time. He also had an outburst over a student literary society meeting too late into the night—he spotted the lit window from his office, a location which functioned as a sort of panopticon during his tenure.9

Whitaker also sought to mold Willamette to his religious beliefs. In 1892 he designed a class called “The Life of Christ”10 and taught classes on Systematic Theology.11 He spoke at nearly every mandatory chapel meeting, and invited other speakers of whom Eugene Prescott said, “‘you could smell brimstone in their sermons.’” His correspondence features a letter from another pastor who warned him to keep his circles on guard against the influence of Maria Woodworth Etter, a Pentecostal tent preacher who led trancelike revivals in the late nineteenth century. The pastor wrote, “She is a very dangerous fanatic, has remarkable hypnotic powers, and led a great many weak people into the most shameful excesses. Some went insane, a great many gave up their religion when the terrible reaction came, and in short she did incalculable harm.”12 This was the sort of influence which shaped Whitaker’s worldview, one in which being ‘on guard’ was a necessity in life’s spiritual war against disorder.

He felt it his duty to fight his own war against disorder regarding Willamette’s finances. In his constant vigilance, he trusted no-one but himself to do it. Rather than delegating tasks to the Agent, he insisted on being the one to manage admissions advertisements, oversee budgets, and attend to the school’s various bills. Although the presidency at that time was not necessarily a financial position, his archived business documents during his tenure are nearly as extensive as those pertaining to academics.13 Several people at the university tried to tell him this was not his job. Not only did he act outside his jurisdiction, but he did so ineffectively. Willamette only sank deeper into financial ruin.

Tensions reached a boiling point quickly. Whitaker was disliked by students, and there was similar animosity among the Board, faculty, and administration. A letter from Professor John N. Dennison in the fall of 1892 paints a broad picture of the conflict. He wrote to Whitaker about the university’s Financial Agent:

[…] you have insisted continually in subordinating him to you—and you have been, de-fact[o] the Financial Agent of Willamette. Why you insist on doing all of this drudge work and leave the higher and more responsible duties of education and moral and social training to less capable hands is a mystery to me. Mr. [illegible] and Mr. Albert are paid for this and you are paid to do the duties of President.14

Dennison went on to write of the student exodus during Whitaker’s reign, “I am satisfied that had you given your time and talent to school work the school would have been in very much better shape and many students who have gone elsewhere would not have gone.” For all of Whitaker’s micromanaging, Dennison scolded that the president had not achieved results.”The school is not a success in any of its departments, ” he said, “It is running behind enormously. The impression of extravagance widely prevails, and hedges up the way of any one who solicits help. Vague rumors of misappropriated funds are in the air—circulated doubtless by the enemies of the school.” Further still, he alluded to Whitaker’s lack of civility towards the Financial Agent, “I am sure Bro. L. has spoken good words for you everywhere. I am not equally clear as to your expressions concerning him.”

There is no indication that the president was receptive to this criticism. He returned from touring California educational institutions in 1893 with an idea that he seemed to think was news, “that the deficiency of our school lies principally in the region of finances. . . .”15

The solution, he decided, was to dig in his heels. At the beginning of the 1893 school year, he insisted he be granted “entire control of campus, buildings and Finances […] and said that unless he could have such control and sway he would resign.”16 An executive committee of the Board organized to address the situation. They decided that the Financial Agent had control over the university’s finances (hence the job description) and that the president and faculty had control over discipline. The Board members added a special recommendation that “‘the administration of discipline should be in concurrence with the Faculty,’” perhaps in response to the notoriously unpopular Blue Laws. The decision was a far cry from the “entire control” Whitaker demanded. Immediately following the committee’s report, George Whitaker resigned as president of Willamette. The Collegian wrote, “This was a surprise to very many of our students, occurring as it did on the second day of the school year.”17 It had been a tumultuous two years, to say the least.

After his time at Willamette, Whitaker held various pastor positions. He was summoned to the presidency of Portland University in 1899, which he ran until its financial collapse only months later. He then returned to his native Massachusetts. Towards the end of his life, it seems he found work perfectly suited to his personality. He became the librarian for the New England Methodist Historical Society, charged with the meticulous cataloguing and care of around 5,600 books, mountains of pamphlets and manuscripts, as well as various portraits and relics. His work there was described as “courteous and painstaking.”18 In his library, his control was absolute.

George Whitaker died in 1917.

Endnotes

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  1. Samuel Atkins Eliot, A.M. D.D., Biographical History of Massachusetts: Biographies and Autobiographies of Leading Men in the State, (Massachusetts Biographical Society, 1911) 416-419.
  2. Willamette Collegian, 1893-10-01, Vol. 5 No. 2, “A Biographical Sketch,” 4-5.
  3. Robert Moulton Gatke, Chronicles of Willamette (Portland, Or: Binfords & Mort, 1943), 417-420.
  4. Payne, C.H., letter to Whitaker, Feb. 23rd, 1892 (Willamette Archives WUA006, Box 2, Folder 13).
  5. Willamette Collegian, 1951-02-16, Vol. LXII No. 18, “Fire Blesses Willamette in Poverty,” 1.
  6. See note 3.
  7. Whitaker, George, 1899-1900, “Some Suggestions on Domestic Economy”, The Pacific monthly: a magazine of education and progress Vol. 3, 80-81.
  8. Willamette Collegian, 1951-02-23, Vol. 62 No. 19, “Alumnus Recalls Iron Rule,” 8.
  9.  See note 8.
  10. Willamette Collegian, 1892-04-01, Vol 8, No 7, “Personal,” 12.
  11. The Oregon Mist., September 11, 1891, Vol. 8 No. 37, “Oregon News,” 1.
  12. Dille, Elbert R. letter to Whitaker, May 19th, 1892 (Willamette Archives, WUA006, Series I, Box 2, Folder 17).
  13. Willamette University Office of the President records (WUA006); Willamette University Business records (WUA098).
  14. Dennison, John N., letter to Whitaker,  November 5th, 1892, (Willamette Archives, WUA006, Box 2, Folder 28).
  15. Willamette Collegian, 1893-02-01, Vol. 4, No. 5, “Local and Personal,” 8.
  16.  See Note 3.
  17. Willamette Collegian, 1893-10-01, Vol. 5, No. 2, “Editorial,” 2.
  18. Mudge, James, History of the New England Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1796-1910 (New England Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1910), 319.

Works Referenced

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  • Dille, Elbert R. Letter to Whitaker, May 19th, 1892. Willamette University Office of the President records, WUA006, Box 2, Folder 17, Willamette University Archives.
  • Dennison John N. Letter to Whitaker, November 5th, 1892. Willamette University Office of the President records, WUA006, Box 2, Folder 28, Willamette University Archives.
  • Eliot, Samuel Atkins. Biographical History of Massachusetts: Biographies and Autobiographies of Leading Men in the State. Boston: Massachusetts Biographical Society, 1911.
  • Gatke, Robert Moulton. Chronicles of Willamette. Portland, OR Binfords & Mort., 1943.
  • Mudge, James. History of the New England Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1796-1910. New England Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1910.
  • The Oregon Mist. “Oregon News.” September, 11, 1891.
  • Payne, C.H. Letter to Whitaker, February 23rd, 1892. Willamette University Office of the President records, WUA006, Box 2, Folder 13, Willamette University Archives.
  • Whitaker, George. “Some Suggestions on Domestic Economy.” The Pacific monthly: a magazine of education and progress 3, (1899-1900): 80-81.
  • Willamette Collegian. “A Biographical Sketch.” Vol. 5, No. 2, October 1, 1893. https://hdl.handle.net/10177/8628
  • Willamette Collegian. “Alumnus Recalls Iron Rule.” Vol. 62, No. 19, February 23, 1951. https://hdl.handle.net/10177/9548
  • Willamette Collegian. “Editorial.” Vol. 5, No. 2, October 1, 1893. https://hdl.handle.net/10177/8628
  • Willamette Collegian. “Fire Blesses Willamette in Poverty.” Vol. 62, No. 18, February 16, 1951. https://hdl.handle.net/10177/8480
  • Willamette Collegian. “Local and Personal.” Vol. 4, No. 5, February 1, 1893. https://hdl.handle.net/10177/8152
  • Willamette Collegian. “Personal.” Vol. 8, No. 7, April 1, 1892. https://hdl.handle.net/10177/10155
  • Willamette University. Office of the President records (WUA006). Willamette University Archives. https://willamette.libraryhost.com/repositories/2/resources/58
  • Willamette University. Business records (WUA098). Willamette University Archives. https://willamette.libraryhost.com/repositories/2/resources/131

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