Category: University Presidents
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Leonard Jackson Powell
Written by Monte Remer, Class of 2026 At the age of fifteen, Leonard Jackson Powell left to work in the California gold mines. He parted with his family’s newly-tilled homestead outside of Portland, Oregon and his grieving father. The family had already traveled half a year from Missouri, trudging across “the then trackless desert”1 and Read more
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Charles E. Lambert
Written by Monte Remer, Class of 2026 At the end of the 1879 school year, Willamette’s President Thomas Gatch resigned along with his entire faculty.1 The school’s debt was ever-increasing, its expenses were constantly insurmountable, and the Board of Trustees refused to alter its operations to meet its budget. The Board decided that if Gatch Read more
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George Whitaker
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 Read more
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Thomas Van Scoy
Written by Juliette Burns, Class of 2026 Thomas Van Scoy was a lifelong theologian and school headmaster, working as the seventh president of Willamette University from 1880 to 1891. Van Scoy was born in Indiana in 1848. There is not much to be found about his early years until the age of seventeen, when he Read more
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Thomas Milton Gatch
Written by Eleanor Smith, Class of 2026 Thomas Milton Gatch is one of the university’s most beloved presidents, serving two non-consecutive terms from 1860-1865 and 1870-1879. Gatch was born in Cincinnati on January 28, 1833. He went to college at Ohio Wesleyan University where he received his bachelor’s in 1855 and then his master’s. He Read more
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Joseph Henry Wythe
Written by Eleanor Smith, Class of 2026 Joseph Henry Wythe was a controversial yet multifaceted president in Willamette’s history, often seen walking down the streets of Salem with a cigar hanging out of his mouth. He was born in Manchester, England in 1822. His family moved to the United States when he was ten.1 He Read more
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Nelson Rounds
Written by Eleanor Smith, Class of 2026 Nelson Rounds’ presidency was seen as “old fashioned, strict, severe” by the student body.1 While he was not as beloved as the previous presidents, he was exactly what Willamette was looking for after Wythe’s cigar smoking. Rounds seemed to be the perfect fit for the university because of Read more
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Francis S. Hoyt
Written by Eleanor Smith, Class of 2026 Rev. Francis S. Hoyt is the father of a university that began its existence struggling to exist in an isolated place. When he took over, the school did not yet resemble a university. It was Hoyt’s task to oversee this transition from the Oregon Institute to Willamette University Read more