Tag: Monte Remer

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

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

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