Given the fact that George Edmonston Jr., the editor of E-clips and the Oregon Stater, will soon be retiring, he will close out his involvement with E-clips by sharing a list of the 20 historical events he considers to be the most important in school history. He'll cover one event each week.

No. 19: The arrival of Wallace and Louisa Nash

Wallace Nash came to Oregon from England in 1879 and stayed the rest of his life to help build a college. Of all the talented men and women Oregon Agricultural College President Ben Arnold assembled to help him run OAC, Nash would be one of the best and his influence would have far reaching effects. Louisa, his wife, also made significant contributions to the young land-grant school.

As secretary for the OAC's Board of Regents, Nash was charged with, among many other academic assignments, restructuring the school's faculty. Assisted by Louisa, the two wrote every agricultural college in the country for information on faculty organization and pay, then used the data to launch a nationwide search for qualified instructors. This was the first attempt in school history to reach out beyond the borders of the state to recruit faculty. Louisa, for example, gets the credit for bringing to Corvallis Dr. Margaret Snell, the pioneer woman educator and medical doctor who became the first professor of household economy and hygiene (later home economics) in the Far West.

Nash, who did legal work for Charles Darwin prior to relocating his family to the Pacific Northwest, quickly became interested in agriculture in the Willamette Valley. Among his many activities, he helped direct the annual Farmer's Institutes across the state, bringing the college's latest research on grain, stock and fruit growing to the people who needed it. This activity would grow into the OAC Extension Service.

He and Louisa were also prime movers in the planning and building of Benton Hall, giving both time and money to help see the project through to completion. All six of their children, a daughter and five sons, went on to graduate from OAC. Two of the boys...Desborough and Percival... were starters on Oregon State's first football team of 1893.