Given the fact that George Edmonston Jr., former editor of E-clips and the Oregon Stater, has retired and assumed the title of History and Traditions Editor of the Oregon Stater, he is closing 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.

#6 Miller and Gatch

A history of the office of the presidency at OSU has not been without controversy, and nothing illustrates this fact more than a brief 11-month period in the late 1890s in which Henry B. Miller was appointed to the top job. How the university responded to his troubled tenure qualifies this period as one of OSU’s defining moments.

To say the least, Miller’s time in office left Oregon Agricultural College in a whirlwind.

Forget that he would go on from Corvallis to serve with distinction in the diplomatic corps of his country. Forget that the school would actually move forward in small degrees during his administration and not sink into ruin as some had predicted. Henry Miller, to his critics, was nothing but a sly and crafty businessman whose hobby was politics and who had "hobbied" his way into a job he was no more qualified to hold than any shop owner walking the streets of Salem.

Whether real or imagined, a dark cloud had descended over Oregon’s young agricultural college, brought on by the many negative editorials against Miller that continued to dot the newspapers of the state throughout his tenure. When he resigned before the start of fall classes in 1897, the Board of Regents moved quickly to brighten things up, in an action that would set a new tone for how OSU would select all future presidents.

The mood on the board was one of overkill. The new president would have to be someone loaded with credentials, someone whose level of education and experience would not only bring about an immediate restoration of the school’s academic reputation, but whose mere appearance in Corvallis would also cast aside any lingering doubts that OAC had become a pawn of state politics.

The review of applicants stopped at Thomas Gatch. He had the necessary degrees for the office...that was checked right up front...but what really impressed the search committee was Gatch’s experience as an educator.

Casting aside the fact that he had changed employers nine times in his 28-year career, an average of a new job every three years, the board quickly offered Gatch the presidency as the college’s fifth president. His appointment would put him on familiar ground, having already served in presidencies at both Willamette University and the University of Washington. As a bonus, he had grown up on a large family farm in eastern Ohio, outside the town of Milford in Clermont County. If nothing else, board members felt, their new president would have no problem educating farmers. As a coincidence, Henry Miller was also a native of eastern Ohio, but 200 miles to the south of the Gatch homestead.

Contrary to his past actions, Gatch would make no more career moves after accepting OAC’s offer. He would stay for a decade (1897-1907), during which time Oregon State would prosper like never before, particularly in enrollment. During his first year, 336 students were in attendance. In 1902, it was 500 and by the time of his last year, over 833 students were working on academic degrees. The faculty had grown to an unprecedented 41 in number and included such historic names as Covell, Cordley, Callahan, Horner, Snell, and future Oregon governor James Withycombe. As most OSU alumni who are familiar with the modern campus know, a number of the university’s most remembered buildings are named after these faculty luminaries from the past.

In informal situations, Gatch often referred to his students as, "my little farmer boys," but he was anything but a "farmer’s president." Literary societies flourished, and all three-year degree programs were discontinued. Under Gatch’s supervision, professor E.C. Hayward introduced a four-year course in electrical engineering (1897) and in 1898, C.M. McKellips launched pharmacy. In 1900, four-year courses in mining, offered through the department of chemistry, and physical culture, were introduced. A literary commerce degree came on line in 1901, and the department of music was re-established. In 1905, botany, forestry and horticulture were separated into separate departments, each with its own four-year program, and each strengthened by the move.

Gatch retired from OAC in 1907 at age 74. According to Elizabeth Nielsen in OSU Archives, Gatch remained at the college as a professor of political and mental science until the end of 1907. He later retired to Seattle, where he resided until his death in 1913. According to an article by J.F. Santee published in the Oregon Historical Quarterly, "...he spent his declining years deriving an income from the Carnegie Foundation, because of previous distinguished service."