Pacific University

Pacific University is a located in Forest Grove, Oregon about 40 minutes west of Portland, Oregon. It traces its origins to a private school, the Tualatin Academy, started in 1842 and was officially chartered by the territorial legislature in 1849. It is best known for its College of Optometry, but also offers graduate programs in several allied health fields via its College of Health Professions in physical therapy, occupational therapy, physician assistant studies, professional pyschology, dental health science, and pharmacy. Pacific also has a full range of undergraduate liberal arts degree programs and an outstanding College of Education. The College of Education offers an undergraduate major in early childhood education and elementary education. There are also a number of graduate education programs including MAT/MAT Flex, MAT Special Education and M.Ed. in school counseling. Pacific University is presently in the process of expanding. There is a state-of-the-art University Library being built as well as a professional studies building and a brand new separate campus for the health professions.

Noteworthy Alumni

Harvey W. Scott (graduated 1863) ? the first graduate of Pacific and hired by Henry Pittock to edit the Oregonian. He was also quite influential in Oregon politics. He also served for a time as U.S. Collector of Customs for Oregon before returning to the Oregonian.

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Myron Eells (graduated 1866) ? the first Pacific graduate to become a trustee of the University. He was a writer and noted anthropologist. His notebooks on his work with Western Washington Indian tribes was published in 1986 under the title The Indians of Puget Sound: the Notebooks of Myron Ells. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity from Whitman College in 1890.

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Thomas Tongue (graduated 1868) ? elected to the 55th U.S. Congress by Oregonians as a U.S. Representative to the First District and was re-elected to the 58th Congress. He was chairman of the Committee for the Irrigation of Arid lands and was responsible for the creation of the Crater Lake National Park.

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Hatsutara Tamura (graduated 1876) ? arrived in Forest Grove in 1870 and was one of the first three Japanese students at Pacific. He graduated and taught with a degree in chemistry, but later went to Oberlin College to study theology. Upon his return to Japan, he became the headmaster of the St. Agnes School in Kyoto.

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Alfred C. Gilbert (graduated in 1902 from the Tualatin Academy) ? is perhaps Pacific?s most famous alumnus. He attended Pacific for 2 years following his graduation from Tualatin Academy where he set a world record for number of pull-ups). After graduating from Yale University with a degree in medicine and having attained a gold medal and world record for the pole vault in the 1908 Olympics, he invented the Erector Set in 1913. His company also marketed magic, chemistry and telegraph sets and the American Flyer Trains. The A.C. Gilbert discovery village located in Salem, Ore. is a children?s museum and named after Gilbert.

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Victor Emmel (graduated in 1904) ? received his bachelors degree form Pacific and then moved on to Brown University where he ranked among the top 25 anatomists in the U.S. for his work on red blood cells and for editing a 10-volume atlas on anatomy.

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Elda F. Walker (graduated in 1904) ? received her doctorate from the University of Nebraska after her graduation from Pacific. She remained on faculty there, later to distinguish herself as a noted botanist. She studied plant morphology and the ecology of algae.

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Olaus Murie (graduated 1912) ? was internationally recognized as a wilderness advocate and conservation leader. He moved to Jackson Hole, Wyoming and began researching elk life-history which eventually placed him among the most notable mammologists of his time.

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