Whitman College history

In 1866, Walla Walla's wealthiest citizen, Dorsey Baker, donated land near his house to the east of downtown.

The school's first principal, local Congregational minister Peasly B. Chamberlin, resigned within a year and Cushing Eells was called upon to serve as principal, which he did until 1869.

In 1882, with support from the Congregational American College and Education Society, Whitman College began offering curricula at the college level.

College Hall (1883), Whitman College, Walla Walla

After a promising start, his successor, Congregational minister James Francis Eaton, also encountered financial troubles in a worsening economy, fell out of favor with nearly everyone, and resigned in 1894.

With the support of Chicago philanthropist D. K. Pearsons, Penrose established the college’s endowment, built the college’s first masonry buildings -- the Whitman Memorial Building and Billings Hall (both completed by 1900) -- and strengthened the college’s faculty.

Following its 25th year as a college, in 1907, a plan called Greater Whitman was launched.

Ultimately, this program was unable to raise enough capital; in 1912, the plan was abandoned and Whitman College returned to being a small liberal arts institution, albeit with increased focus on co-curricular activities.

In 1913, Whitman became the first college or university in the nation to require undergraduate students to complete comprehensive examinations in their major fields.

The Whitman School, formally the College of Business Administration, was established in 1919.

Penrose iterated the school's purpose "to be a small college, with a limited number of students to whom it will give the finest quality of education". In 1920 Phi Beta Kappa installed a chapter, the first for a Northwest college, and Whitman had its first alum Rhodes Scholar.

Penrose served for 40 years, retiring from the presidency in 1934.

Clemen resigned in the fall of 1935 citing disagreement between himself and the trustees.

But Clemen’s approach to change was not well received and, although many of the changes he sought were later made, he was forced to resign in 1936 after only two years in office.

Bratton restored the relationships that Clemen had damaged; when Bratton retired, in 1942, he was celebrated for his success at managing internal affairs.

In 1943, the first navy cadets arrived at Whitman.

As Anderson was planning to capitalize on this growth, he became ill and died of a brain tumor in 1948.

Maxey was succeeded in 1959 by Louis Barnes Perry, who had been an administrator at Pomona College.

Even after his resignation on March 28, 1967, Perry continued tooffer advice to presidents such as George Bridges who recounted Perry's sage advice over a lunch.

In 1975, Robert Allen Skotheim, dean and provost at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, became president of Whitman College.

The class, taught primarily by Professor King, was offered until 1976.

The Whitman school has been a leader in education innovation and began offering a distance MBA in 1977.

In 1990, College Archivist Larry Dodd oversaw a second major oral history project.

In 1993, Thomas E. Cronin, a political science professor from Colorado College, became president.

Donated to the Whitman College and Northwest Archives prior to 2000.

President George Bridges came to office on July 1, 2005.

In 2007, which marked the college’s 125th anniversary, Whitman had 120 full-time faculty members, about 1,450 students, and offered the Bachelor of Arts degree in 44 fields of study.