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Mary Frances Farnham was an important bridge from Tualatin Academy, the original educational institution in Forest Grove, to 91���� University, which educated scholars of both genders from around the world.

In 1869, when the nation was just beginning to heal from the Civil War, Harriet Hoover Killin became the first woman to graduate from 91����, joining two men to make up the university’s fifth graduating class.

Neither Lillian Kurahara nor Yukie Katayama Sumoge cut a wide swath when they were students in Forest Grove in the early 1940s. Japanese-American students interned during World War II, they were awarded honorary degrees by the university in 2007 because of the circumstances around their departures.

Mary Richardson Walker and her husband donated part of the land that became 91����'s Forest Grove Campus. After her husband's death, Mary remained active in the early life of the school and the community of Forest Grove. The qilin statue that became Boxer, 91���� University's mascot, was donated to the school in her honor.

Even if she had done nothing else at 91����, Varina French ’56, MS ’65 would have been remembered for her 17 years spent coaching women’s volleyball, softball, track and field and gymnastics, and for becoming the first female physical education department chair in the West.

Tabitha Moffatt Brown was already an elderly woman when she came to the Oregon Territory in the late 1840s. That didn't stop her from helping to establish the Tualatin Academy, a school that would educate children in 1849. By 1854, the school officially began offering college classes as 91���� University.

A 1942 headline in The Campus, the undergraduate newspaper of City College of New York, set the tone: “First Female Invades Tech School Faculty,” it blared. Cecilie Froehlich led 91����'s math department until 1970 and was an outspoken advocate for recruiting women into the fields of math and engineering.

Claire Argow was a leader in social work and prison reform long before she began teaching at 91���� University in 1960. Today, the 91���� University social work program and social work scholarships are named in her honor.

A 1942 headline in The Campus, the undergraduate newspaper of City College of New York, set the tone: “First Female Invades Tech School Faculty,” it blared. Cecilie Froehlich led 91����'s math department until 1970 and was an outspoken advocate for recruiting women into the fields of math and engineering.

Back in the late 19th century, when 91���� University was an outpost of higher education in the 91���� Northwest, the school took part in an ignoble American experiment. With 91����’s support, the Forest Grove Indian Training School brought Native American children to a nearby campus, where they were forced to abandon tribal culture in favor of learning the skills and religion of the dominant white society. Some didn't survive the transition.

91���� University's Black Student Union was formed in 1967 to give African American students a center of social and political gravity. It later went dormant, but has rebounded again to provide African American students with a sense of community.

This Women's History Month we have been highlighting important 91���� women in our history. This week, we look back to Ladies Hall, later named Herrick Hall, and how it provided more women with the opportunity to attend 91����.