The Evolution of George Fox: Three Alumni share their Stories

Reported by Natalie Amodei

In the last 125 years, there have been many changes at George Fox University (GFU), from academics to athletics to everything in between. I asked three alumni to share stories from their time at GFU to see what changes have occurred.

Elenita Bales graduated from Pacific College (now GFU) in 1943. She was an English teacher, high school counselor, and pastor’s wife. Her parents met and attended Pacific College. Her husband, George Bales, was the university’s football and basketball coach and was involved with physical education.

Gertrude Ankeny was in the first graduating class of GFU after the university changed its name from Pacific College in 1949. Ankeny was a pastor’s wife and served at Twin Rocks Friends Camp for many years with her husband. Her elder sister, Mildred Minthorn, also attended GFU.

Sam Morse went to GFU from 1953-55. George Bales was his football and basketball coach. Morse Athletics Field is named after his parents. Morse worked in tool-making and designing plastic molds. He volunteers with the engineering department at GFU.

What did you study?

ANKENY: “....English....”

BALES: “There’s one good thing about a small school… you have about four choices for majors, but I always wanted to be a teacher, so I didn’t have a problem. I majored in English.”

MORSE: “Math and science mostly. I took physics and algebra. I almost had enough for a major my first two years. I thought I oughtta take something else, so I took a language… I think I flunked. One semester was enough.”

Did you live in the dorms?

ANKENY: “You know what’s Minthorn Hall now? That was the women’s dorms- that’s where I lived. It wasn’t called Minthorn hall then… but it’s the same building. And the lowest level was the dining room.”

BALES: “I didn’t ever get to. I always wanted to. I asked around for a place so I could work for my room and board. This elderly women’s daughter had asked the university if there were any kids around.  I of course cleaned every week on Saturdays and did the rugs and that kind of thing and I cooked for her.”

MORSE: “Edwards hall, I think we called it.”

Was there a cafeteria?

ANKENY: “I helped and served meals. They employed students.”

MORSE: “What they brought was war surplus. One week, we had bread pudding four days in a row. On the fifth day we stacked it up and left it.”

Were there any school traditions?

ANKENY: “We actually had a bruin. Whatever class had it then, they would flash it… and everyone would try to get it.”

BALES: “We had Bruin Junior. I was coming back from home… and I saw this going on in the quad. My dad says, ‘What’s going on out there?’ And I said, ‘Oh, that’s the Bruin Junior fight. Each class wants to be able to get ahold of that and hide it and that’s a real honor. And he said, ‘Well, why don’t you get out there and help them out?’ I think I’m the only girl who ever got into a Bruin Junior fight.”

BALES: “Seniors were only ones who could pick flowers off of campus.”

BALES: “We had a whole week of it [hazing] and had to do something stupid. And… you had to wear the… freshman beanies to show that you were a freshman.”

Were you involved in any sports or clubs?

ANKENY: “I was in some plays and the girls’ basketball team.”

BALES: “At a small school, you can do everything. I was the class president one year, and sang in the choir, and I played basketball and…. volleyball. I tried to play softball, but I wasn’t good at that… I was a cheerleader one year. Anything that the college had, there were so few people that they could be passed around to everybody.”

MORSE: “I was on a junior varsity basketball team and we went over to Idaho to play. On the way back… there was snow on the road… we lost control of the car and rolled over into a deep ditch. It was enough that the car rolled completely over and back onto the wheels. Inside were 6 people bouncing around and we didn’t have seatbelts. So, I broke my neck.”

Did students attend a campus chapel?

ANKENY: “We had chapel probably like they still have. We had assigned places that we sat.”

BALES: “Oh yes. They checked us off if we were there.”

How did World War II affect your time at GFU?

BALES: “We had the largest freshman class that had ever been in the college. We had 50! And that was war years. And a lot of the Newberg kids that would mostly go to Oregon State came here because all the guys didn’t know when they would be called. They had to register. George had registered. He didn’t know where he would get placed so we decided to put our marriage off for a year and I would teach. War did affect us a lot. In the first place, in the enrollment. And in the lives of the people. One of our professors from the east… had been raised Quaker and he was a conscientious objector to the point that he didn’t even feel free to register and he was arrested and put in jail.”

How did you pay for your education?

BALES: “I really had to work for quite a few jobs. It was a lot cheaper… in those days but we didn’t have any money. In the summers, I helped work in the canneries. For my second year, I got a small scholarship from the college. There was a government thing for students so whenever I had hours off, I would work for the … principal, Mabel Rush. I could maybe skip PE or something and I could go down and work in the [maraschino] factory.”

MORSE: “I probably saved a little money. It wasn’t difficult.”