Obituary: Rites held for Oscar Gladish, longtime school, civic leader
Funeral services were conducted Tuesday afternoon for Oscar Elijah Gladish, 82, former Pullman High School principal and teacher and former Pullman mayor, who died Saturday in Pullman of cancer.
His tenure as PHS principal ran from 1929 to 1963 and he served as mayor from 1969 to 1972.
The funeral was conducted in the Gladish School Auditorium which was named in his honor. Performing the rites was the Rev. David B. Bowman of the Community Congregational Church-United Church of Christ. Burial followed in the Pullman City Cemetery under the direction of Kimball Funeral home.
He was born Sept. 20, 1897, at Higginsville Junction, Mo., the son of Edwin and Mary Ann Gladish. He graduated from Fruitland, Idaho, High School and served during World War I with the U. S. Navy.
On his discharge from the Navy, Gladish entered McMinnville College in McMinnville, Ore., and graduated from Linfield College – the college had a name change in 1922 -- with a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy in 1923.
He taught school at Apple Valley, Idaho, for a school year and served as principal and teacher the next school year.
Gladish married Janet Riley on May 30, 1925, in McMinnville, Ore. Their first home was in Springfield, Ore. He attended the University of Oregon law school in Eugene 1926 to 1927 and then taught at Springfield High School until 1929, when they moved to Pullman. She died in Pullman June 19, 1967.
He earned a master’s degree in political science from Washington State University (then Washington State College) in 1932.
During World War II he took correspondence law courses from Chicago’s LaSalle University and received a law degree in 1950.
Gladish was past chairman of the Whitman County Education Association, the Pullman Chamber of Commerce and Phi Kappa Delta society.
He was a member of the Whitman County Cancer Society directors. He was a director of the Washington State Sportsman’s Association, and a life member of the National Rifle Association. He was a member of the Whitman County Historical Society.
He served on the Pullman Council on Aging and the Pullman Kiwanis Club.
Survivors include a daughter, Mary Elizabeth Porter of Opportunity; three sons, Wendell of Tujunga, Calif., Richard of Enumclaw; and Charles of Snohomish; nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
The family suggests memorials to the Pullman Memorial Hospital or the America Cancer Society. Kimball Funeral Home, Pullman, was in charge of arrangements.
