Oscar Elijah Gladish was his full name.
But, “he was universally referred to as Mr. Gladish, not only by students, but by faculty, school board members, and school patrons alike. Nearly everyone in (Pullman) referred to him as Mr. Gladish, and few ever called him by his first name,” wrote Donald E. Guinouard, see footnotes/sources.
Students held Mr. Gladish in great respect and affection. He was usually the first person students visited after being out of town or away from school. (Guinouard)
Mr. Gladish had an “acquisitive, judicious mind”. He was both a “learner and a teacher all his working life,” wrote Wylie Johnston, see footnotes/sources.
Mr. Gladish is the namesake of Gladish Community and Cultural Center on West Main Street near downtown Pullman.
In its previous life, Gladish center was Pullman High School/PHS. Mr. Gladish was the high school principal and teacher of United States history and government for 34 years, 1929 to 1963.
Mr. Gladish wanted his students to earn their PHS diplomas. But, the most important part of education, he thought, was teaching students to think. (Guinouard)
When a new Pullman High School opened in 1972, the old PHS was given a new name by the Pullman School Board: “Gladish Middle School.” It served Pullman, 1972-1978. In 1996, Gladish Middle School (although no longer in operation)/the old PHS was purchased from the Pullman School District and renovated by the Friends of Gladish. Today it is Gladish Community and Cultural Center.
Timeline:
Sept. 20, 1897 – Oscar Elijah Gladish born on a farm outside of Higginsville Junction, Missouri, in the Kansas City area.
December 1900 -- At age 3 in December 1900, he moved with his family to Idaho. They lived in Fruitland, on the Snake River near the Idaho-Oregon border.
April 6, 1917 -- U. S. enters World War I.
1918 – Mr. Gladish graduated from Fruitland High School. During his schooling, all grades he attended were taught in the same two-room school house in Fruitland. Each school day, he walked two miles from the family farm to school and back.
July 1918 to February 1919 -- He enlisted in the military, but spent only a few months as an U.S. Navy apprentice seaman before discharge after the war ended, Nov. 11, 1918.
February 1919 to September 1919 – Mr. Gladish worked for Willamette and Columbia shipyards, Portland, using machinery to punch holes in steel plates. Then, from early June to early September, he worked as a “tent boy” for Ellis and White Chautauqua. It presented lectures and entertainment under a big tent which traveled by train with chautauqua employees from city to city. The Chautauqua circuit in which he worked -- starting in Richfield, Utah, and ending in Laramie, Wyoming – included 82 towns, 40 in the U.S. and 42 in Canada. (Johnston).
September 1919 – In Missouri and Idaho, Mr. Gladish’s family attended Baptist churches, so it was not surprising his post-high school education was at a small private Baptist college in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, south of Portland. When he started his studies in late September 1919, it was called McMinnville College. In 1922 the college name was changed to Linfield College when Frances Ross Linfield donated Spokane properties to the college. According to the Linfield “Oak Leaves” yearbook, as a student at the college Mr. Gladish was a member of the college intercollegiate debate team, Delta Psi Delta fraternity, and sang in the college glee. He also served on the YMCA Cabinet and was a member of the Ministerial Association.
Spring 1923 – He graduated from Linfield College with a bachelor’s degree in history and political science. (However, some sources say Mr. Gladish earned a bachelor of philosophy degree in history, no mention of political science.)
1923-1925 - After Linfield, Mr. Gladish wanted to attend law school. He did not aspire to be an attorney, but wanted to broaden his education by earning a law degree. But, he did not have the funds to pay for law school. By teaching he earned money to pay law school tuition. He took a teaching job in Apple Valley, Idaho, about 15 miles from Fruitland, where he grew up. He taught 1912-1924. In the 1924-1925 school year he continued teaching and also served as Apple Valley School principal. During his time in Apple Valley he lived in Payette, Idaho, about 20 miles from Apple Valley. (Johnston)
May 30, 1925 -- He married former Linfield classmate Janet Riley. She was a daughter of Linfield College President Leonard and Mrs. Julia Riley. Janet graduated from Linfield in 1924 and taught at Payette, Idaho, High School, 1924-1925. The wedding took place on the Linfield campus in the President’s Home. Her father, a Baptist pastor, performed the ceremony. Her twin sister, Ruth, was maid of honor. During the ceremony, Mrs. Linfield played the Wedding March on the Riley family piano. The newly wedded couple moved to Springfield, Oregon, near Eugene. Springfield put them near the Law School at the University of Oregon in Eugene.
1925-1927 – Mr. Gladish entered the University of Oregon Law School in Eugene in fall 1925. For the 1925-1926 and 1926-1927 academic years, he rode his bicycle three miles from home to the Law School to attend classes. (Johnston)
1927 – His savings being depleted, Mr. Gladish left law school and became a teacher at Springfield High School. Interesting to note that during the Gladishes’ time in Springfield he preached at least once at Springfield Baptist Church. (Johnston)
1927-1929 —Mr. Gladish taught at Springfield, Ore., High School. The school principal’s job opened. He applied. Later he withdrew from consideration after learning the contentious nature of the selection process. Then, he signed with the Westmore Teachers' Agency in Spokane. Westmore told him the Pullman High School “principalship” was open. Mr. Gladish applied and was invited to interview. He traveled to and from Pullman by Northern Pacific passenger train. Subsequently, he was offered and accepted the job. How did word about Mr. Gladish’s appointment get out? One of the ways, according to “Hi Times,” the PHS student newspaper, was an announcement in May 1929 made to the audience attending a silent movie showing at the Cordova theater in downtown Pullman. (Johnston.) (Frykman)
Aug. 12, 1929 – Mr. Gladish started as principal of (and teacher at) Pullman High School. He greeted students on the first day of school on Sept. 9, 1929. Although best known as Pullman High principal, “his real love was teaching American history and government. Until he retired, he taught one section of American history each semester. His knowledge of the subject was prodigious and he could hold a class enthralled. At Pullman, he established a high school student government system that was truly “of the students, by the students, and for the students.” It was widely known and studied by educators far and wide.” (Guinouard)
1932 —After graduate studies at Washington State College, he earned a master of art’s degree in political science from WSC in 1932.
1950 – Although he left the University of Oregon Law School in 1927, after two academic years of studies, he never gave up his interest in law. In 1950 he earned a law degree from La Salle Extension University, a nationally accredited private university based in Chicago. (Frykman)
1963 – Pullman High School graduation in 1963 was his last as principal. Thirty-four years of service to a “single community mean (Mr. Gladish) had survived – and perhaps surmounted – the Great Depression, the Second World War, and eight high school generations of student.” (Frykman)
1963 – Mr. Gladish’ retirement was “filled with public service and continued adherence to lifelong values and activities.” (Frykman).
June 19, 1967 – His wife, Janet Riley Gladish, age 66, died of cancer in Pullman. Her death “plunged (Mr. Gladish) into a despondency from which he escaped unexpectedly” when appointed City of Pullman mayor. (Frykman).
1969 – Mr. Gladish’s service as Pullman mayor began July 1, 1969, and ended Jan. 11, 1972. Poor health forced former Mayor W. T. Mitchell to resign in June 1969. Mr. Gladish was named by the Pullman City Council to serve out Mitchell’s unexpired mayoral term. He ran unopposed for the office in November 1969. A story in May 21, 1971, “Lewiston Tribune” said Mr. Gladish’s decision not to run again for mayor was based on his health and also because he wanted more time to do “some things I have wanted to do for decades and have not had time for.”
April 20, 1972 – The former Pullman High School was named “Gladish Middle School.” Pullman’s School Board “accorded him perhaps the highest mark of distinction and gratitude when, on April 20, 1972, it named the building in which he served so long” for him. (Frykman.)
September 1972 – The “new” Pullman High School on Military Hill opened.
Aug. 16, 1980 – At age 82, Oscar Gladish died of cancer in Pullman. His funeral was held in the Gladish School Auditorium.
2003 – Pullman downtown “Walk of Fame” established in 2003. One of the “Walk of Fame” tiles honors Oscar Gladish, “beloved and respected” longtime principal of Pullman High School for his service as a City of Pullman mayor.
RESEARCH/WRITING
--Tim Marsh
FOOTNOTES/SOURCES:
--"Oscar E. Gladish:
Rationalist, Principal, First Teacher." Submitted by Wylie Johnston for an
English-History 513 course at Washington State University. Jan. 28, 1970.
--"Oscar E. Gladish,
Principal of Pullman High School, 1929-1963," by George A. Frykman. Volume
8-4 (Winter, 1980), Bunchgrass Historian, Whitman County Historical Society.
--"By the Gods You're
Fired: A Story of Oscar Gladish," by Donald E. Guinouard. Volume 35-1 (2009),
Bunchgrass Historian, Whitman County Historical Society.
--Pullman Herald, Lewiston
Tribune, Spokane Chronicle, Portland Oregonian, McMinnville Telephone Register,
Pullman High School Hi Times student newspaper and Linfield College Oak
Leaves yearbook.
THANK YOU FOR ASSISTANCE:
--Ed Garretson, Whitman
County Historical Society Archive, Pullman.
--Mark O'English, Manuscripts,
Archives and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries,
Pullman.
