Linfield Prof. Emeritus Vincil D. “Vince”
Jacobs (photo) joined the
Linfield history faculty in 1967. He retired from full time teaching at the
college in 2002 and taught online courses for the college until 2014. Born in Corvallis, Ore., he is a 1954 graduate
of Crook County High School (Prineville, Ore.) and received history bachelor’s
and master’s degrees from the University of Oregon. He earned his history
doctoral degree from the University of Washington. During his time at Linfield he served as chair
of the history department and faculty executive council chair. The Linfield
history department inaugurated international travel courses in 1975, when he took
a group of students on a tour of Europe. Vince and
his wife, Norma, live in McMinnville.
Wildcatville asked Vince for anecdotes of his time with
Linfield. They include:
A Linfield grad, Jonas A. (also known as “Stein” and
“Steine”) Jonasson was associated
with Linfield for more than 60 years before he died in 1997. Holding the
unofficial title of Linfield historian, his time at the college included
serving as history department chair and dean of administration. At his death,
he was history professor emeritus.
==”I was hired at Linfield
recruited by Stein Jonasson in the
summer of 1967. I had taught at a Lutheran institution, Augustana College
in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in 1965-1966 and roundly hated it as it was
a bastion of Lutheran orthodoxy in the Midwest and I am at best an agnostic.
I resolved never to teach at a religious institution. But Georgie,
the secretary of the Augustana graduate school of history phoned in a panic
because Stein kept phoning and asking her to persuade me to apply to teach at Linfield.
I told her to give him my phone number in Seattle where was working on my
Ph.D. at the University of Washington (UDub). He phoned me right away.
“Stein's effort
to recruit me to teach at Linfield was at times amusing and tested my
determination not to teach at another religious institution. It was a
successful effort on Stein's part but at the time I had no notion I would stay
at Linfield for nearly 40 years.
“Stein: ‘Why
don't you come down and visit us and let us show you around the college and the
McMinnville community?’
“ ‘I'm just not
interested,’ I replied. ‘I do not want to teach at another religious
college.’
“Stein: ‘It is
true that we are a religious college but it is loosening up a lot. Can
you be more specific?’
‘Well, I'm not smoking right
now but if I do smoke, I don't want to break any rules.’
“Stein: ‘Actually,
it is just a few steps to a small cafe and you can smoke there but
if you want to smoke in your office no one is going say anything.’
“So the
discussion continued and Stein seemed to have an answer for everything,
including special hours and dress codes for women. Time for the coup de
grace, I thought. ‘Also I drink!’
“Stein: 'While it
is true that we had our faculty sign pledges, but we don't mind social drinking."
“I had pretty
much run out of excuses, so I agreed to visit. I visited Linfield
twice; the second time with my family, and after receiving assurances that the
reservations I had about teaching at a religious institution were not a
problem, I signed on - more in the interest of getting out of Seattle than
coming to Linfield.
“My interview with Harry Dillin, Linfield president, went
well; I received the salary I wanted and agreed to start in the fall
of 1967. I had completed my residency at UDub and was preparing a
prospectus for my dissertation. I had the good fortunate to have Dr.
David Pinkney as my University of Washington doctoral degree mentor - he was president-elect
of the American Historical Association and a giant in the field of French
history. I took my family to Paris during the summer of 1968 and did
research at the Archives Nationals and Bibliotech National and wrote my
dissertation over the next four years while teaching a full load at Linfield.
My Ph.D. was awarded in 1972 and the Linfield faculty moved me quickly
into faculty governance. My dissertation was published by the University
of Michigan Press and an attractive brochure was sent out to modern French
historians across North America.
“The Linfield which
hired me was mired in the old policies and I had to move quickly to help
modernize it.”
== “When
I first came to Linfield I quickly realized that Linfield was still anchored in
the past with the policies and flavors that were very much like
Augustana. Perhaps the worst situation was the place of the faculty in
the governance of the institution. The College seemed to me to be run by
various "empires" where people who were close to Harry Dillin were
making decisions that were often contrary to the interests of the faculty and who
used their influence to decide issues that should have been made primarily by
the faculty in the best interests of a modern educational institution. My
wife and I rented an apartment from the College in Dana Hall and discovered
that the carpets in the apartment were very dirty. I went over to Cozine
to request that the apartment be cleaned and was told that they wouldn't do it
- that we would have to do it ourselves. It was made clear to me that in
order to get any attention on any issue I would have to learn how to get along
with the power brokers of the College.
“We
were just out of grad school and didn't have any money to do that but somehow
managed to put aside enough to rent a carpet cleaner and so the job.
That and a host of other circumstances convinced me that I should plan on
leaving after that first year, but instead I resolved to do what I could to
change things. I learned of one situation that gave me hope: the
year before the faculty bowed its neck and demanded that some men’s basketball players
be dismissed from the program for shoplifting while on a trip to Alaska to play
in games. They were dismissed. This suggested to me that there was
momentum to change the priorities of the College and put the faculty in charge
of the governing of the institution. With the help of Levi Carlile (now Linfield economics
professor emeritus), I managed to move into a position of leadership for the
faculty and was able, with cooperation of President Bjork, to bring Linfield
into the modern world.”
Cornelius
H. Siemens was president of California’s Humboldt State
University, 1950-1973. He served as interim Linifeld president, 1974-1975,
after the presidency (1968-1974) of Gordon C. Bjork and before the (1975-1992) presidency
of Charles U. Walker. Siemens died in
1978 in California.
==“Corney Siemens was immensely popular
with the Linfield faculty during the one year he served as interim president
following the resignation of Gordon Bjork.
“I was chair of the
Faculty Executive Council for that year and he consulted with me regularly as
the College faced important decisions regarding who would be hired as the full
time president. He discussed every decision with me and relied on me to
pass the word on to the faculty. We tried to convince him to stay on
as a regular appointee to the presidency but he declined, saying that he was
dying of cancer. He discussed Charlie Walker's credentials and gave him a
very high rating for his hire. We interviewed Charlie and partly on the
basis of Corney's recommendation recommended to the Linfield Board of Trustees that
he be hired. Charlie proved to be exactly what Linfield needed and was a great
president. After Corney died in California, we mourned his death.”
Photo
of Vince Jacobs from 1972 Oak Leaves.
