These plaques inspired
McMinnville's Ruben Contreras Jr., Linfield grad, and Ez Koch, Linfield
partisan, to have a monument on the Linfield College campus honoring when (June
10, 1922) McMinnville College became Linfield.
In the year 1994, their
idea of a monument on the college's campus became reality.
Thanks to Contreras' work
with Linfield Archives two pages from the Linfield Review student newspaper's
June 18, 1922, edition were etched on a large metal plaque. In the pages
college President Leonard Riley is quoted saying June 10, 1922, was a "red
letter day" in the college's history.
The plaque is inset on a
large basalt rock outside Melrose Hall between the walkways in the academic
quad.
With this text are photos of
the plaque taken Nov. 30, 2019, by Wildcatville.
Postscript:
On 11/29/2019 Contreras
posted on Facebook about the impeding name change (likely 7/1/2020) from
Linfield College to Linfield University. He said, “… please don't move the
historical monument rock with inset bronze reproduction of a 1922 Linfield
Review between Melrose and Riley that marks the last school name change
becoming Linfield. Ezra Koch and I placed it there with the approval of the
last two of three members of the Class of 1922, who officially presented it
about 25 years ago.”
