Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Fall 2015

Keywords

Charles H. Fisher, Frank I. Sefrit, Western Washington College of Education, Bellingham Herald

Abstract

The most intriguing find in recently discovered documents about the firing of Charles H. Fisher from Western Washington College of Education, now Western Washington University, is the only known copy of a typed transcript of a remarkable, closed-door Board of Trustees meeting on May 22, 1935. That evening, Bellingham Herald manager and editor Frank Sefrit and a half-dozen other accusers met Fisher and the three-member college Board of Trustees face to face to lay out accusations against the popular president. These proceedings, until now only known to participants, took on the air of a trial, and were documented word-for-word by a court stenographer hired by Sefrit. The resulting typed transcript, lost to history for 75 years, reads like a screenplay for a tense courtroom drama. Essentially on trial, alongside Fisher, were what we now consider to be core tenets of liberal-arts education.

Publication Title

Window

Volume

Fall/Winter 2015

Required Publisher's Statement

Window is the magazine of Western Washington University

http://window.wwu.edu/

Subjects - Topical (LCSH)

College presidents--Dismissal of; Idealism--Education (Continuing education); Subversive activities--Bellingham (Wash.)

Subjects - Names (LCNAF)

Fisher, Charles Henry, 1880-1964; Sefrit, Frank I, 1867-1950; Western Washington College of Education; Bellingham Herald (Firm)

Geographic Coverage

Bellingham (Wash.)

Genre/Form

articles

Type

Text

Language

English

Format

application/pdf

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