in Oregon. By 1920, the school had grown to five buildings on 30 acres (12.1 ha) and had an endowment of about $250,000.
Marsh Hall was gutted by fire in 1975, but its shell was preserved, and the structure reopened in 1977. Phillip D. Creighton became Pacific's 16th president in 2003 and retired in 2009. Tommy Thayer, lead guitarist of the band KISS, was elected to the university's board of trustees in 2005. Pacific's 17th president, Lesley M. Hallick, was named on May 19, 2009. She retired in 2022.
On February 9, 2022, Jenny Coyle was named the 18th president of Pacific University. She is the first alumnus to serve as president, having earned her bachelor's degree, master's degree and Doctor of Optometry from the university. Coyle previously served as a faculty member and dean of Pacific's College of Optometry.
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In 1896, alumnus J.E. Walker, who had been a missionary to China, and his mother gave the university a bronze Chinese statue. Qilin (pronounced chee-lin or ki-rin) is a mythical Chinese …
