Stories & Recollections
The symbol of Boxer means a variety of things depending on who you ask. On this page are just a sample of the wealth of Pacific students' and staff's stories involving Boxer:
Margaret Hinman (1891): In the late 1940s/early 1950s, Boxer was a guest at a Philo sorority May Day breakfast. One Philo recalled, "Miss Margaret Hinman, class of 1891, just screamed when she Boxer come in, and tears streamed down her face and her hands just shook! Boxer was put on the table in front of her, and the tears just streamed, and soon everyone else was getting tearful. All of us were allowed to go over and touch the dog." from Pacific Today (Winter 1976).
James Tumbleson (1929) - had a part in flashing Boxer from an airplane. He remembers that the late Mrs. Harry Giltner of Forest Grove allowed Boxer to be hidden many times in her home. At one time President Dobbs asked Tumbleson and his friends to loan Boxer to him for the faculty dinner at his home. The president guaranteed "the safety of the Dog at the door."
Al Lemcke (1936) - In the mid-1930s Al Lemcke '36, of Vancouver, Washington, was one of a group of Pacific students who obtained Boxer from an alumnus school teacher in Clatskanie without the teacher knowing Boxer was gone. The group took Boxer to the Oregonian office in Portland where the late L.H. Gregory '10, long-time Oregonian sports editor, wrote a story and had a photo taken for the next day's Oregonian. The school teacher in Clatskanie was shocked when he read the Oregonian that morning. He thought Boxer was still safely stored in his car.
Alice Hoskins (1956) - of Forest Grove and formerly a Pacific staff member remembered a weekend in the early 1950s when she went home to Vernonia and was so disappointed when she came back to campus to learn that she had missed a Boxer flash. Within a few minutes, however, she found that the large overstuffed chair she was sitting on had Boxer stuffed under the big pillow.
Pete Truax (1969): "Nobody knew how Boxer would arrive...but when an automobile entered the main campus driveway, the crowd braced itself for the big moment. As it turned the corner into the Marsh Hall parking lot, the gathering broke into polite laughter. It was just Mrs. Myrtle Smith, former dean of women and widow of Dr. D. Otis Smith, the long-time head of the department of history. With her was Mrs. Russell Roberts, wife of the department of English chairman. The two elderly ladies circled the lot in apparent confusion, to the continued entertainment of the students. But suddenly the automobile stopped and out of the trunk jumped Gamma Sigma President Pete Truax '69 with Boxer." - Pacific Today (Summer 1968).
Bruce Fleskes (1987) - It was one of Alice Hoskins' sons, Bruce Fleskes '87, who cut the new Boxer from a tree on campus where he had been mysteriously chained. This was the first general appearance on campus of the "new Boxer."
(Stories courtesy of Pacific Today's Charlotte Filer)