George Fox University

George Fox University is a private Christian university in Newberg, Oregon. Founded as a school for Quakers in 1891, it is now the largest private university in Oregon with more than 4,000 students combined between its main campus in Newberg, its centers in Portland, and Redmond, and online. The main campus is near downtown Newberg, near the junction of Oregon Route 99W and Oregon Route 219. George Fox competes athletically at the NCAA Division III level in the Northwest Conference as the Bruins. The school colors are navy blue and old gold. The university is associated with the Evangelical Friends Church International. History The university was founded in Newberg, Oregon, in 1885 by Quaker pioneers, originally called Friends Pacific Academy for several years before becoming a college in 1891 as Pacific College. The Bruin mascot comes from a real bear cub found in 1887 in the Coast Range's foothills near Carlton, about west of Newberg. The cub's mother had been shot, and a Pacific Academy student found the cub and brought it back to campus. Years later, the bear hide became the senior class's unofficial mascot, and other students often attempted to steal it away. After the hide deteriorated, a leather replica was created and called Bruin Jr. Students today still participate in student-government-sponsored class competitions called "Bruin brawls" for possession of Bruin Jr. In 1893 the school was incorporated as a joint-stock company. It became a four-year school in 1925. Herbert Hoover's uncle H. J. Minthorn served as the school's first president, and Hoover was an early student at the academy. The school's name changed to George Fox College in 1949 to honor George Fox, the founder of the Quaker movement. From 1991 to 2010, George Fox provided each traditional undergraduate student with a computer. In 1996, the college merged with Western Evangelical Seminary to form George Fox University. Associate professor of biology Dwight Kimberly received the Carnegie Foundation's Oregon Professor of the Year award in 2000. Associate professor of theatre Rhett Luedtke was one of three faculty members nationally to receive a National Directing Fellow Award from the John F. Kennedy Center in 2010.