Frederic Stanley Dunn
Frederic Stanley Dunn | |
|---|---|
 Passport photo, 1918 | |
| Born | August 3, 1872 Eugene, Oregon |
| Died | January 7, 1937 Eugene, Oregon |
| Occupation | Professor of Classics |
| Known for | Scholarship on Julius Caesar and Roman coins; "Exalted Cyclops" of Eugene Klan No. 3, a Ku Klux Klan klavern |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | Harvard University |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Classics: Greek and Latin |
| Signature | |
 | |
Frederic Stanley Dunn[1] (August 3, 1872 – January 7, 1937) was an American scholar of classical studies on the faculty of the University of Oregon (UO), and a Ku Klux Klan leader. The spelling of his name varies; University of Oregon sources use the name "Frederick S. Dunn".
Early life and education
Born in Eugene, Oregon, on August 3, 1872, Dunn was the son of Francis Berrian Dunn and Christiann Cecilia (née Christian) Dunn.[2] He attended Eugene High School and received A.B. degrees from UO (1893) and Harvard University (1894); he earned A.M. degrees from UO (1898) and Harvard (1903).[2]
In 1895, he married Anna Maude Matthews in Carlton, Oregon. The couple had two children, Dorothy Gertrude, and Frederic Berrian.[3]
Career
From 1895 to 1898, Dunn was a professor of Greek and Latin at Willamette University. In the summer of 1898 he joined the faculty at the University of Oregon as an Assistant Professor of Latin. He became a full professor, at age 26, in 1898 upon the death of the senior faculty member, Prof. John Wesley Johnson.[3]
He took a leave of absence in 1902 and 1903 to accept the Austin Teaching Fellowship at Harvard while completing his A.M. degree.[3] According to historians David Alan Johnson, Quintard Taylor and Marsha Weisiger, in their 2016 report to the University:
Dunn resumed teaching duties at the University of Oregon and soon developed a regional and eventually national reputation as a classics scholar and over the course of his career published over 70 articles in scholarly journals, newspapers, and magazines... According to contemporary observers Dunn quickly became one of the best known university professors in the classics on the Pacific coast.[3]
Community and military service
Outside of academy, Dunn was active in the Masonic Order.
Dunn served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army towards the end of World War I, but did not see combat service. His military career began by drilling with students on the University campus, and he eventually became an assistant chief of staff for the Oregon training camp. In 1919, when he was 46 years old, he was ordered to Italy to serve with the Education Department of the Y.M.C.A.[3]
Ku Klux Klan
Dunn was the leader, or "Exalted Cyclops", of Eugene Klan No. 3, a Ku Klux Klan group ("klavern"). In the early 1920s the Klan was particularly powerful in Oregon, with some 35,000 members out of a population of 780,000.[3]
The Klan was very active in Eugene, where it had some success in removing Catholics from public office and teaching positions. In 1924, "on the day the National Democratic Party debated the anti-Klan plank during the national presidential campaign",[3] Eugene residents witnessed more than 400 Klansmen and -women parading to Skinner Butte, where they burned a cross as part of an initiation ritual. Dunn's membership was known at the University of Oregon, where the Klan also agitated, by 1922.[3]
Legacy
Dunn retired in 1935, having headed the Classics department for most of his 37-year tenure. He died on January 7, 1937. The University named a dormitory in his honor, part of the Hamilton Complex built in 1961, "Dunn Hall".
Demands by the Black Student Task Force in November 2015 led University President Michael Schill to commission three historians to report on racist beliefs and the Klan affiliation of Dunn and his fellow professor Matthew Deady.[4] In September 2016, following the report by Johnson, Taylor, and Weisiger on Dunn's history as a Klan leader, the University of Oregon removed Dunn's name from "Dunn Hall".[5] The Board of Trustees approved a resolution that began,
Whereas, Mr. Frederick S. Dunn was the head of an organization that supported racism, persecution and violence against Oregonians because of the color of their skin and religious beliefs; Whereas, because of his egregious actions and his leadership within the Ku Klux Klan, the university recommends removal of his name from the building with which it is associated...[6]
In 2017, the University Board renamed the dormitory after DeNorval Unthank Jr.,[7] a professor of architecture at the University of Oregon and the first African-American to earn an architecture degree at the University.
References
- ^ As spelled at: "Classics: Frederic Stanley Dunn". Willamette University. Retrieved 4 June 2017.
- ^ a b Harvard University. Class of 1894. Secretary; Harvard College (1780- ). Class of 1894 (1919). Twenty-fifth Anniversary Report, 1894-1919. Plimpton Press. pp. 119–121.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ a b c d e f g h Johnson, David Alan; Taylor, Quintard; Weisiger, Marsha. "Report on the History of Matthew P. Deady and Frederick S. Dunn" (PDF). University of Oregon. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
- ^ Schill, Michael (September 1, 2016). "Deady and Dunn Halls - next steps". president.uoregon.edu. Retrieved June 5, 2017.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|dead-url=(help) - ^ Monyak, Suzanne (9 September 2016). "University of Oregon Renames Dormitory Named After Ku Klux Klan Leader". Slate. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
- ^ KVAL (September 8, 2016). "University of Oregon strips name of former KKK leader from campus building". KVAL. Retrieved June 5, 2017.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|dead-url=(help) - ^ McDonald, Rachael. "UO Trustees Vote To Name Campus Building After Denorval Unthank, Jr". Retrieved June 2, 2017.
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