John Gurley Flook

John Gurley Flook (1839-1926) was a pioneer to the Oregon Territory and an American politician. Flook is best remembered as a member of the Oregon State Legislature who sponsored the bill establishing Oregon Agricultural College in Corvallis, Oregon — today's Oregon State University.

Biography

Early years

John Gurley Flook was born August 12, 1839 in Clermont County, Ohio. Flook's father, John Flook, Sr., was an immigrant born in Baden, then a sovereign country which joined the German empire only in 1871. His mother, the former Sarah Durough, was the daughter of an Ohio pioneer with family lineage dating back to the Virginia colony.

Political career

In 1868, while still a resident of Douglas County, Flook was elected to the Oregon State Legislature on the ticket of the Republican Party. He would only serve for a single two-year term in that office, but during that time he managed to make his mark as the author of the so-called "Flook bill," which established a state-owned land-grant agricultural college at Corvallis.

It should be noted that Flook's legislation did not create a university in Corvallis from thin air. As early as 1851 the legislature of the Oregon Territory passed a bill establishing a territorial university in the town of Marysville, a small enclave in the Willamette Valley renamed Corvallis in December of 1853. It was not until 1856 that the Corvallis Academy — the first post-secondary school in the area — was established, however. This school was incorporated and rechristened as Corvallis College in 1858.

Death and legacy

John G. Flook died January 24, 1926 at his home in Corvallis. He was buried in a cemetery located in his former home town of Roseburg. He was 86 years old at the time of his death.