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Joseph Emery

Joseph Emery served as the acting president and head of faculty in the summer of 1872 from the time of William A. Finley's departure in June until Benjamin L. Arnold arrived in September.  During his incumbency, Emery submitted the college's first Biennial Report to the governor for the period of 1870-1872.

Joseph Emery was born on June 2, 1833 in Pennsylvania.  In 1867 Emery joined his brother-in-law, William A. Finley, at Corvallis College, where he taught mathematics, physics, geology, and physiology for eighteen years (1867-1885). Like Finley, Emery was an ordained minister. After Benjamin Arnold accepted the presidency, Emery resumed his faculty duties, helped to raise funds to purchase the original lands for the campus, and served on the college's Board of Trustees.  In 1885 Emery left Corvallis to become an agent for the U.S. Indian Agency near the Klamath Reservation.  He died in Salinas, California on January 18, 1924 at age 90.

Related Resources: Joseph Emery Lecture Notebook, Board of Trustees Records, Memorabilia Collection.

 

 

 

 

 

Black and white photographic portrait of Joseph Emery.

Joseph Emery, 1885.

Sample of the Joseph Emery Lecture Notebook.

Sample of the Joseph Emery Lecture Notebook, ca. 1872.