George and Doris Odgers

Wedding Outfits

Rev. Dr. George Allen Odgers was born in Nebraska to Leona Varney Odgers and Richard Henry Odgers, both Quakers. George grew up in Davenport, Washington and attended Willamette University in Salem, Oregon in 1912. He transferred to the University of Nebraska two years later, graduating with the class of 1916. While attending the University of Nebraska he met Doris Slater, a journalism student who also graduated in 1916. She was a member of multiple honor societies and was on staff for the Cornhusker and Daily Nebraskan. George became principal of the Calcutta Boys’ School in India. George and Doris wore this ensemble when they married April 25, 1919 at the Thoburn Memorial Church of Calcutta.

George's Wedding Suit

Doris's Wedding Gown

Bride's Gown and Ensemble

Doris contributed to the Y.W.C.A.’s publication of the Women’s Outlook and to the Indian Witness while George was the principal of the Calcutta Boys’ School from 1918 to 1923. There Doris gave birth to their daughter, Charlotte Henrietta. After a year's furlough in the United States the family returned to India, where George became principal of the M. E. Boys' High School in Paukaur, Bikar, India.

Center pattern (Fig. 8044D) used to make Doris's wedding dress.

Shoes

Gloves

Long Ceremony Gloves

George was awarded Masters from the University of Washington and the University of Hawaii, and a doctorate from Stanford. He was a faculty member with the Kamehameha schools in Honolulu and a lecturer at the the University of Hawaii while Doris taught classes in Journalism at the Central Junior High School. There is still a Doris Slater Odgers Memorial Scholarship awarded in Doris's honor at the University of Nebraska.

The Odgers' had four more children: Aljeanne Elizabeth, Harriet Louise, George Allen Jr., and Richard Varney Odgers. Aljeanne passed away as an infant.

Groom's Suit

George opened discussion at the annual Association of Independent Colleges of Oregon in May of 1935 at Pacific College. At the time he worked for Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon. Later that year he became president of Gooding College in Idaho. He was a dean at the Oregon Institute of Technology in 1936 when Doris passed away.

In 1937 George married Cora Marie Wilhemenia Christiansen at the First Congregational Church in Portland. He served congregations as a Methodist Episcopal minister in Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and Washington before retiring to Friendsview Manor, just across the street from George Fox where he spoke in 1935.

Front of George's Wedding Suit

Reverse of George's Wedding Suit

College's Bicentennial tree is officially planted by (left to right) donor, Dr. George Odgers, Newberg Bicentennial Chairwoman Jean Harris, Mrs. Odgers, Campus Bicentennial Chairman Ralph Beebe, GFC President David Le Shana and class of 1976 President Dan Rowell.

The Odgers' donated and planted a Dawn Redwood tree across from the tennis courts on the George Fox campus in celebration of America's Bicentennial.

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