On Tuesday night, 26-year-old Chrisopher McMorran took the oath of office to begin a term as the mayor of Philomath.
With McMorran serving in the position beginning in 2025, we decided to go back a quarter century at a time through the city’s history to take a look at past mayors — 25 years ago (2000), 50 years ago (1975), 75 years ago (1950), 100 years ago (1925) and 125 years ago (1900).
New mayor stresses importance of community engagement
Seen off to one side of the Moreland Gallery stage Tuesday was an easel with a blank canvas on display. The visual served as a backdrop to comments by Philomath Mayor Christopher McMorran on an evening when he and three councilors were sworn in. “We’re starting today with a blank canvas — an incredible opportunity…
1. Van O. Hunsaker (2000)
Hunsaker, longtime Oregon State University employee, was serving in the position of mayor at the turn of the century and was in the position for eight years in all — 1991-94 and 1997-2000.
In the 1990 election, Hunsaker defeated William Gates and then ran unopposed in 1992. After not running in 1994, Hunsaker returned to the ballot in 1996 and defeated Maggie Sweetin and Jeffrey Lamb. He ran unopposed in 1998 for what would be his final term. He did run in 2002 but lost to Chris Nusbaum. A bike and pedestrian path at Newton Creek Park was named in his honor in 2006. Hunsaker still lives in Philomath.
2. Martin J. Hoffman (1975)
Hoffman served as Philomath’s mayor from 1971-77. A lawyer by profession, he later became a municipal court judge.
Hoffman was born in Metolius, a small town north of Redmond, and grew up in Hermiston and Kalama, Washington. He went to the University of Oregon and Willamette University Law School. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. For most of his career, Hoffman worked in Philomath as a tax and estate attorney. He died in 1998.
3. Clifford F. Gee (1950)
Gee served as mayor of Philomath for a total of 12 years and in 1950, he had been in the position for a decade. He was the city’s mayor from 1941-52 and then again in 1963-64.
Gee worked as a logger and came to Philomath in 1916, living here for more than 70 years. He headed up the logging operations for Rex Clemens for several years as foreman and later owned Gee Logging. He was also very active in the Moose Lodge. He died in 1987.
4. Edwin C. Golden (1925)
Golden had to have been one of the longest-serving mayors in the city’s history with 20 years in the position.
Born in Massachusetts, he lived in Iowa and Nebraska before coming to Oregon in 1896. He worked as a pharmacist for 60 years — 26 of those in Philomath where he operated a drug store. Golden lived to be 99 years old — he died in 1967 in Albany.
5. Robert O. Loggan (1900)
Loggan won re-election to the position of mayor in a December 1899 election. His popularity could be seen in the results with Loggan winning 73 of 80 votes. In fact, the entire City Council remained intact in that election by an almost unanimous vote.
Loggan was an Iowa-born pioneer who came west in 1889 and settled at Philomath. He was a doctor in the community for 41 years. In 1900, Loggan was also on the school’s board of directors. He died in 1930.
(Brad Fuqua is publisher/editor of the Philomath News. He can be reached at News@PhilomathNews.com).