Will The Real Vera Stand Up?

Pacific University is haunted. Many ways over. But perhaps the most famous ghost of all is Vera, who, if we are to believe the stories, has been living rent-free in Knight Hall (also known as the admissions office) for nearly a century.

The story that current admissions staff share is that Vera, a young student, was looking out the window from the third story of Knight Hall when she spotted her boyfriend fancying another girl; distraught, Vera stormed down the stairs, tripped, broke her neck, and died—and has since haunted the building and the campus. The colorful stained-glass window that Vera was looking through is known as “Vera’s Window,” and allegedly, unusual light has been seen illuminating the window after hours.

   It is one of many stories—and, over the years, tales of Vera have passed around Pacific; some details are agreed upon and others unknown—like, it is agreed that Vera has close ties with the music department and Knight Hall; the two locations where the vast majority of interactions with Vera are said to have occurred.

   But who exactly is Vera remains mysterious. Over the years, students and staff have tried to connect with the ghost; but those only have clouded the truth further. According to one report, a seance was held with a Ouija board in 1969, and a spirit communicated with the students, saying her name was “Vera Herrick” and she had been an Indian student at the university from 1883 to 1887; the same period when her alleged father, the Reverend John Herrick, was president of Pacific. (No records show the Rev. Herrick had a daughter named Vera.)

   Another seance, mentioned in an article published in the Pacific Index in 1981, suggest that she was 18 years old when she died, and that her death was the result of a gunshot wound. A decade or so ago, researchers from the library archive department attempted to locate a woman with the name of Vera in school records; they did pinpoint a Vera Carolyn Jackson from Hood River, who was a music student, and attended the university in 1902 to 1904.

A BELIEVER

   Jeff Grundon, Senior Associate Director of Admissions from Hawaii, has worked at Pacific for almost 42 years and said he had had over 50 interactions with Vera since moving into an office in Knight Hall in the early 90s. Also known as “Uncle Jeff,” he graduated from Pacific University in 1980.

   According to Uncle Jeff, after a spate of incidents, the staff brought in a group of paranormal psychologists during the early 90s. That team heard footsteps; witnessed flyers flying off walls, doors shutting by themselves—and then resistance reopening those same doors; and temperatures throughout the building changing drastically. According to the paranormal psychologist findings, Knight Hall has three entities in the building: Vera, another spirit not named, and a poltergeist.

Vera was said to be a powerful and good spirit that kept the other two spirits from the building. Likewise, Uncle Jeff spoke defensively about Vera’s character and personality, describing her as friendly, playful, and full of mischief.

   Yet, although Vera has kept the other spirits at bay, the admissions office staff does share a story when three bins of papers flew off a shelf, landing, thump-thump-thump, just inches away from a former colleague. They decidedly attribute that event to the poltergeist.

   Uncle Jeff recalls his first experience with Vera vividly. On July 7, 1993, in the evening, he was putting a lamp together in his colleague’s office when he felt someone watching him. Suddenly, his neck hairs all stood straight, and a wave of coldness hit; Uncle Jeff spun around to no one, just a blank wall. Abruptly, he left to a different room when he heard the door bottom scratching at the floor as it closed.

   “As I had my back to the door, the door started closing; the bell did not ring, but when I turned around, the door stopped,” he explained. “Then I went to open it to pull it and put it back; I couldn’t just open it; I had to yank it.”

   That first event did not turn Jeff into a Vera ghost believer. That belief grew slowly over time, then solidified, with unusual events happening too frequently to deny Vera’s presence. Uncle Jeff kept tabs on all his moves to validate any strange occurrence; like lights, water, and fans abruptly turning on, and the faint female laugh arosing from the basement below.

   The most recent occurrence of Vera happened in the spring of 2019; Uncle Jeff was making phone calls from his office on the second floor to congratulate students on their acceptance to the college when he saw Vera in physical form.

   “As I am looking out the window, getting ready to dial, in the reflection, I see this blue form, not walking but floating right past my door,” calmy said Uncle Jeff. “I shut my computer down, didn’t even call that student, and did not shut the lights off until I got to the end of the hallway and left.”

   After years of never being afraid of Vera, she had officially shaken Uncle Jeff. Yet, he still talks confident of Vera, and says he knows she is a cordial guest.

AN EERIE SONG

   Outside of Knight Hall, in the summer of 2018, on June 18, another faculty member witnessed strange activity he could not explain. While doing his nightly campus rounds, Officer Jeff Carr was locking up Taylor Meade when a sad love song on the piano caught echoed from the auditorium.

   “I had already gone through the building and determined that nobody was in the building; I was in the booth, and I shut off all the lights and armed the alarm in the booth; there was no music playing,” said Officer Carr. “I exited the booth to the Foyer to enter my notes into my book, and then I heard the music; I thought somebody maybe come in later, and to my surprise, the piano was playing, but nobody was sitting at it.”

   Officer Carr pulled out his phone, video-taped the song, and left. Since that night, Officer Carr has searched high and low to find out what song was being played, but has been unsuccessful. Since Vera allegedly died heart-broken and has ties with the music department, Officer Car feels that the piano had a good chance of being occupied by Vera that night.

   “If that song is about being cheated on, then in my mind, it is 100 percent, Vera, because that is how she allegedly died,” assured Officer Car.

ASK THE PRESIDENT

   Fifteen years ago, University President Jenny Coyle was on the second floor of Knight Hall conducting an interview when the meeting was interrupted.

   “About 15 minutes into the meeting,” she explains, “all of the drawers in a beautiful old chest of drawers in the room opened up suddenly, by themselves, all at once, and there was no other disruption in the room. It didn’t shake from an earthquake, no wind or breeze, not big truck suddenly passing by the window. All the drawers, at least two maybe three or four, opened at once,” exclaimed President Coyle. “The occupant of the office was also in there and said that had never happened before.”

   President Coyle said after a moment of being stunned, they pushed the doors back in place and went on with the interview. This incident is similar to many other stories at Pacific University, just harmless and playful. Whether you believe in Vera the ghost or not, an extensive amount of ghost stories float around Forest Grove and Pacific University.

   Happy Halloween everyone! — Emily Rutkowski