Apply Now!Joseph W. Hungate joined the college in 1905. He had graduated from Washington State College in Pullman, had two years teaching experience in Walla Walla, and completed a M.S. at Cornell in 1910. A scholar of great breadth of interest and an activist whose influence helped shape the college and Cheney community, he was to dominate the biological sciences for 46 years.
A secondary school and teacher training institution in his early years completed (80% of its students women) Cheney Normal's biology began with a decidedly practical orientation. The Normal School's mandate was to train teachers for an agricultural empire, and Hungate's first responsibility was to a department of agriculture. Interest in agriculture was widespread and in the early years of the century it was felt that all students should be able to work with their hands. Since most teachers trained at the Normal School could expect a rural school position, they might be asked to teach agriculture regardless of their specialty. Course subjects in 1912 mirrored this emphasis, as did equipment and facilities. Incubators, a chicken colony of 200 hens, and a school garden were permanent teaching resources of the department. A flour mill was used jointly with domestic science. Manual training was increasingly important as the equipment and facilities needed by agriculture increased, and a close relationship developed between the two areas, the manual training students usually taking agriculture. Finding enough young men to enter the department (and build chicken coops) was important and not always easy.
J. W. Hungate's influence was not confined to the Department of Applied Science. Just as he was able to combine courses in one lab, he could combine community activity with teaching. A dedicated scout master who received scouting's highest award, the Silver Beaver, before he retired, he introduced a course in Boy Scout Leadership to the Applied Science curriculum (1924) and taught it for many years. He served on the Cheney City Council and as a training officer during World War I.
With his wife and family, Hungate moved into Sutton Hall as director in 1929. (This building was named after his good friend and hunting companion, Senator Sutton, previously principal of Cheney Normal, whose estate would figure again in the Biology Department history 40 years later). His son recalls:
"My three older brothers had already left home so that only John and I were there. My mother managed the dining room and Father was manager of the men's hall. I suppose that having five boys in the family made it seem appropriate for them to serve as managers. In fact, there were many incidents associated with life in Sutton Hall which were notable, including having to smooth the waters after a pair of students dropped a bag of water on President Hargreaves as he walked out the front door of the Hall! There was also an occasion when several of the leaders in the Hall were attending a dance at Four Lakes and became involved in quite a brawl. This became known and discussed at the time as 'The Second Battle of Four Lakes'. (The first was, of course, the well-known Indian vs. cavalry battle.) (F. Hungate)
Hungate was active in the committee structure of the college as well, sometimes sitting on as many as five committees at one time (1928-29) and was a sought-after guest lecturer on many subjects. He was elected secretary-treasurer of the Northwest Scientific Association, which he helped to found, and managed the artist-lecture series for years.
The college gardens, located next to Tawanka Commons where the maintenance building is now, was the responsibility of Hungate and Mr. Tobler who was supervisor of gardens and grounds. The two of them brought numerous tree seedlings from the Priest Lake area, where the Hungates had a home. Many of the large firs and spruces on campus today were planted in this way, including the ones on the president's lawn (F. Hungate, Phillips).
Not only scholarly but human, Hungate was not above spending the night in the domestic science room making candy for the state legislature when it overruled the governor's veto of Normal School appropriations in 1913, or writing a song in commemoration of the event (Dryden, p. 114). When the main school building burned in 1912, Hungate was instrumental in convincing President Showalter to keep the school operating, and in organizing townspeople, churches and homes to make that possible (Dryden, p. 106).
"His sartorially correct suit, white shirt and matching tie and pocket handkerchief was so characteristic that I was quite surprised when I saw him dressed for a field trip in khaki trousers, field boots, an open-necked shirt and a bright red tam-o-shanter," recalled a student (Tibbetts).
"Mr. Hungate taught bird study," remembers a colleague. "He was a track man in college so the bird hikes were real early morning workouts." (Phillips)
In fact, remembers son, Frank Hungate, he was famous for the rigor of those hikes, and students were likely to remember them for many years.
"His training as a naturalist made Hungate a mine of information and he was rarely mistaken," according to a member of his ornithology class. "I do recall, however, an ornithology field trip on April 1, 1949, during which he came very close to misidentifying a bird. As we walked through a brushy swale near Four Lakes J.W. cocked his head, stopped stock still with a quizzical look on his face. As he stealthily approached a clump of bushes where a bird was singing he said, 'It sounds like a chestnut-sided warbler, but that's an eastern bird.' Upon coming closer he saw that the 'bird' was a student crouched down, blowing on a tin bird whistle. The class broke out laughing and Hungate took the joke graciously. I don't recall what grade the student whistler got in class." (Tibbetts).
"His bacteriology course was considered the most rigorous in the Biology Department. It was rumored that the only person to ever receive an A was J.W.'s son, who later became a well known microbiologist. (I was very happy with my B!). I enjoyed the class very much, partly because the lab was located in the southwest corner of Showalter Hall's first floor; the large windows provided an excellent view of the girls walking to and from Senior Hall. Hungate's philosophy in the lab was to turn us loose to collect our own samples from which we cultured bacteria. Consequently we made "field trips" to ice cream parlors and the Cheney creamery for dairy products, Bill's tavern to study fermentation products first hand, and the city's sewage treatment plant. On this last excursion another student climbed the fence while I held the sample bottles (and my nose). (Tibbitts).
In 1951 J.W. Hungate retired. He had presided over the coming of age of an important segment of the academic community. He had collected plants, studied birds, applied scientific method to agriculture and inspired two generations of students. He retired just as biology and science came to a new intellectural era.
In 1953 the structure of DNA was discovered and in 1957 the Russians launched Sputnik.
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