By Starla Pointer
McMinnville News-Register Staff Writer
March 27, 2015
Linfield loses lifelong
supporter Charlotte Filer
Charlotte Filer, who
inspired hundreds of students during her many years teaching journalism, died
Tuesday at a McMinnville retirement home. She was 83.
....
Photo cutline
Charlotte Filer stops to
smell the lilacs. Raised in Dayton, she taught journalism at Linfield College
for many years and was active in groups such as the Daughters of the American
Revolution. Submitted photo/Tom Barreto
.....
A memorial service is slated
for 11 a.m. Friday, April 17, at the Dayton Pioneer Evangelical Church. Burial
is planned in the Dayton Odd Fellows Cemetery under the direction of Macy &
Son Funeral Directors.
Filer graduated from
Linfield College, then returned to teach there. In addition to journalism, she
developed an abiding interest in history and genealogy. She was active in her
church and the Yamhill Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
“Charlotte was a beautiful
woman with a real sense of history,” said fellow DAR member Beverly Treneman.
Filer served as the local
DAR chapter’s historian, publicity chair and, most recently, chaplain.
Whatever she agreed to take
on was handled extremely well, Treneman said. “Charlotte was a little bitty
thing, but she was strong,” her friend said.
She was born to Emmett and
Lena Filer on March 7, 1932, in McMinnville.
She grew up in Dayton, where
her parents worked for, then owned, Miller’s Mercantile until 1945. It later
became Putt’s Market.
Filer followed her older
sister, Audrey, to Linfield.
In 2007, she recalled her
college days for a News-Register story about the Linfield Old Ladies, known as
LOL, who met regularly for coffee and conversation. She said the first class
she took on campus was a one-credit health course taught by Roy Helser in
Cozine Hall.
After graduating cum laude
in 1954 as a budding journalist, she went to work for the News-Register. In
later years, she would be a frequent contributor to the paper’s letters to the
editor section.
She returned to Linfield
when one of her professors, Jim Milligan, asked her to join the Linfield News
Bureau. She took a year off in 1960 to earn her master’s degree from the
University of Iowa, then returned to teach in Linfield’s journalism department.
In addition to
simultaneously teaching and directing the news bureau, Filer edited the
college’s alumni publication and served as faculty adviser for its yearbook,
student newspaper and Pi Delta Epsilon journalism honorary.
After 19 years at Linfield,
she left to become public information director at another small liberal arts
college, Pacific University in Forest Grove. Both Pacific and Linfield went on
to establish scholarships in her name.
Although she retired from
the Forest Grove school in 1989, she always remained “loyal to old Linfield.”
In keeping with that, she helped raise money for her alma mater through the
Partners in Progress campaign for many years.
Edith Reynolds of
McMinnville was a senior at Linfield when Filer enrolled. Later, they served on
the faculty together and became fast friends.
“There were not too many
young, single women on the faculty at that time,” Reynolds recalled.
Since neither had a 10
o’clock class, they made a habit of meeting for coffee at that time. They
continued their coffee get-togethers throughout the decades as part of the LOL
group and with other friends.
Filer, who described herself
as “thrifty,” always made sure to get her coffee card punched so she could get
the free cup she’d earned.
They even were in an investment club together, Reynolds said. “We didn’t
make any money,” she said, “but we had fun anyway.”
……….
McMINNVILLE NEWS-REGISTER
Go to
Then, search for Charlotte's name or Obituary 3423593
SALEM STATESMAN-JOURNAL
OREGONIAN
MACY & SON, McMINNVILLE
