John Gurley Flook

[1] His mother, the former Sarah Durough, was the daughter of an Ohio pioneer with family lineage dating back to the Virginia colony.

[1] Flook's parents moved to the Midwestern state of Iowa in 1842, where they established themselves as farmers near the town of Farmington.

[1] John, Jr. finally left home in 1864, enlisting in Company A of the 1st Oregon Cavalry, mustered in Roseburg.

[1] He would only serve for a single two-year term in that office, but during that time he managed to make his mark as the author of the so-called "Flook bill,"[2] which established a state-owned land-grant agricultural college at Corvallis, now known as Oregon State University.

[1] Flook learned that the time to take advantage of this land grant was soon to expire and introduced legislation providing for the establishment of such a school in Corvallis.

[6] After his stint in the military, Flook returned home to the family farm in Douglas County.

[8] Flook was a member of the First Christian Church of Roseburg, serving on that institution's board of trustees and as superintendent of its Sunday school.