Marina Bravo
Arts Editor
Part of the University of La Verne’s history and lore are the ghosts that wander the 134-year-old institution’s hallowed halls.
And with Halloween upon us, these ghost stories are taking center stage.
From Founders Hall being a ghost hot spot, to names like history professor Gladdys Muir, former audio-visual director, David Glasa, and an unclaimed cadaver to Dailey Theaters’ Jim Henderson – ULV has its share of ghostly legends. The tour stopped at four different locations with a total of eight different ghost stories told.
The honors society for history students and professors, Phi Alpha Theta, hosted a ghost tour on Oct. 24 followed by a dinner in the Hanawalt House. With about 20 students and alumni in attendance, graduate student, Phi Alpha Theta president and event coordinator Emma Cossey immersed guests on a historic and ghostly venture.
“I am definitely someone who is worn to the creepy kind of things,” Cossey said. “I just thought this would be a really fun opportunity for students to learn about some historical ghosts on campus.”
The tour began outside the Campus Center where Cossey explained each ghost and their stories would be told respectfully and only in a way to share the University’s unique history.
The very first story told was the one of Gladdys Muir.
The story goes that Muir was a history professor who fell down the east stairs of Founders Hall and who allegedly cracked her head open and died instantly, which led the infamous “do-not-touch” La Verne seal to be built.
Cossey explained how the popular campus ghost story has it wrong. She explained how Muir later died at the hospital and the seal was installed in the 1980s, about 20 years later.
“To be honest, most of the stories that I heard tonight, I did not know,” Kenneth Marcus, professor of history, said. “The only one that I did, was the one of Gladdys Muir. But I, like a lot of people, got the story wrong.”
Many guests knew of Muir as one of the things they learned about at their SOAR orientation.
“It’s very interesting how all this time the story of Gladdys Muir was wrong,” Evan Orozco, graduate student, said. “But I would still respect the tradition of not stepping on the seal.”
Inside of Founders Hall, in classroom 212, Cossey told the story of “Pablo” the University’s only cadaver applicant.
In 1922, a group of ULV anatomy students decided to take matters into their own hands and claim one of the many “John Does” from the Los Angeles Hospital. The students, knowing they didn’t have access to a human skeleton, brought the male remains to one of the classrooms in Founders Hall.
Only needing the skeleton, the group had to come up with a quick way to remove the skin of the body. Just for their project to be uncovered by a couple of nuns going classroom to classroom to uncover the source of an awful smell.
“The first ghost story I had ever heard, it’s not necessarily about the ghost, but it is about Pablo, from Dr. Ben Jenkins,” Cossey said. “I had done my community service hours working in the archive and that story was an exciting one.”
Another bone-chilling story was the one of former audio-visual director David Glasa, who drank a bottle of cyanide in his office later to be discovered by a custodian. His death was a surprise to many students and one of the stories that stuck for the rest of the tour.
Evan Lyons, a junior political science major, was taking the tour with his friend Maxwell Wilder, a junior history major at Cal Poly Pomona and they both shared how they love the paranormal. However, the story of Glasa was something the La Verne natives weren’t expecting.
“The origin of Pablo, the skeleton, was crazy but the story of David, that was a bit outlandish,” Lyons said.
“I think the incident with David Glasa was shocking,” Wilder said. “I feel like you don’t hear about that happening in that way very often.”
Then in the Dailey Theatre they learned about Jim Henderson, the student who was murdered in the Mojave Desert after going to film a school TV project.
The tour concluded at the Hanawalt House with Panda Express for dinner.
“I really enjoyed this event,” Lyons said. “I think most of the ghost stories were actually pretty fresh and new for me.”
The next ghost tour will happen Nov. 7 at 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Hanawalt House and it is open to students, faculty and community members,
Marina Bravo can be reached at marina.bravo@laverne.edu.
Marina Bravo is a senior communications major with a concentration in public relations. She is arts editor and a staff photographer for the Campus Times, and has previously served as a staff writer and photographer for the Campus Times and La Verne Magazine. She enjoys going to live shows and everything spooky.
