Lewis & Clark College

Hilken, Virginia (1952)

Virginia Wion Hilken grew up in Gresham, Oregon, and attended Gresham Union high school. She came to Lewis & Clark College in 1948, graduating with the class of 1952. Despite growing up in a small farming community, she always planned to attend college and wanted to develop skills to be self-sufficient. At Lewis & Clark she was a member of the Alpha Gamma sorority, the service club, the pep club, and she participated in many drama productions. She majored in Secondary Education with an emphasis in Home Economics as well as Speech & Drama. She, like many other students at the time, lived off-campus and had to commute to school. Because she lived off campus, she loved to participate in the sorority and fraternity events that she helped to plan because of the sense of community it gave her on campus. She particularly loved planning and attending school dances. She met her husband, Bob Hilken, her first year at Lewis & Clark and they began dating between her sophomore and junior year. They waited until they both graduated to be married and had their wedding reception in the Frank Manor House. After graduating, because Bob was signed up to be in the Reserve Officer’s Corps, they traveled to California and then New Jersey for his training during the Korean War. While moving to different areas, Virginia worked as a substitute teacher in private schools. They eventually moved back to Portland where she raised their children and has lived ever since.

Oral history interview of Lewis & Clark alumnus Virginia Wion Hilken, conducted by Olivia Davis on March 16, 2014. History Department, Spring Semester, 2014.

Oral History

Lewis & Clark College

20140316

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Lewis & Clark College: Oral History Project