This unassuming maple outside Peterson Hall has a complicated history. It was planted last year in memory of Corazon Aquino, the heroine of the People Power Movement that toppled Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.
In fact, this is the third such tree planted on campus in her honor; the first two perished in their location close to Collier House.
Last April, history professor Glenn May wrote a commentary for The Register-Guard describing his role in persuading Aquino to come to campus in 1995 to deliver the commencement address and receive the first honorary degree conferred by the University of Oregon in fifty years, at which time the first tree was planted. He then goes on to detail “the saga of the Cory tree,” as he calls it. Read a reprint of Professor May’s article .
Photo by Katie Campbell
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Three’s a charm for a living memorial.