A $125 Doctorate: Bellingham's Normal School Principal on Trial
Sixteen charges — misapplied funds, incompetence and a mail-order Ph.D. — land the best-known educator in the Northwest before a governor-ordered hearing.
Bellingham — The hearing of charges of misapplication of funds, charlatanry in securing the degree of Ph.D., and general incompetency against E. T. Mathes, head of the Washington State Normal School, began here Saturday afternoon. The charges are 16 in number, and the investigation was ordered by Acting Governor Hay. Mathes is one of the best-known educators of the Northwest and has been principal of the school since its establishment. Evidence was produced to show that he purchased his degree from an Eastern university for $125.
“Evidence was produced to show that he purchased his degree from an Eastern university for $125.”
A state normal school principal accused of buying his credentials for $125 is an ancestor of every modern diploma-mill and résumé-fraud scandal. What is striking is that the inquiry was ordered from the governor's office — the same public accounting that Bellingham's institution, now Western Washington University, is still subject to. The accused was one of the region's most respected educators, which is exactly why the story traveled.
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