| Penitentiary Employees Honor Fallen Comrades |
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, March 27, 2000
Penitentiary Employees Honor Fallen Comrades
At 2:30 p.m. today, Oregon State Penitentiary dedicates a memorial to its
employees killed in the line of duty. Eight staff have been killed in the Penitentiary’s
134 year history. The memorial is located in a garden area outside the
Penitentiary’s administration building.
The etched stone memorial honors:
• Officers Frank Ferrell, S.R.T. Jones and B.T. Tiffany, shot by inmates during
an escape in 1902;
• Superintendent Henry P. Minto, shot in 1916 by an escaped convict he was
pursuing north of Albany;
• Officers James M. Holman and Jay Sweeney were shot in 1925 during a riot
and subsequent escape;
• Officer Alvin Schmitt was fatally stabbed in 1969 by an escaping inmate;
• Lieutenant Robert Geer was stabbed in 1972 while trying to calm an inmate
in the aftermath of a fight.
Randy Geer, son of Lt. Geer and a respected DOC administrator in his own right,
will deliver the keynote address. The memorial will be unveiled by DOC’s Honor Guard.
The memorial is the result of the research and initial efforts of OSP Corporal Don
Peterson. With the go-ahead of Superintendent Joan Palmateer, an employee
committee ran with the idea, designing the memorial and holding fund raisers to pay
for it. The memorial cost $3,500.00, all of it funded by these activities and donations
from various Penitentiary employee organizations.
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last revision 3-27-2000 peg cook
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