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Dr. Gary Huxford came to Oregon College of Education in 1961 after the completion of his M.A. degree from the University of Washington in 1959. He received his B.S. at Brigham Young University in 1957 and later received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 1963. Huxford left to join the faculty at Utah State University in 1966 but returned to Monmouth in 1969. Huxford taught American history for over twenty years, where he specialized in Colonial America and the American Revolution. He served as a visiting professor at Springfield College in Massachusetts in 1975 where he had the opportunity to spend America’s bicentennial year near the scenes of the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War.

While a professor at Western Oregon, Huxford served on the Inter-institutional Faculty Senate (1973-1975), chaired the Chancellor's Task Force on investigate grievances at Eastern Oregon State College in 1978, served as chairman of the President's Advisory Committee, served as the president of the Faculty Senate from 1972-1973 and later as the president of the Western Oregon State College Federation of Teachers. Huxford was honored as Western’s Faculty Member of the Year in 1993. Huxford retired from Western Oregon State College in 1994 before publishing Since 1856. . . Historical Views of the College at Monmouth in 1995.

Dr. Gary Huxford's manuscript contains three titles in one publication: Book I: The OCE Story, by Ellis A. Stebbins previously published in 1973; Book II: Staying Alive-From OCE to WOSC, which contains new information by Gary Huxford; and Book III: More Personal Voices. Stebbins, a former Dean of Administration and Interim President, wrote the history of the college from its beginning to the early 1960s. In the fall of 1993, President Meyers approached the History Department looking for someone to write a sequel to Stebbins' book. Huxford took on the role of writing the sequel in the midst of retirement. Huxford's addition begins with the Leonard Rice administration in 1962 and ends with the 1994 resignation of Meyers.