On December 18, 1979, the former boyfriend of a resident of WSU’s Perham Hall came to WSU and demanded to see his girlfriend. When she proved unavailable, the man detonated an explosive on Perham’s fifth floor, killing himself, injuring two police officers, and causing significant damage to the floor.
The collection consists of miscellaneous documents created in the few months after the explosion and retained in WSU Housing Offices. They primarily consist of newspaper clippings, documentation of damaged items, and “thank you” letters, and well as a small set of other items.
The collection is organized into subject files, arranged alphabetically.
This collection is open and available for research use.
Copyright restrictions apply.
[Item Description] Housing and Residence Life Perham Hall Bombing Files, 1979-1980 (Archives 362)
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
The files in this collection were transferred to the Washington State University Libraries’ Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections on May 23rd, 2016 from WSU’s Housing and Residence Life, and retained as UA 2016-06.
The papers were processed by University Archivist Mark O’English in June of 2016.
Other places where documents related to the Perham bombing can be found include President Glenn Terrell’s Papers (Archives 207, Box 5, Folder 241); Resident Living Department Papers (Archives 252, Box 3, Folders 74-75); and the Hilltopics Photographs Collection (PC 123, Box 14, Folder 1). Smaller set of records exist in other places as well.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.