School Spirits

On a chilly fall morning, when the leaves drop golden and burnished from the trees and the mist is drifting up from Mirror Lake, a lady can sometimes be seen gliding over the water. She skates, her long pink dress floating around her, in a dreamy silence that separates the living from the dead.

Or so the story goes...

The Lady of the Lake is just one of the many ghost stories that have attached themselves to Ohio State's Columbus campus. Pomerene Hall, Oxley Hall, Hopkins Hall, the Ohio Union- all have had tales which change with each new generation of occupants- and with each telling- but the ghostly lore persists.

The Lady of the Lake

"The most famous one is the Lady of the Lake," says Bill Wahl, retired manager of Ohio State's Visitor and Parent Relations and the Parent's Association. Wahl has become an unofficial collector of campus stories since he began giving ghostly tours during parents weekends in the early 1990s.

"For about 18 years, I was director of the University campus tour program, and in that capacity I learned about every building and over the years collected these stories," he says. "Probably all of this is hearsay, but probably there's some basis in reality somewhere."

Wahl likes to tell the story behind the Lady of the Lake. "That one kind of goes back to a Professor Clark. He got involved in a deal of some sort selling stocks and bonds for an oil exploration in Alaska and he asked a bunch of folks in Columbus, including faculty, to invest," Wahl says.

The venture failed, and when the professor returned to campus, he was despondent because he felt he had let down everyone who had invested with him.

"He ended up going to Dr. William Oxley Thompson and saying, 'I don't feel good about myself and I feel like taking my life.' Eventually, he went up on a hill to a garden where Pomerene Hall is today, at 12th and Neil avenues. He went there sometime before dawn, around this time of year, and put a revolver to his head.

"A student who went to gather vegetables found him. The Lady of the Lake story comes from his wife asking the University to help her husband," Wahl says. "She was very bitter and vowed to never let the University rest. Shortly after her death in the 1920s, students started noticing in the early morning a woman in an antebellum outfit floating across the lake."

Wahl suggests watching for her from the north side of the lake, looking toward Pomerene. "I think around 1980 was the last real sighting students had," he says.

Greetings and footsteps

The Lady of the Lake may not have been spotted for several years now, but staff who work in Pomerene Hall today have several stories to share of unusual occurrences.

Ann Yurcisin, director of the Office of Disability Services, which is housed in Pomerene, attests to a "presence" in the building. She and her colleagues good-naturedly share their work space with a ghost known as the Pink Lady- who may or may not be the same woman who glides across the lake.

"I've been told that the Pink Lady is a polter-tech-geist," Yurcisin says.

Her department uses computers with adaptive technology for the visually impaired. The computers have a human-like voice that reads aloud materials scanned into them.

"There have been times when the equipment is entirely turned off and no one is around and a person will walk in and be greeted," Yurcisin says. "It will say 'Hello.'"

She says the computers require several steps to turn on, and although the equipment is programmed to read material, it is not designed to speak greetings or other phrases independent of a scanning.

The equipment has spoken to staff and students at various times, Yurcisin says. "We wrote it off or fluffed it off as just a couple of incidental things: just unexplained and kind of fun. We think it's delightful. There is no eerie or uncomfortable feeling at all."

Dorrie Wells, operations administrator for the School of Physical Activity and Educational Services, says there are mysterious footsteps that make their way through Pomerene and a door that keeps unlocking itself.

The footsteps have thus far gone unexplained. "This happens throughout the building," she says. "We've made numerous attempts to determine where they're coming from. You can move to it, but there's never a soul around."

The footsteps have been heard sometimes by graduate students late at night, or by staff working on weekends. "It's really kind of eerie," Wells says. "It's always happened to me very early in the morning."

The door that unlocks itself is in an area with limited access, Wells says. "You lock it and double-check yourself and have someone else double-check, and we still find it open."

She speculates that it may have something to do with the building moving and settling, but doesn't rule out the possibility of a ghostly touch. "I am open to the idea," she says.

The presidential curator

A former president has been known to visit the campus building named after him. Hayes Hall, named for President Rutherford B. Hayes, was completed in 1893, the same year Hayes died.

"The story goes that early on in the history of the building, around 1915 to 1920, the building was used as a residence hall," Wahl says. "There were two students that were chronically late getting in."

"One night, right around Halloween, they were out late studying and didn't come back until about 10 p.m. All the doors were locked. They tried throwing pebbles at windows and calling up to friends, but no one came down to help them. Finally, an older gentleman with a beard let them in. When they asked who he was, he says, 'I'm the curator of the building.'"

The students told their friends that an older gentleman had opened the door for them, but no one knew whom they were talking about. "A few days later they saw a picture of the man who had let them in hanging on a hallway of the building," Wahl says. "It was a portrait of Rutherford B. Hayes."

The Oxley presence

Oxley Hall, now used as office space but originally the first women's residence hall, has its share of ghost stories.

Several versions exist that center around the death of a young woman in a third-floor corner room. Wahl's version states that she may have committed suicide, but that no one was really sure why she died.

Cathy Collins, administrative associate for housing, food services and event centers, knows of one which says the woman surprised a burglar while staying in the dorm over a holiday and was murdered.

Wahl tells of several sightings over the years of lights shining in the fourth-floor attic. One investigation unearthed a vagrant living there. A year later, when police were called when a light was shining again, they discovered no one. "The door was locked and there was dust on the floor. The only foot prints were their own," Wahl says. "The speculation was back that it was the ghost."

Collins, who worked in the building from 1992 until a year ago, has a story about the attic. "We had heard that when the EMS folks were there testing the fire system in the attic, alarms started sounding and, although all the windows were closed, a big gust of wind came through and the lights started swaying back and forth. The firefighters left the building, they were so scared."

She says the story was verified later when the building had a fire drill. "One of the EMS people that came out for that mentioned he was there and that it was true." He told them he had worked in a lot of campus buildings late at night, but had never experienced anything like that before.

Sherif Barsoum, program manager for international education, whose office is in Oxley, says rumors still persist about the Oxley ghost. "It's said to be in the attic. People just hear noises and sometimes see a ghost in the attic. It's a man that walks around."

The attic is used for storage, but Barsoum says no one really likes to go up there.

Collins has never seen the ghost, but says the building does have a creepy feeling to it. "There have been times at night you would hear the halls creak and make noises, funny sounds. It is kind of spooky in that building."

The Native American flutist

The Ohio Union may not have the creepy feel that the gothic architecture of some of the campus's older buildings have, but it too has a ghost.

Wahl's version of the story refers to a Native American tribe that lived long ago on the property that would eventually become the University, along a small stream that ran from near the Union down through the area near Mirror Lake.

"Early on in the University's history, before the turn of the century, there were a great deal of trees here," Wahl says. "It was not uncommon for students to report camp fires burning in the woods. They'd notify professors or administrators, and the administrators would go and look and never see anything."

A statue of a beautiful Native American woman was found at one point. The artifact was dug up but was soon lost. "Then students started hearing flutes in the woods, and some said it was a young man who had lost his love and retrieved his statue," Wahl says.

Even today, Wahl says, the sound of flute music is occasionally heard in the second floor lobby of the Ohio Union.

Two years ago, a student trained by Wahl was giving a ghost tour of campus. "After they came back from the tour, parents walked back in and there's this flute music playing in the stairwell. It really gave everyone goosebumps," he says. They investigated, and discovered a Native American man standing in a third-floor stairwell playing a flute.

"Everyone thought I'd hired him," Wahl says, but he hadn't. "The man said he had felt compelled to come and play."

The elevator mischief

Hopkins Hall's only elevator is a dingy structure, with a metal floor and doors and an interior decorated with student graffiti. The elevator, according to Wahl, has been known over the years to give art students a bit of a fright, and not because of its appearance.

"The building was constructed in the 1960s," Wahl says. "Soon after it was constructed, a young lady working late on an art project was accidentally locked inside the building for the night by the custodian. She had hopped on an elevator and spent the night screaming."

She graduated and was later killed in a car accident. Soon after her death, the elevator began acting strangely. "The elevator would stop and lights flash. It stops just long enough to make students late for class and then will start back up again."

The ghostly whispers

The curved length of stairs that edges the sidewalk in front of the Wexner Center is known for its ability to conduct whispers along its length. It also is possible, when standing almost in the street at a point halfway through the stairs, for a person to give a shout and have it echo back to him.

In 1993 or 1994, a student came to Wahl to tell him of a strange experience he had on Halloween when he went to stand on the spot and shout. The student's story presents a twist on the echo effect.

On Halloween Day, stand in the midpoint of the stairs at the street's edge, and listen closely. The story has it that the soft whispers of ghosts of faculty and staff on the Oval will rustle in your ear.

But then, maybe it is possible on any day to sense echoes of the past while strolling slowly along Ohio State pathways or walking quietly down building hallways- ghosts or no ghosts.

Tzagournis steps down as vice president at Medical Center, will return to faculty

Manuel Tzagournis, who during the last two decades helped lead the health sciences at Ohio State to a position of national prominence, has announced that he will step down as vice president for health sciences in December. Tzagournis, who turns 65 this month, will return to the faculty full time to teach and practice.

"Manny Tzagournis is an icon- at the University and throughout our community," said President Kirwan. "Under his remarkable leadership, our academic medical center has developed into a national leader, known worldwide for quality service delivery, outstanding education and cutting-edge research."

During the nearly 20 years that Tzagournis served as either dean, vice president, or both, private support of the Medical Center grew significantly. In 1982, the market value of the center's endowed funds was $16 million, compared to $220 million today. Research productivity increased at a rate of nearly 15 percent a year. During that period, a $12 million clinical research facility, paid for by voluntary contributions from College of Medicine department chairs and faculty, was built.

Tzagournis' vice presidential position will be combined, along with the position of dean of the College of Medicine and Public Health, into the new position of senior vice president for health sciences and dean of the College of Medicine and Public Health.

A national search for the position is under way.