History & local legend
Steele Auditorium at what is now PennWest California carries the name of Robert McCurdy Steele, president of the school from 1928 to 1952. Students told technology professor Rene Kruse that they had seen a man walking through the auditorium and believed him to be Steele. Kruse discussed their reports in a 2006 Tribune-Review interview.
She also heard stories from Binns Hall, a different building that closed as a dormitory in 2003. Male residents there reported a woman in corridors and sometimes in their rooms, identifying her as a former dorm mother still checking on them.
Sources
- Chasity M. Capasso, Tribune-Review interview with Rene Kruse, preserved contemporary reprint
- PennWest California University Archives, Robert McCurdy Steele and his presidency
- PennWest California University Archives, Binns Hall, 1963–2003
- PennWest California, Steele Hall Main Stage
- OpenStreetMap, Steele Hall building
