The Vanguard
70 Years in Print The Vanguard's first issue printed on Nov. 15 1946. Travel back in time with this week's anniversary throwback issue. BLIND VETERAN DON CARLO LAYS GROUNDWORK FOR THE VANGUARD
tles based off of beloved TV shows, movies and video games, as well as its own original content.
ENERGY SECURITY FROM 1946 TO TODAY
(CONTINUED ON P.13) Losing one’s sight can be a travesty; for founding Vanguard editor Don Carlo, it just meant that he needed to adapt. He used strips of Braille to label his textbooks and records. He knew exactly where everything was and kept a clean apartment. A Braille plaque outside his door ensured he never walked in on a neighbor. Carlo was drawn to journalism at a young age, writing news stories for the student newspaper at Washington High School in Southeast Portland. He also wrote feature stories for the News Telegram in 1934 and the Oregon Journal in 1935.
(CONTINUED ON P.13)
PORTLAND STATE: AN IDEA SPARKED FROM WAR AND FLOOD (CONTINUED ON P.11) college review site, ranked Portland State as one of the most liberal universities across the United States. However, it may surprise those of us unfamiliar with our campus history to learn that plans for Portland State were first conceived after World War II. The terms liberal and war are often used as contradictory statements. Built in 1946, PSU started out as the Vanport Extension Center, located on the opposite side of the Willamette. According to the Oregon Encyclopedia, the VEC was founded by Stephen E. Epler. Discovering that post-war housing in Portland was especially difficult to come by, Epler accepted a job counseling returning veter-
VOLUME 71 • ISSUE 14
A WEEK OF ANTI-TRUMP PROTESTS AND STILL COUNTING ans in the small city of Vanport, located to the NE of Portland along the Columbia River. He noticed that Portland had zero options for veterans looking to use the G.I. Bill, so he proposed the VEC. “As you know, we are starting from nothing,” Epler wrote in a letter to one of the college’s first professors. In under three months’ time, Epler converted a Vanport shopping mall into the VEC, opening the doors to higher education not only for returning service members, but the entire community of Portland.
PSU ALUMNI WHO HAVE REALLY BROKEN THE BAR (CONTINUED ON P.16)
Portland, Oregon has been receiving its fair share of fame in recent years, but a look back at former Portland State University students reveals that Portland has always had a knack for putting out some truly creative and forward thinking individuals. In 1977, Dark Horse Comics creator Mike Richardson graduated from PSU with a degree in art; three years later he opened his own comic book store, Pegasus Books. Dissatisfied with the quality of the comics he was selling, Richardson envisioned Dark Horse Comics as a safe haven for writers and artists, whom he would treat as partners and allow to keep the rights to their creations. In 1986, Dark Horse Comics launched its first issue of "Dark Horse
Comics Presents" and "Boris the Bear." In the following years, Dark Horse continued to add new original titles to its catalogue and in 1988 began releasing licensed material from hit film franchises like Alien, Predator, Star Wars and Godzilla. In 1992, after the success of his company’s film-to-comic projects, Richardson founded Dark Horse Entertainment, Inc., in an effort to transform some of his comic book characters into film stars. It was a great success. In the first few years, Dark Horse saw the production of four films. Two of those films, The Mask and Timecop, were creations of his own. Now, thirty years later, Dark Horse Comics is the third largest comic book company in the United States, publishing dozens of ti-
PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY, PORTLAND, OREGON
Portland State University started life as the Vanport Extension Center in 1946. This new educational facility in the marshy slough lands between the Columbia and Willamette rivers was to eventually become a powerhouse among Oregon’s higher education institutions. But first, PSU had to be powered. In 1946, with the war just ending and wartime industries winding down, Portland and the Pacific Northwest were faced with a swell of people moving into the area. With this increased population came an increased need for energy. On Vanport Extension’s opening day, the area was served by numerous hydroelectric facilities and a few steam facilities. Some of these hydro plants are still in existence on the Clackamas and Willamette rivers, including the Faraday and Oak Grove plants. They were managed by several companies, including Portland Electric Power Company for most of the first half of the twentieth century, but in 1946 a bankruptcy and reorganization plan finally created Portland General Electric. In the greater Northwest, power generation ran largely on hydro as well, including the vital wartime plant at Grand Coulee and the Bonneville Lock and Dam, both on the Columbia River. These facilities, especially Grand Coulee Dam, were integral to the war effort in the Pacific Northwest, and it was these dams that would power the Hanford Plant, which produced the fissionable material for both atomic bombs used on Japan.
NOVEMBER 15, 2016