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THEIR IRREPRESSIBLE INNOCENCE Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a moist gray November in my soul; whenever I find myself slathered by lies and poseurs, afflicted by devious performance art at every turn, and grimly expecting the worst of every situation and every person I meet; whenever I find myself expecting to be cut off in traffic, to be shortchanged at the store, to hear an ominous clank in the transmission, to catch a cold, to be ludicrously overbilled by the insurance company, to find the library closed early, to endure computer malfunction, to find the wine sour, to lose my keys, to hear of sudden surgery in the tribe, to discover a city of slugs in the cellar, and to find a dead owlet under the cracked front picture window, then I account it high time to get to a kindergarten as fast as I can, and sit myself down in a tiny chair, looking not unlike a large hairy bespectacled bookish giant, and inquire of the lives and dreams and feats of the small populace, and listen with the most assiduous and ferocious attention, for I find that as few as twenty minutes with people no taller than your belt buckle is enormously refreshing, and gloriously educational, and wonderfully startling, and endlessly hilarious, and very much like drinking a tremendous glass of crystalline water when you have been desperately thirsty for a long time, and in something of a personal desert. They will tell you of the animals with whom they speak cheerfully and at length every day, and explain carefully what the animals say in return, speaking sometimes with their noses and their feet and their fingers. They will tell you of their dreams in which they are swifter than falcons and bigger than bears. They will tell you of their futures when they are absolutely going to be dancers and pilots and firefighters. They will tell you of the strange wild mysterious people in their lives, some of them visible and some not, as yet. They will talk knowledgeably of angels and spirits and voices that come out of the ground if you dig a deep enough hole. They will speak other languages than ones you know or they know. They will sing with or without the slightest provocation or solicitation. They love to explain things by drawing them, and colors for them have flavors and characters and tonal intimations and strict rules and regulations; depending on the artist, you can use green for buffalo, but you cannot use blue for cougars, because cougars are afraid of blue, everyone knows that. If you draw them out and give them time and afford them the clear sense that you are not judging or assessing or measuring them in any way, they will stretch out and tell you tales of adventure and derring-do that would make filmmakers and novelists drool. They hold hands and kiss each other without the slightest self-consciousness or social awareness. They suddenly break off conversations to do headstands because when a headstand needs to be done it should be done without delay. They are inordinately proud of their socks and show you their socks at every opportunity, and you never saw such a wild welter of bright animated colorfully patterned socks in your life as those in kindergartens: It is Sock Paradise. They use the word cubby all the time, which is a pleasant rotund word that we should use more often. When they are released into the schoolyard or the playground they sprint out into the welcoming embrace of the wild green world with all their might, with their arms flung open and their mouths open and their shoes untied, and when I see this from my tiny chair, when I see them fling themselves howling and thrilling into the delicious world that arose miraculously from the emptiness of the vast unknowable universe, I weep at their joy, and at some other thing I do not understand — their irrepressible innocence, my battered innocence, our assaulted endangered innocence, their clean fresh unconscious grace, the fraught teetering of our species; and then I arise, and thank the teacher for allowing me to visit, and drive home, restored. Brian Doyle is the editor of this magazine, and the author most recently of the novel Chicago (St. Martin’s Press).
F E A T U R E S 14 / A Muslim in the Gray Zone, by Laila Lalami The University’s Schoenfeldt Series Visiting Writer on the absolutely unConstitutional and immoral and growing bigotry toward America’s own citizens. We do exactly what the thugs want when we fear and demonize each other. 18 / Their Bruised Grace, photographs by Michael Schmitt It was 25 years ago this year that an exuberant Holy Cross priest named Dick Berg started the Macdonald Center on Portland’s Skid Road. It was a terrific idea. It still is.
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24 / Mr Lincoln, by Brian Doyle He gave his life for the extraordinary American idea. Do not let that idea die.
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26 / The Only Way You Can Support the Death Penalty is to Not Know a Thing About It, by Dale Recinella The death penalty does not deter crime, innocent people are tortured and murdered, and the Bible does not excuse and defend it. A death row chaplain speaks bluntly. 30 / Things That Silence Me, by Jeremiah O’Hagan “I love you,” he said. “You are miracles and I love you, I love you, I love you…” 32 / A New Sort of Rest, by Erin White On trying to pray the Rosary again, after fifteen years and so many scars…
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3 / The late generous Earle Chiles ’87 hon. 4 / Veterans Day: a note 5 / The Walk-ons: Maddie Ward ’18 and Coleen Olinger ’16 6 / ‘Eat Like You Give a Damn!’: Fedele Bauccio ’64 7 / The new tradition of Senior Night 8 / A Hall Director’s Notes / Poem by Mary Oliver 9 / The extraordinary University regent Carolyn Woo 10 / The wry debut novelist Harold Johnson ’56 11 / Woody Kinkaid ’16 runs a Pre race at the Olympic Trials 12 / Sports, starring two-sport star Kaylie Van Loo ’17 13 / University news and notes 37 / The University’s first telephones 48 / All-West Coast footballer and Navy man Phil Loprinzi ’43 49 / Shiley Strong! The booming School of Engineering
THE UNIVERSITY OF PORTLAND MAGAZINE Autumn 2016: Vol. 35, No. 3 President: Rev. Mark Poorman, C.S.C. Founding Editor: John Soisson Editor: Brian Doyle Mumbling and Dolorous Designers: Joseph Erceg ’55 & Chris Johnson Mooing Assistant Editors: Marc Covert ’93 & Amy Shelly ’95 Fitfully Contributing Editors: Louis Masson, Terry Favero, Anna Lageson-Kerns
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Cover: Abraham Lincoln on Mount Rushmore Memorial/Getty Images
Portland is published quarterly by the University of Portland. Copyright ©2016 by the University of Portland. All rights reserved. Editorial offices are located in Waldschmidt Hall, 5000 N. Willamette Blvd., Portland, Oregon 97203-5798. Telephone (503) 943-8225, fax (503) 943-7178, e-mail address: bdoyle@up.edu, Web site: https://sites.up.edu/portlandmagazine. Third-class postage paid at Portland, OR 97203. Canada Post International Publications Mail Product — Sales Agreement No. 40037899. Canadian Mail Distribution Information — Express Messenger International: PO Box 25058, London, Ontario, Canada N6C 6A8. Printed in the USA. Opinions expressed in Portland are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University administration. Postmaster: Send address changes to Portland, The University of Portland Magazine, 5000 N. Willamette Boulevard, Portland, OR 97203-5798.
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A U T U M N sentatives chaplain Father Pat Conroy, S.J.; and much more. Info: Sarah Nuxoll, nuxoll@ up.edu, 503.943.7702.
The Faculty
The University’s new library dean, succeeding the estimable Drew Harrington, is Xan Arch, a veteran of Reed College and Stanford University libraries. ¶ University art professor Father Mark Ghyselinck, C.S.C., will have a show of his oil paintings (many of them campus scenes, like the one on the back cover of this issue) until September 22 in Buckley Center’s gallery. ¶ Beginning their final teaching years on The Bluff, after stellar careers all round: nursing’s Carol Craig (9 years), engineering’s Wayne Lu (29 years!) and Jim Male (20 years) and Zia Yamayee (20 years), and environmental science’s Father Ron Wasowski, C.S.C. (19 years). ¶ November 16: political science professor and cheerful brilliant guy Father Claude Pomerleau, C.S.C., talks about the changing relationship between religion and politics, at 7 p.m. in 120 Franz Hall, free.
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September 1, 1984: this magazine is born, invented by John Soisson. ¶ October 5, 1986: the Chapel of Christ the Teacher is dedicated. ¶ October 10, 1982: Father Tom Oddo, all of 36 years old, is inaugurated as president of the University. Tom was soaring in the job when he died in a car crash in 1989. ¶ October 15 is the feast day of the great brilliant tart tough blunt wild mystic Saint Teresa of Avila: “Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no
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feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which to look out Christ’s compassion to the world. Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good; yours are the hands with which he is to bless...” ¶ Among the remarkable musicians born in November: Arthur Ira Garfunkel, the great jazzist Rickie Lee Jones, the terrific guitarist Bonnie Raitt, Neil Young, Graham Parker, and composer Randy Newman.¶ November 11, 1922: Kurt Vonnegut is born in Indianapolis. “The America I loved still exists, if not in the White House or the Supreme Court or the Senate or the House of Representatives or the media. The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries.”
The Students
A look at the student body: 3,741 undergraduates (from 47 states and 37 countries), 509 graduate students (including, now, a few doctoral students in nursing and education); 35% of students are from minority populations; average SAT of freshmen was 1270, grade-point average 3.65. ¶ The University’s crucial retention rate was beautifully high: 92% of freshmen returned for sophomore year. ¶ But the cost is high — the average total cost per student was about $54,000 for tuition, room, and board. 98% of undergraduate students needed financial aid, the average student received $24,000 in grants and scholarships (not loans), and as a whole the undergraduates received $113 million in financial aid. Why are we always asking for money? Because our students need the help desperately. ¶ Best places to study on campus, according to a report from the provost’s office: Shiley Hall’s huge quiet two-story student space; the quiet half of Bauccio Commons, if you have earbuds; any empty classroom, left unlocked by presidential command; and Saint Mary’s. The national average for study, notes Provost Tom Greene: two hours for every class hour.
ART BY MILAN ERCEG
read by faculty, staff, and students is Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See, leading up to his campus visit, as Schoenfeldt Series guest, February 27. The first two selections were Alice McDermott’s Charming Billy and The Season Laila Lalami’s The Moor’s Oh, the days dwindle down Account. ¶ Dec. 3 is the Unito a precious few / Septemversity’s annual moving Advent ber, November / And these Concert at Saint Mary’s Cathefew precious days I’ll spend dral in Portland. Information: with you / These precious 503.943.7228. ¶ Garaventa days I’ll spend with you... Center events this fall: artist wrote Maxwell Anderson to K. A. Colorado, talking about the music of Kurt Weill, who morality and climate change together created “September (October 4), a lecture about Song.” Among the many great Oscar Wilde’s artistic and relisingers who have recorded it: gious conversion (NovemFrank Sinatra, the Bingle, Billy ber 9, with theologian Sister Eckstine, Rosemary Clooney, Ann Astell of Notre Dame), and, startlingly, James Brown and a lecture on, no kidding, and Lou Reed. The University scripture and zombies (Octannually offers dozens of con- ober 25). Information on all: certs by the University Singers, Sarah Nuxoll, 503.943.7702, the Women’s Chorale, the Jazz nuxoll@up.edu. Band, the Wind Symphony, and the University Orchestra — and noon Music at Midweek concerts by local musicians. ¶ Autumn brings the University’s regents back to campus, on September 22 and 23. Today we have 67 active and former The University trustees, who collectively legally own the University and Leading a tour of the valleys hire the president. ¶ Dedicated Napa and Silicon October 20-23 on November 10: the Univer- this fall: University president Father Mark Poorman, C.S.C. sity’s newest residence hall, Among the events: talks by Lund Family Hall, with 113 double and triple rooms, across Cisco EVP Randy Pond, Sun from the Chiles Center. ¶ De- Microsystems founder Vinod Khosla, Bon Appetit founder cember 9: the University’s annual cheerful Christmas Gala Fedele Bauccio ’64, and Mass and dinner (in the cask room) in Bauccio Commons, hosted by University president Father at Merryvale Winery. Information: Father Ed Obermiller, Mark Poorman, C.S.C. C.S.C., obermill@up.edu. 503.943.8607. ¶ Pilot fall sports started in August, when soccer, rowing, cross country, volleyball, and tennis launched. See portlandpilots.com for schedules and tickets for all. ¶ Hosted by the University’s vibrant Arts & Letters Garaventa Center for Catholic Coming to campus November Life this fall: the annual Father 28 for the English department’s John Zahm, C.S.C. Lecture in readings series: novelist and Catholicism, this year featuring musician Willy Vlautin, leader the polymath Franciscan Sister of the soon-to-close-up-shop Ilia Delio (September 22), the Portland band Richmond Fon- University’s annual Red Mass, taine, and winner of the Orehonoring men and women in gon Book Award. ¶ The Uni- the law, on September 28, folversity opens its third UP Reads lowed by dinner featuring year in August; the book being United States House of Repre-
He was actually sort of shy, the late University regent Earle Chiles was, despite his wealth and fame; and he spent much of his 83 years, before his death in June, cheerfully giving his money away. He gave the University many millions of dollars — for the athletic arena named for his parents, for all sorts of student-athlete programs, for one of the 14 glorious bells in the University’s bell tower, for the Chapel of Christ the Teacher, and especially for the Father Pru Scholarship in accounting, named for his dear friend Father Chester Prusynski, C.S.C. Earle and his parents hugely admired the Congregation of Holy Cross — “they stand out worldwide for their spiritual, moral, and ethical leadership,” he said. “The University is a tremendous asset to the community, a wonderful shining diamond…” Always fascinated by science, Earle was also particularly generous to Providence Health — the Earle A. Chiles Research Institute at Providence Cancer Center, now world-famous for its immunotherapy work, is named for his dad. On The Bluff we will remember the shy witty man whose quiet generosity built the Chiles Center and had a direct effect on many thousands of students. Rest in peace, Earle. Thank you. Say hi to Father Pru for us when you see him. Prayers. Autumn 2016 3
ADAM GUGGENHEIM
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From Air Force General Dana Atkins ’77’s speech recently on Veterans’ Day at the University: “Some 25 million Americans, male and female, have worn the uniform of the United States of America. They humbled dictators, liberated continents, and set a standard of courage and idealism for the entire world. As Winston Churchill said, ‘Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.’ So today, to honor that debt, I ask three favors: First, have the grace to help a veteran or service member. Have the grace to do something for them. We have so many wounded veterans who need your compassion and your support. Help them. Second, say thanks. They deserve it and they don’t hear it enough. They sacrificed their present and perhaps their future so we could have better lives ourselves. Have the grace to say thanks for your life and your freedom and your future. Last: have the courage to embrace the values our veterans fought and died for, the values millions of us are fighting for today. America has never been anything more than a grand experiment, a wild-eyed notion in the winds of human history. The life we have been given was never guaranteed. Freedom, equality, and justice are noble concepts, but they are not self-enforcing. They are only worth what we are willing to pay to keep them alive. Remember that. And remember what the poet Michael O’Donnell, an Army helicopter pilot who was killed in Vietnam, wrote: “Save for them a place inside of you... And in that time when men decide and feel safe to call the war insane, take one moment to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind...” Portland 4
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At left, junior Madison Ward; at right, Colleen Olinger, who just graduated in May and is now an emergency room nurse. Both of them walked on to the Pilot women’s basketball team; Olinger was elected captain. “Let me explain this feat,” says coach Cheryl Sorensen. “They were not recruited, they don’t get a cent in scholarship money, but they earned spots on a Division One college team. They knew they would never play big minutes, yet they are team leaders and terrific teammates — Colleen was team comedian and Maddie tutors her teammates in business and Spanish. Listen, we practice six days a week, four hours a day, usually starting at dawn. And then there’s film, meetings, weights, games, travel, injury rehab, etcetera. And more important than any of this is school. Maddie takes 18 credits, six classes, and Colleen had one of the toughest majors there is. But both are great students. Neither ever let down for a moment, and we go from August through April at this pace. They never get to sit down for a meal. They work so hard. I don’t know if people understand how hard it is to do what they did, how amazing it is. To play big-time basketball without a scholarship, to be team leaders when you walked on to the team — these are incredible young women. Here are your sports stars.” We agree with quiet awe. Autumn 2016 5
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customer expectations in a positive way. I wanted to build a company that would provide flavorful food that was healthy and economically viable for all, produced through practices that respect farmers, workers, and animals. I wanted to build a company From Fedele Bauccio’s Commencement that would nourish the community speech in May. Fedele, a ’64 and ’66 grad- now and replenish our shared natural resources for future generations. uate, went on from The Bluff to create and run Bon Appétit, which now oper- As I traveled around the country I was able to see how so much of our ates nearly 700 cafés in 33 states for myriad clients — among them the Uni- food was raised, and so much of the negative effect modern agriculture versity of Portland. has on the environment and on public The University of Portland is where health. We have an industrial agricultural model that runs on agrochemit all began for me, where my life icals and federal subsidies for feed changed. It was September of 1960. crops, is heavily dependent on fossil I left sunny California on a train bound for Portland. I was excited, apprehensive, scared. There was no beer in the Pilot House, the food in the Commons was terrible, the tennis courts were out in the rain, and there were only two residence halls — Christie Hall for the men and Villa Maria for the women. My very first night on campus I worked washing dishes in the Commons to pay for my meals. Washing dishes came easy to me; there were three boys in our family and my father always insisted we do the dishes to help my mother. I still think I was the fuels, and is responsible for an unconbest dishwasher who ever worked in scionable percentage of this country’s greenhouse gas emissions. We continthe Commons. And soon I was the ue to push the concentration of agrionly dishwasher who had the keys to the Commons, in order to lock it culture past the limits of ethical and environmental acceptability. up at night — which meant I never And the current system to ensure went hungry. Food is love to me. This love came the safety of our food is disjointed from my mother who spent her whole and dysfunctional. It contributes to the development of an under-nourlife cooking in the kitchen, with me ished, grossly overweight population watching every move she made. My filling up on empty calories. The probmother is now 99 years young and she is still in the kitchen. Our Sunday lems impact the health of the public through the food we eat, the air we dinner table for years and years was breathe, the water we drink, as well filled with aunts, uncles, cousins, strangers, and friends, and I was able as the rivers and streams that support our fish and wildlife. They conto listen to endless stories, to watch stories be shared, to watch the won- tribute to the increase in the pool of antibiotic resistance bacteria because derful meshing of food and stories, and to understand at an early age the of the overuse of antibiotics. They power of food to bring people together. impact rural communities and the It is through the sharing, harvesting, fundamental ethical tenets of our relationships with the billions of aniand savoring the foods and stories mals that are raised and slaughtered of our rich and varied cultures that maybe, one day somehow, finally, we each year to provide meat and dairy will eradicate discrimination, bigotry, products for our tables. While the impacts of factory farmand prejudice. With Bon Appétit, I wanted to build ing may be far reaching and detrimena company that would make a signifi- tal to many aspects of life in America, cant difference in our industry — one they are distressingly invisible and that would see things differently, one unknown to most Americans. We have crazy enough to think we could uproot become remarkably divorced from the roots of our food supply. We continue industry conventions by changing Portland 6
to harbor romantic notions of a more pastoral form of agriculture which has all but disappeared, to be replaced by the densely packed, windowless sheds, housing hundreds of thousands of animals who live out their short lives without ever being able to exhibit and experience many of the natural behaviors of their species. And it’s not only issues of animal welfare. It’s the exploitation of farm workers in the country. Nearly two million workers in America’s fields labor like machines without rights, earn sub-living wages, and exist in dehumanizing circumstances. The persistence of inhumane conditions and poverty wages for farm workers has long been a tragic chapter in the story of American agriculture. Experiencing and understanding all of this served to underscore my commitment to Bon Appétit’s core values of sustainability. I have been outspoken about all these issues and will continue to fight and stand until we create an ecological model that is socially just, environmentally friendly and economically feasible for everyone. We all have the power to change the food system if we just ate like we give a damn. Let me make an analogy: four years ago you arrived as freshmen, and the seeds were planted; now you have matured and grown to the point where you are ready to harvest the fruits of your education. You are graduating today in a world where entrepreneurs will vastly transform major world sectors of health, transportation, energy and food — and in the process change our daily lives. The education you have received gives you unique status and responsibility to imagine better and make an impact beyond your borders. We need you to help restore the beauty of this earth with justice, hope, and love. The chasm between the rich and the poor is wider than ever before. Violence is growing at an unchecked pace. And hunger in the world is rising to intolerable levels. These challenges are extraordinary. You can make a difference to a safer and healthier world. You have the freedom to think and work expansively, to reach farther, explore opportunities, take risks, and make a significant impact. Your possibilities are endless. Now is the time to stretch your imagination, to invent, to innovate, to unleash the ordinary and find extraordinary…
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Held at the end of April: Senior Night, during which about-to-be-graduates gathered for a candlelight blessing at the bell tower, heard a terrific Last Lecture from ethicist Dan McGinty, and then savored a beer with more than fifty of their favorite professors. Lovely night, moving and funny.
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LIFE IN VILLA We asked Villa Maria’s Kurt Berning what’s it actually like to be a residence hall director, and he said that along with laughter and craziness and warmth and friendships there is pain and worry and prayer. Notes. One young man worked 80 hours a week one summer at two different jobs to save up for fall tuition. He made enough money to pay that bill, but couldn’t afford a place to live. He would sneak into Villa’s basement to sleep on a couch. Somehow he passed all of his courses that semester. Last summer he got hired as a hall assistant for the summer. He graduated in May. Questions I was asked today: Do you have duct tape? Can you open up the trunk room for an extra bed part? Do you know when our printer in our computer lab is coming? Did you know we have two broken washing machines? What do you want to do with your life? Do you have a girlfriend? When did we first start wearing kilts in Villa? Kurt — can we talk? Best resident assistant interviewee ever: Nick. During his first interview he pulled out a Phil Lumpkin NBA rookie card, expounded on how Phil was his former teacher, and repeated some of Phil’s famous quotes. I hired him. When he reapplied the next year he brought along his official RA name tag and said “If Villa was burning down, I’d save this name tag first.” I hired him again.
GOLDFINCHES A little golden cloud in the sky. Then they descend, each by each Or in choirs, as in chapel, Among the purple-haired thistles. No one knows what they are saying In their small voices, but one Might well guess it’s a kind of Happiness. Even though all the world Offers them is a field of seeds. Sometimes it only takes that much. — Mary Oliver
After spending his first semester on The Bluff hiding in his room, Austin attended hall Mass one night, and never looked back. He started leading Zumba sessions in the lobby and then out on the quad. He organized Survivor watch parties and a fantasy Survivor league. One week during hall council he suggested that residents should hit each other with big dead fish. His senior year he got hired as an RA. Among his counsels to residents: use squirrel pheromones to attract women. One young man showed up for his RA interview in a suit but without any pants. I did not hire him. Most interesting visitor last year: a goat. A resident convinced the mother of an ex-girlfriend to bring it to the hall for fun. She offered it to the hall for $200. The guys wanted to buy two and start a breeding program. Sadly, I said no. One young man from Nebraska missed his official admissions visit because he was in the state French competition. His only other option was to visit on the very day that students move out of the halls at the end of April. He never got an official tour and students were too busy to talk. So he spent the day helping parents and sons and daughters move boxes and furniture, and then walked to Waldschmidt Hall and paid his housing deposit and came here in the fall. Portland 8
Things I have been told recently: If you do not move my son into a new room before this weekend, I’ll drive down and do it myself! / I can’t believe the transformation I’ve seen in my son in the past four years. I can’t thank you enough for all of your hard work. / My son’s best friend drowned today and he’s not answering my calls. Can you check in on him? / I’d really like to support Villa and improve the hall. Dream up some ideas for low five-figure projects and send them my way. / My son just got out of drug rehab and has a lot of anxiety about his freshman year of college. Can you check in on him often in the first few weeks? One of our residents is a young man from the Congo. His family fled the country to become refugees in Rwanda. He lived in a refugee camp for 15 years. His family applied for refugee status in the U.S and was accepted and placed in Portland, where the University’s president heard his story and offered him a generous scholarship. At our annual hall theatrical production he performed the “Men in Tights” song from Robin Hood: Men in Tights with four friends. How many young men have come to talk to me at two and three and four in the morning, about this and that and the other thing having to do with pain and grace and loss and joy and love? More than I can count, more than I can count...
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Here’s an American story. This is University regent emeritus Carolyn Woo. She was born in Hong Kong. Her family had fled Communist China, leaving everything behind. She grew up terrified of Communism and famine and violence and pillaging and dictatorship. Her dream was to go to college in the United States, “and that came to pass, partly because I memorized part of the dictionary with my nanny’s help and passed the entrance tests for Purdue University.” She earned three degrees at Purdue and became a professor. She went on to Notre Dame and became dean of the business school and made it the best business school in America. Then, in 2012, she accepted an epic job: run Catholic Relief Services worldwide. CRS, founded in 1943 by America’s Catholic bishops to serve war survivors in Europe, now serves 100 million people in 101 countries. It tries to reach and help and deliver hope to poor and hammered people all over the world. It tries to deliver little daily hourly miracles all over the world. It’s an extraordinary organization. Its chief is an extraordinary woman who is proud to be American and proud to try with all her might to bring attentivenesss and courage and compassion to every broken soul on the planet. That is an especially American idea, we think. In America we welcome people from all over the world who share and live that idea, people like the remarkable Carolyn Woo. We would be a smaller meaner lesser country if we ever stopped doing so. Let us never stop doing so. Autumn 2016 9
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brother Jim was serving in Korea. Only two other African American students entered with Johnson as freshmen. But for Johnson, the only actual drawback was that UP did not have an art department. So he stepped up his writing. “Father O’Brien had studied with Robert Penn Warren at Minnesota, and was really good.” By “good,” Johnson means rigorous, and he took classes with O’Brien for four semesters. “He encouraged me by publishing my work in the college literary magazine.” After graduation, Johnson taught eighth grade for two years, got his draft notice and served two years at Fort Bliss, on the Texas-Mexico border.
whom graduated, made their way in the world and still call on him today. In 1995, when he retired from teaching, he had been writing and publishing poetry — in literary journals, two chapbooks, and several anthologies — for 25 years. Finally, as the new century began, he got down to business: it was time Harold Johnson ’56 was taking an to write that novel. English literature class from Father The Fort Showalter Blues took 13 Michael O’Brien when he first aspired years to complete, during which time to write a novel. And why not? The Johnson’s work was twice interrupted dream of going to college had come by bouts of cancer. But he resttrue, so anything was possible. ed, was treated — chemo the first Growing up in Yakima, amidst southtime, radiation the second — and west Washington’s lush apple and hop persevered. When the book was country, he had no idea how or finally finished where he would to his satisfacgo to college. tion, he did not “Then Dad died seek an agent. in October of my “Given my age,” senior year, just he explains, “I after he retired didn’t want to be from his job as bothered with garbage man for all that.” Instead, the city,” Johnhe self-publishson recalls. His ed under the older brother was imprint Irving playing ball in the Courts, named Brooklyn Dodgers for the Irving farm system, and Park Tennis the death left the Courts. In the mother with three long list of ackids still at home tivities at which and no means of Johnson excels, support. tennis holds a A University key position. of Portland re And a beautiful cruiter showed novel it is. Writup at Yakima ten with a poet’s High School and love of language, Johnson, an avid Once discharged, he returned to Port- an artist’s eye for detail, and a mureader of the sports pages, knew that the Winters brothers — two Af- land to teach, while earning an MAT sician’s ear for dialogue, it tells the in Painting and Drawing at Portland story of a young African American rican Americans with a spectacular State U. draftee from Portland who is a virtalent for basketball — both played Meanwhile, in 1969, Portland Public tuoso trumpet player, and an initiate for that college. to the late-fifties racism of the U.S. “Wayne Durrell was this recruiter’s Schools opened John Adams High name, and somehow I talked to him. School, at NE 39th and Jessup, launch- armed forces. ‘Oh, yeah, come on down!’ he said.” ing a bold new experiment that gar- At Broadway Books, where he nered national attention for its con- launched Fort Showalter Blues, John After that first friendly chat, they wrote each other, and Durrell prom- spicuously non-traditional curriculum. son told the standing-room-only Each sub-school had a master teacher, crowd about majoring in English on ised Johnson a loan and a job. Sure enough, once he arrived in called a director, who worked with the The Bluff. “I had a friend in one of my classPortland, the University referred him same group of high school students es, and we both wanted to be novto a downtown parking lot, where he all four years. elists. Charlie was two years older worked the 5-10 p.m. shift six nights Out of Adams was born Portland Night High School, an outreach pro- than I was, and he told me he figured a week all four years of college. At night, he studied under the light bulb gram to kids who, for one reason or he could get his novel published by another, could not fit into convention- the time he was 30. And I remember hanging in the parking shack. al high school, and with it was born feeling sorry for him because he was In 1952, Johnson’s first year on going to be so old by then.” The Bluff, the student body was mostly Johnson’s true calling. white. The great Jackson Winters had Johnson’s career flowed smoothly Johnson paused for a beat, then graduated and was playing center for along two channels: writing poetry grinned: “So here I am — at 81!” and teaching troubled kids, many of — Martha Gies the Harlem Globetrotters, and his Portland 10
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Pilot sports story of the summer: All-American Woody Kincaid, gunning for a berth on the Olympic Team headed to Brazil, ran a Steve Prefontaine race in the 5000-meter Trials final at Eugene’s Hayward Field. He jumped out to the lead, held it for four laps, and then amazingly tried to pull away from some of the best runners in the world. They caught him (led by American record-holder Bernard Lagat), and Woody finished eighth, ahead of favorite Galen Rupp, but no one who saw that race will forget the bold guy in purple. Wow. Autumn 2016 11
O N S P O R T S The Olympics Four alumni were in Rio in August: soccerists Christine Sinclair and Sophie Schmidt for Canada and Megan Rapinoe for the USA, and Josh Illustre in the 800 meter race for Guam. Sinclair scored four goals in Rio and now has 165 goals in international matches, second all-time only to American Abby Wambach. Athletic Hall of Fame This year’s inductees in October: longtime Pilot women’s basketball coach Jim Sollars (five times WCC coach of the year), soccer’s Kasey Keller ’91 (surely the greatest American goalkeeper ever), baseball’s Steve Wilson ’85 (who pitched for the Rangers, Cubs, and Dodgers, and started a school in Taiwan), golfer Ryan Nelson ’00 (who has played in two U.S. Opens), and runner Uli Steidl ’97 (All-American on The Bluff who then won the Seattle Marathon ten times, holds the Portland Marathon record, and just set a record for fastest climb of Mount Rainier). This man is not human. Baseball Drafted by the major league Milwaukee Brewers in June: junior catcher Cooper Hummel and senior pitcher Caleb Whalen. ¶ Among the new diamondmen this fall: Lake Oswego catcher Dutton Elske, the Oregon player of the year, who hit .565 and called all the pitches. Whew. Track & Field Four All-Americans for the Pilots at the NCAA championship meet: Woody Kinkaid (see page 11)
STEVE WOLTMANN
Let us sing Kaylie Van Loo, who (a) starts at the point for the women’s basketball team and earned all-WCC honors, (b) is an All-American javelin thrower for the Pilots, and (c) is a business major who earned WCC All-Academic honors. Good heavens.
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set the University record in the 5000 meters and finished ninth in the nation; Reid Buchanan finished 5th in the 10,000 meters; Lauren LaRocco finished 4th in the 10K and 6th in the 5K (!!!); and Kaylie Van Loo (below), in the first appearance ever for a javelin-thrower at the national meet, finished 18th. Wow. And all this without a track and field for the track and field program. Men’s Basketball New coach Terry Porter’s team will play UCLA in the annual John Wooden tournament in LA November 24; the game will be on an ESPN network. ¶ Among the new faces for the Pilots this year: Porter’s sons Malcom (Jesuit High in Portland) and Franklin (who transferred from St. Mary’s to play for his dad), and center Joseph Smoyer from Franklin High in Portland. ¶ Among Porter’s new assistant coaches: philosophy major Kramer Knudson ’11, who helped win 69 games as the Pilots’ starting center, and then played pro in Switzerland, Romania, and England (where he also coached the University of Surrey men’s and women’s teams). ¶ The WCC’s best point guard finishes his career this year; Alec Wintering, all 70 inches of him, averaged 18 points and 5 assists last year, and was essentially unstoppable. Come see this quicksilver young man before he graduates. Women’s Soccer Eight starters return for the Pilots, led by all-WCC seniors Ellie Boon and Allison Wetherington. Garrett Smith ‘88, six times the WCC coach of the year, starts his 14th year at the helm; his teams are 208-58-20, a .762 winning percentage. Whew. Men’s Soccer New coach Nick CarlinVoigt welcomes a nationally ranked recruiting class, 10 returning starters, and all-WCC senior striker Eddie Sanchez, along with star junior Brandon Zambrano and sophomores Reid Baez and Lionel Mills, both named to the WCC all-freshman team. Among the opponents before they open their WCC slate: Ohio State. Women’s Basketball Back for the Pilots is all-WCC senior guard Kaylie Van Loo (left), who averaged 8/4/3 last year with only 1.5 turnovers a game; she was also named to the league’s All-Academic team, and is a star on the University’s track team. Wow. ¶ Busy summer for assistant coach Drew Muscatell, who led an American college all-star team on a three-city, nine-game tour in China, playing teams from New Zealand, Poland, and China. The Yanks finished 9-0 record. Academic Honors 97 of the UniverPortland 12
sity’s 269 student-athletes earned grades of 3.5 or higher; 22 had perfect grades, and the average grade was 3.27. The rowing team led everyone, with 12 rowers named Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association National Scholar Athletes, sixth most in the nation. The annual Founder’s Day Celebration in April, during which all classes are canceled and students present projects publicly, included 21 student-athlete research presentations on environmental science, engineering, civil engineering, mathematics, English, psychology, business, chemistry, and international languages and cultures. Rowing All-WCC Molly Templin ’16 (who finished her academic career with a 3.88 in biology) was nominated by the NCAA for its national Woman of the Year Award. Templin was one of 12 rowers named who earned 3.5 or better. ¶ The Pilots finished fourth in the WCC. Tennis The men, who finished 16-8 and ranked 74th in the nation, will be led by all-WCC junior Michail Pervolarakis (13-6 at No. 1 singles) and his all-WCC doubles partner Mathieu Garcia. For the women, all-WCC sophomores Radina Dimitrova and Tatiana Grigoryan return, and they welcome the Serbian national junior champion, Jelena Lukic, who also played on Serbia’s junior European title team. Cross Country & Track among the new faces for the men, 9th in the West last year: two-time Kansas cross country champ Riley Osen. For the women, also ninth in the West, new faces include crosscountryists Aoibhe Richardson from Kilkenny, Ireland; Mathilde Sagnes from Montauban, France; Susan Van Weperen from Oosterwolde, Netherlands; and Lacey Conner from Saint Mary’s in Portland. Lacey knows the Pilot program well; her dad is Pilot men’s coach Rob Conner. The women will also welcome Washington state 800-meter champ Natalie Smith from Mount Baker High in Bellingham. Volleyball Pilot coach Brent Crouch led the USA Volleyball Collegiate National Team to a gold medal in July at the U22 Global Challenge, held in Croatia. They defeated England, Slovenia, and China to take the title. ¶ The women lost all-WCC Emily Liger to graduation, but return most everyone else from their 16-win team of last year. ¶ The beach volleyball team (the University’s 14th varsity sport) starts its second WCC season in, fittingly, late summer.
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Carter, is the CEO and founder of Johnson ’16 (to Lyon) and Douglas Audibility, Inc., a consumer audio Blair ’15 (to Lille), both to teach Enheadphones company that aims glish to French students. Six other The New Library Dean is Xan Arch, to improve access to hearing aids University graduates will study who has been library maven at Reed around the world. abroad courtesy of the Fulbright College and Stanford University, and Professor Beer is the cheerful busiFoundation. who loves ”librarianship as a new way ness teacher Sam Holloway, who has The Annual Becky Houck Award to connect people with information,” been interviewed about the craft brew- for superb advising of students went a riveting phrase. ing boom by endless outlets in recent to sociologist Martin Monto; the Winner of the “Norwegian Nobel years — among them Men’s Journal award honors the late great biology Prize” in Science this year (the Kavli magazine and Catholic radio station professor who famously kept her Prize): Mike Merzenich ’64, for his KBVM in Portland, for a “Thirsty Cath- office door open until midnight every work on brain plasticity. Mike also olics” program. (You could not make fall for terrified freshmen. Do we recently shared the American Nathis up.) Sam practices what he have a Becky Scholarship? Of course tional Academy of Engineering’s Russ preaches; he is a director and sharewe do. Can you make gifts to it Prize for his work as the co-inventor holder in Eugene’s Oakshire Brewery. and to the Houck award fund? Absoof the cochlear implant. Remarkable Away to France this fall, courtesy lutely — contact Trevor Harvey unassuming fellow, Michael is, as we of the French government: Kealey at 503.943.7826, harvey@up.edu. can personally attest. ¶ Jennifer Snow Mayo ’16, fresh from earning her education doctorate, was chosen to serve The University was blessed when this man arrived in Oregon in 1998. For the next 15 years, until he retired in 2013, he was the most honest generous witty cheerful a full-year internship with NASA as an Albert Einstein Fellow. ¶ Engin- tireless gentle unarrogant Archbishop imaginable, delighted by the vibrant Catholic university on his doorstep, and by what we could do to help him in his work for eering graduate Dennis Hartmann light and love. Most Reverend John Vlazny was back on campus this summer ’71 was elected to the U.S. National to teach a class, and everyone felt taller and happier when he was here. Academy of Sciences. A professor of atmospheric sciences at UWashington, Dennis is internationally renowned for his work on the physics of greenhouse gases. The University’s Summer Theater Troupe, Mock’s Crest Productions, won two 2016 Drammy Awards, Portland’s annual theater honors: Cassi Kohl for acting, and grad directing student Jessica Wallenfels for choreography. Mock’s Crest had a record five nominations. You must come see it next June. The Newest Residence Hall, the three-storey Lund Family Hall on the corner of Portsmouth and Willamette, should fully open in November. It will be co-ed, house 113 students of all ages, and be all doubles and triples. It’s named for wry humble regents chairman Allen Lund and his wife Kathie’s family; how apt that students will actually live in their generosity. The Best College Value in Oregon, according to Money magazine: us. Money lauded the University’s health sciences, accounting, and entrepreneurship programs, and noted with interest that a quarter of UP students come from low-income families. The University’s First Biomedical Engineering Degrees were earned this spring; the first 11 students studied technical, scientific, medical, business, and management aspects of the healthcare industry. The program includes a 3-course sequence that allows students to develop and market a medical device. One graduate, Brian Autumn 2016 13
ADAM GUGGENHEIM
B R I E F LY
A MUSLIM IN THE GRAY ZONE The University’s Schoenfeldt Writer on the absolutely unConstitutional and immoral bigotry toward America’s own citizens. We do exactly what the thugs want when we fear and demonize each other. by Laila Lalami
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GETTY IMAGES/PHOTOGRAPHER: HASSAN AMMAR
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ome months ago, I gave a reading from my most recent novel in Arizona. During the discussion that followed, a woman asked me to talk about my upbringing in Morocco. It’s natural for readers to be curious about a writer they’ve come to hear, I told myself. I continued to tell myself this even after the conversation drifted to Islam, and then to ISIS. Eventually, another woman raised her hand and said that the only Muslims she saw when she turned on the television were extremists. “Why aren’t we hearing more from people like you?” she asked me. “You are,” I said with a nervous laugh. “Right now.” I wanted to tell her that there were plenty of ordinary Muslims in this country. We come in all races and ethnicities. Some of us are more visible by virtue of beards or head scarves. Others are less conspicuous, unless they give book talks and it becomes clear that they, too, identify as Muslims. To be fair, I’m not a very good Muslim. I don’t perform daily prayers anymore. I have never been on a pilgrimage to Mecca. I partake of the forbidden drink. I do give to charity whenever I can, but I imagine that this would not be enough to save me were I to have the misfortune, through an accident of birth or migration, to live in a place like Raqqa, Syria, where in the last two years, the group variously known as Daesh, ISIL, or ISIS has established a caliphate: a successor to past Islamic empires. Life in Raqqa reportedly follows rules that range from the horrifying to the absurd: The heads of people who have been executed are posted on spikes in the town’s main square; women must wear a niqab and be accompanied by a male companion when they go out; smoking and swearing are not allowed; chemistry is no longer taught in schools and traffic police are not permitted to have whistles because ISIS considers them un-Islamic. As part of its efforts to spread its message outside the territory it controls, ISIS puts out an English-language magazine, Dabiq, which can be found online. In February, Dabiq featured a 12-page article, complete with high-resolution photos and multiple footnotes, cheering the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 and claiming that they made manifest for the world two camps: the camp of Islam under the caliphate and the camp of the West under the crusaders. The article ran under the title “The Extinction
GETTY IMAGES / PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANADOLU AGENCY
of the Grayzone.” The gray zone is the space inhabited by any Muslim who has not joined the ranks of either ISIS or the crusaders. Throughout the article, these Muslims are called “the grayish,” “the hypocrites” and, for variety, “the grayish hypocrites.” On Nov. 13, men who had sworn allegiance to ISIS struck the city of Paris, killing 130 people at different locations mostly in the 10th and 11th arrondissements, neighborhoods that are known for their multiculturalism. As soon as I heard about the attacks, I tried to reach a cousin of mine, who is studying in Paris. I couldn’t. I spent the next two hours in a state of crushing fear until he posted on Facebook that he was safe. Relieved, I went back to scrolling through my feed, which is how I found out that my friend Najlae Benmbarek, a Moroccan journalist, lost her cousin. A recently married architect, Mohamed Amine Ibnolmobarak was eating dinner with his wife at the Carillon restaurant when an ISIS terrorist killed him. It was probably not a coincidence that the Paris attacks were aimed at restaurants, a concert hall, and a sports stadium, places of leisure and community, nor that the victims included Muslims. As Dabiq makes clear, ISIS wants to eliminate coexistence between religions and to create a response from the West that will force Muslims to choose sides: either they “apostatize and adopt” the infidel religion of the crusaders or “they perform hijrah to the Islamic State and thereby escape persecution from the crusader governments and citizens.” For ISIS to win, the gray zone must be eliminated. Whose lives are gray? Mine, certainly. I was born in one nation (Morocco) speaking Arabic, came to my love of literature through a second language (French) and now live in a third country (America), where I write books and teach classes in yet another language (English). I have made my home in between all these cultures, all these languages, all these countries. And I have found it a glorious place to be. My friends are atheists and Muslims, Jews and Christians, believers and doubters. Each one makes my life richer. This gray life of mine is not unique. I share it with millions of people around the world. My brother in Dallas is a practicing Muslim — he prays, he fasts, he attends mosque — but he, too, would be considered to be in the gray zone, because he despises ISIS and everything it stands for.
Most of the time, gray lives go unnoticed in America. Other times, especially when people are scared, gray lives become targets. Hate crimes against Muslims spike after every major terrorist attack. But rather than stigmatize this hate, politicians and pundits often stoke it with fiery rhetoric, further diminishing the gray zone. Every time the gray zone recedes, ISIS gains ground. The language that ISIS uses may be new, but the message is not. When President George W. Bush spoke to a joint session of Congress after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, he declared, “Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists.” It was a decisive threat, and it worked well for him in those early, confusing days, so he returned to it. “Either you are with us,” he said in 2002, “or you are with the enemy. There’s no in between.” This polarized thinking led to the United States invasion of Iraq, which led to the destabilization of the Middle East, which in turn led to the creation of ISIS. Terrorist attacks affect all of us in the same way: We experience sorrow and anger at the loss of life. For Muslims, however, there is an additional layer of grief as we become subjects of suspicion. Muslims are called upon to condemn terrorism, but no matter how often or how loud or how clear the condemnations, the calls remain. Imagine if, after every mass shooting in a school or a movie theater in the United States, young white men in this country were told that they must publicly denounce gun violence. The reason this is not the case is that we presume each young white man to be solely responsible for his actions, whereas Muslims are held collectively responsible. To be a Muslim in the West is to be constantly on trial. The attacks in Paris have generated the same polarization as all previous attacks have. Even though most of the suspects were French and Belgian nationals who could have gained entry to the United States on their passports, Republican governors in 30 states say that they will refuse to take in any refugees from Syria without even more stringent screening. Barely two days after the attacks, Jeb Bush told CNN’s Jake Tapper that the United States should focus its efforts only on helping Syrian refugees who are Christian. Ted Cruz went a step further, offering to draft legislation that would ban Muslim Syrian refugees from the United States. When he was asked by Dana Bash of CNN what would Autumn 2016 17
have happened to him if his father, a Cuban refugee who was fleeing communism, had been refused entry, he implied that it was a different situation because of the special risks associated with ISIS. As it happens, I am married to a son of Cuban refugees. Like Cruz’s father, they came to this country because America was a safe haven. What would have been their fate if an American legislator said that they could not be allowed in because the Soviet Union was trying to infiltrate the United States? The other day, my daughter said to me, “I want to be president.” She has been saying this a lot lately, usually the morning after a presidential debate, when our breakfast-table conversation veers toward the elections. My daughter is 12. She plays the violin and the guitar; she loves math and history; she’s quick-witted and sharp-tongued and above all she’s very kind to others. “I’d vote for you,” I told her. And then I looked away, because I didn’t have the heart to tell her that half the people in this country — in her country — say they would not vote for a Muslim presidential candidate. I worry about her growing up in a place where some of the people who are seeking the highest office in the land cannot make a simple distinction between Islam and ISIS, between Muslim and terrorist. Ben Carson said he “would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation.” Right now, my daughter still has the innocence and ambition that are the natural attributes of the young. But what will happen when she comes of age and starts to realize that her life, like mine, is constantly under question? How do you explain to a child that she is not wanted in her own country? I have not yet had the courage to do that. My daughter has never heard of the gray zone, though she has lived in it her entire life. Perhaps this is my attempt at keeping the world around all of us as gray as possible. It is a form of resistance, the only form of resistance I know. Laila Lalami, the University’s Schoenfeldt Series Visiting Writer this past spring, is the author most recently of the novel The Moor’s Account, the University’s Campus Reads selection in 2016. The 2017 Campus Reads is Anthony Doerr’s novel All the Light We Cannot See, and the author will be on campus on February 27. Details: Michele Leasor, leasor@up.edu.
THEIR BRUISED GRACE Photographs by Michael Schmitt The Macdonald Center (renamed the Maybelle Center this past summer) in Portland’s Old Town was founded 25 years ago by an ebullient exuberant energetic empathetic electric Holy Cross priest named Dick Berg. As pastor of what is now Saint Andre Bessette Church (named for the Holy Cross saint who said memorably I am only the wire who transmits blessings), Dick discovered what he called the city’s “invisible people” — men and women who lived under bridges, in shelters, in single-room-occupancy hotels and low-income housing, people who were often isolated, lonely, disabled, and ignored by the general populace. Dick organized volunteers, in teams of two, to visit these folks, coordinating the work as a non-profit entity; in 1999, hugely assisted by the late Maybelle Clark Macdonald, the Center opened a new 54-unit assisted-living facility for low-income people with disabilities. In 2012 the Center opened a 42unit low-income facility complete with first-floor offices for the staff. And today the Maybelle Center serves not only its 96 residents but 377 other “clients,” several of whom appear here, courtesy of the fine Portland photographer Michael Schmitt. ¶ The mission is simple: respect, safety, support, dignity, shelter, attention, witness, community. Christ liveth in me, said the prickly genius Saint Paul of Tarsus; and of course Christ liveth in each and every one of us. If we say we believe in the Christ, says Dick Berg, then the Christ is honored in all beings, and we owe that holiness our reverence, witness, the prayer of our attentiveness and our love. That is what the Maybelle Center has done for 25 years, and by the grace of the Mercy will do for another hundred or two. ¶ Over the last quarter of a century countless University students, faculty, staff, and friends have lent their energies, creativity, and generosity to the Center — most recently University president Father Mark Poorman, C.S.C., and nursing professor emeritus Susan Moscato, both of whom served on the Center’s board. The work is crucial, brave, hard, tiring, gentle, and holy. On this active communal prayer we ask the blessings of the One, and untold showers of generosity from everyone else. — Editor
Fr. Dick Berg, C.S.C.
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Mr Lincoln He gave his life for the extraordinary American idea. Do not let that idea die.
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e oversaw a savage war in which many hundreds of thousands of American boys and men died and hundreds of battles were fought on American soil and in American waters. Many thousands of boys and men from other countries died in the horrors also. Many thousands of girls and women were injured and raped and terrorized and hammered and haunted the rest of their days. He was often a melancholic man riven by sadness. He was so deeply private and guarded about his deepest feelings that even the people who knew him best did not know the bottomless depths of his faith in a Coherent Mercy. According to one friend he was utterly hapless at reading faces and motivations in others, though he was possessed of the deepest and most extraordinary empathy. Two of his three sons died as boys and he never recovered from such grievous losses of those he loved. He was sometimes so blunt and artless that people thought he was playing games upon their credulity. He loved lewd and vulgar and inane and rude jokes and laughed uproariously at them no matter what the company or the setting. He was apparently incapable of lying or disseminating or bending the truth. He said himself that he was all his life a fatalist, and believed that the Lord would make of him such a tool as was necessary for the times at hand. He was a poor manager of money and among the least ambitious of men as regards the getting and keeping of same, which is why he was always in debt or teetering on its precipice. He was by every account a homely man, with a bristling tangle of hair, and a lanky face like a cliff
of riven granite, and hands like the gnarled branches of an old tree. He was so cautious and meticulous and patient in his thinking that some people meeting him for the first time thought him simple. He was not simple in the least. He was the only man I ever knew the foundation of whose spirit was love, wrote a friend. He liked to carry his son on his shoulder and they walked everywhere hand in hand. He supervised and agonized over the war that murdered hundreds of thousands of people because he could not stand the idea of Americans not walking hand in hand toward the extraordinary country we could be, a country unlike any other that ever was, a country where all citizens are free to speak their hearts, and gather as they like, and worship whatever shape of holiness they perceive or imagine, and offer their love to whom they like. He would not allow his beloved country to fly apart because of greed and lies, and for that he was murdered by a man whose greatest wish was to tear America in half. It is a foul and evil lie of the mind and the heart and the mouth and the soul to account someone less because of his or her color or religion or gender or preference in lovers. That is a squirming lie, no matter how often, and at what volume, it is repeated. It is an ancient lie and it has cursed our species for a million years and God willing it will be quelled and squelched and forgotten in the years to come. It will be squelched not by laws and regulations, not by political or religious or judicial powers, but by shivers of dawning light in the hearts of men and women and children in Portland 24
this country who begin to dimly understand that Abraham Lincoln was the greatest of Americans not because he won a war, not because he gave his blood and his life for justice and freedom, but because the foundation of his spirit was love, and he acted that way. He was a devout man who called no one religion his home. As every religion claims to be an agent of holiness, so every political party claims to be the avatar of the best and deepest aspects of the American character and idea; but if that were so, we would begrudgingly hold hands, and reluctantly agree that we are equal each to each, and must treat each other with honesty and humility; that we will, by the grace of the profligate gifts granted us as Americans, stand for and speak for and defend and protect freedom anywhere and everywhere it is savaged; that we will continue to, as we have for centuries, open our golden door for the tired and the poor, the huddled masses, the wretched of the world, and here let them breathe free; and that differences in color and gender and religion and preference in love matter not at all when it comes to treating each other with respect and reverence. Those who fan and foment differences murder the revolutionary American idea, and ought to cower and gibber in shame in the vast shadow cast by Mr Abraham Lincoln, Republican of Kentucky, who gave his life for that idea. Brian Doyle is the editor of this magazine, and the author most recently of The Kind of Brave You Wanted to Be, a collection of “proems�.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PHOTO
By Brian Doyle
The death penalty does not deter crime, innocent people are tortured and murdered, and the Bible does not excuse and defend it. A death row chaplain speaks bluntly. By Dale Recinella
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he death penalty is a carryover from before the Bronze Age. Who would have imagined that in the 21st century, in the most technologically advanced country in the world, in a society that put people on the moon long ago, we would still be using techniques from five thousand years ago as an answer to violent crime? I used to be a supporter of the death penalty. I didn’t know anything about it. That’s the only way you can support the death penalty — to not know a thing about it. Because if you know anything about the death penalty, your support becomes qualified. “Well, I don’t support the execution of the innocent, I don’t support public executions…” But then what you’re supporting isn’t our death penalty. You’re supporting a myth that doesn’t exist. But, see, I didn’t know that; I didn’t know anything. I used to say, “I support the death penalty! It’s the least we can do for the poor family of the victim!.” I had no idea that it was absolutely the least we could do for the families of the murder victims. My change of heart came courtesy of the bishops of Florida, who asked me to write a brief for a death penalty case at the Florida Supreme Court. The bishops had never filed a brief in a death penalty case before. I dropped everything else I was doing and for ninety days immersed myself in the death penalty. What a horror show. I could not have imagined, as a practicing lawyer, that the legal structure whereby a democratic government takes the life of a citizen would be anything less than surgically precise. It would, I had imagined, guarantee that only the worst of the worst, only those who truly without any doubt had to be guilty, would be executed. But I was horrified. The reality of what a Rube Goldberg contraption the American death penalty system actually is horrified me. By the end of those ninety days I knew that as a lawyer I could not in any way, shape, or form support this legal monstrosity. How had I not known this? Had my church said anything about it? I was shocked to find out that yes, the Autumn 2016 27
Catholic bishops of the United States had been trying to kill the death penalty for years. They had launched a formal campaign against the death penalty in 1980 because it violates everything we believe about the value of human life. Then I almost died. It’s a long story, but I was told by my doctor that I wouldn’t see the next morning. I kissed my wife Susan goodbye. Our pastor gave me the last rites. And then I had the most amazing experience: I found myself standing before Christ. He wanted to know what the heck I was doing with His gifts. And I had to say I was only making piles of money. And then He asked me this: What about My people who are suffering? And I knew, I tell you I knew, in the center of my being, how selfish, how self-centered, how narcissistic my life was. My selfishness became so overwhelming to me that I couldn’t bear it. And I looked at Him and said “Give me another chance and I will do it different. I promise.” I don’t remember anything else from that night, but I awoke in the morning, healed. My wife and I went to a soup kitchen and started helping serve meals to the homeless, which led to getting to know the homeless, which led to realizing that a huge percentage of them were severely mentally ill, which meant getting into working with them as mentally ill people, which meant finding out that an awful lot of them were also veterans, and ill with AIDS. One day I got a call from a prison chaplain. “Brother Dale,” he says, “I’ve heard about the things you’re doing in the streets of Tallahassee. It’s a marvel what God has given you to do. Now, Brother Dale, I’ve got two thousand men in my prison, and nearly half are HIV positive, and I’ve got men dying, and I can’t get any Christians to come in and minister to them ‘cause they’re all scared! But you’re not scared. Will you come to my prison and take care of my inmates who are dying of AIDS?” And God help me, I did the Christian punt, as we call it down South. “I cannot tell you how honored I am that you would think God could call me to
ART © WAYNE THIEBAUD / LICENSED BY VAGA, NEW YORK, NY
THE ONLY WAY YOU CAN SUPPORT THE DEATH PENALTY IS TO NOT KNOW A THING ABOUT IT
GETTY IMAGES / PHOTOGRAPHER: ELIZA SNOW
this,” I said. “I will put it before the Lord and pray about it.” And I hung up and I turned to Susan and I said, “Absolutely not! There is no way God would ever ask me to go into a prison! I have trouble being in an elevator when the door closes!” Well — be careful what you teach your children. I came home a few days later and my wife and children were at the table with their bibles open, reading aloud: What you do for the least of my brethren, you do for me ... I went to prison, and I’ve never gotten out since. The cells on Death Row in Florida are six feet wide and nine feet deep. You can see the person in the cell through a steel mesh. You can stand there and talk, you can even give communion through the holes in the mesh. Don’t try to give the ashes through mesh for Ash Wednesday, though — you’ll spill them all over. I learned that. For Ash Wednesday you ask the officers to open the food-flap hole in the door, and you kneel on the concrete, and the inmate kneels on the concrete. Six feet wide... Most of the guys I see in Death Row can stand in the middle of their cell and touch both walls with their fingertips. There’s a steel toilet in the corner and the top of the toilet is a sink. There is a steel shelf with a wafer-thin mattress on it. That’s the bunk. There’s no airconditioning on Death Row. It gets to be 130 degrees on Death Row. Question: What’s our standard of care for human beings whom we are holding in cages until we kill them? What is our duty as human beings, one human being to another, in taking care of human beings whom we hold in cages until we kill them? Another question: What if it was somebody in your family in one of those cells? I never expected to do more than just go cell to cell, to all 400 men on death row. Not just Catholics; Florida’s Catholic bishops had made it very clear to me that I was to go to every cell and make sure that every man knew that the church values his life as a gift from God, no matter what he believes or doesn’t. Then I got a call one day from the warden. Brother Dale! This time it was a man about to be executed who had asked for me to be his spiritual advisor. His death was five weeks away. I was to get him ready to be on the receiving end of a homicide. The death certificate after an execution says CAUSE OF DEATH: HOMICIDE.
Ten percent of the people on death row in the United States are men and women who served in the armed forces and came back severely traumatized and with PTSD. Ten percent. Here’s one: a highly decorated Air Force crewman in Vietnam. He had his leg shot out from under him, he lost his leg, but he used his weapon to keep snipers away from his badly wounded crew, and he saved their lives. When he was later found guilty of a murder, the prosecutor used the description of his valor in battle to convince the jury that a man who was this fearless was too dangerous to have in open society and he needed to be sentenced to death. Three retired generals spoke out on Veteran’s Day last year and called on Congress to investigate why prosecutors in death-penalty states are using the service records and heroism medals of our veterans to get death sentences for them. Question: why is it that generals only speak out honestly after they are retired? Why is that? The death penalty is a welfare work program for state lawyers. The money’s not on the federal side, you know. The death penalty is where careers are made. That’s the truth. Follow the money. And did you know, as Oregon taxpayers, that if you canceled the death penalty, you’d save almost thirty million dollars? You have the death penalty here; you just don’t use it. But you still pay for it. I saw a man be executed. I watched him writhe and arch in agony on the gurney for over half an hour. Yes, I watched as a man was tortured to death by the State of Florida. I still have nightmares. My predecessor, Father Joe, he had nightmares, too. He watched a man be electrocuted by the State of Florida. Flames were shooting from the man’s head. He burned to death, screaming. Father Joe never could get those screams out of his head after that. The late Justice Antonin Scalia, God rest his soul, and Justice Clarence Thomas both have written legal opinions saying that the death penalty executes innocent people. Both explained that because the criminal justice system is a human system, it makes mistakes, and the only way to be sure we do not execute innocent people is to get rid of the death penalty. But that’s not a job for the Supreme Court, they said. That’s a job for state legislatures. Let me tell you something, though. If you have the
death penalty, you will have botched executions, because executions are done by human beings and human beings make mistakes. People tell me they support the death penalty but they don’t support executing the innocent. My answer is that they are supporting a fantasy. The death penalty they support doesn’t exist. In Florida we’ve had one person exonerated for every three people executed over the last forty years. That’s the death penalty we’ve got. You’re for the death penalty? You’re for electrocutions, hangings, firing squads,
The Catholic bishops of the United States have been trying to kill the death penalty for years because it violates everything we believe about the value of human life. injections? You’re for botched electrocutions, hangings, firing squads, injections? You’re for torturing and murdering innocent people? Why am I in Oregon? Because of Supreme Court math. The way the U.S. Supreme Court decides if a punishment is no longer constitutionally acceptable, because in the process of a maturing society our level of human decency and dignity has risen to the point that we no longer accept it, is by looking at how many states still have that punishment on their statutes and how many states don’t. If they looked at how many states are actually using the death penalty, it would already be gone. But they look at how many states have it on the books as a law, as an option that they can use if they decide to. When the number of states that don’t have it on their law books anymore becomes more than the number of states that have it, it’s no longer constitutionally acceptable under the Eighth Amendment applied Autumn 2016 29
to the states through the Fourteenth. That’s why I’m here. You’ve got a death penalty law in Oregon that’s costing you a fortune. You haven’t had an execution since 1997. You’ve got thirty-four people on death row. Surely you can keep track of thirtyfour people in a maximum-security in prison. You know how to make sure they don’t kill again. If you could get rid of your death penalty, we’re one notch closer to getting rid of it in Florida. I need for you to join the fight to abolish, repeal through a referendum, the death penalty in Oregon so that I don’t have to watch people writhe and scream and die anymore through a glass window from the witness room. One last note: anyone who quotes the Bible to support the death penalty isn’t reading the Bible in context. I’ve heard it all: An eye for an eye, a life for life, and Any man who takes a man’s life, by man shall his life be taken, and If thou be an evil doer, be afraid of government for government is the agent of God to bear the sword to avenge God’s wrath, and my favorite, John 19, the Passion of Christ, where Pilate says to Christ, Don’t you realize that I have the power of life and death over you? and what’s quoted so often to me is Jesus’ reply, You would not have such power if it had not been given to you by my father. Those are the big four. If you go to Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and say “I want to debate the death penalty,” those are the four scriptures they will bring up. But we don’t, as a society, actually exchange tooth for tooth, burn for burn, eye for eye, limb for limb, do we? That would be barbaric, we agree. We just do life for life. That’s not barbaric? We wouldn’t cut someone’s legs and arms off, but we would cut off a life? Where’s the intellectual honesty there? Are we to ignore the Ten Commandments? And what of the other commands in the Bible, such as you shall be put to death if you eat rare meat? Cherrypicking quotes you like to support your argument is an old game, but it’s not a very honest one. Dale Recinella is the Catholic chaplain on Florida’s death row, in Tallahassee. He is the author of the exhaustive The Biblical Truth About the Death Penalty and Now I Walk on Death Row: A Wall Street Finance Lawyer Stumbles Into the Arms of a Loving God. He was a guest of the University’s Garaventa Center for American Catholic Life in March; this essay is drawn from his moving speech that night.
things that silence me “I love you,” he said. “You are miracles and I love you, I love you, I love you...”
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pecifically, I am stunned and silenced by the miracles and horrors borne and witnessed by my students and fellow teachers. Some of the horrors are eating disorders. Razor scars on arms. Broken, swollen, yellow hands from punching walls and doors and the cinder-block side of the school. The casual way my students talk about the drugs they use. The terrified and awed and heartbroken ways they talk about the drugs their parents use. The Monday-morning hangovers that no longer surprise me. The matter-of-factness with which one young woman tells me she spent all night partying with the shipyard guys. Didn’t quit partying till dawn. Ship guys are hot, she said. Here are some of the miracles: Paige goes to treatment for two months and gains 20 pounds, despite the war inside her head. Shawna wears short sleeves and lets people ask about the angry purple lines on her arms. Sandy can still hold a pencil despite the bandage on her hand, and she keeps writing stories. They keep trying to kick the drugs. They keep answering the phones when their parents call, and they say “I love you” when they hang up. Even when they are hung-over they come to my class to read books. Kat, the young woman who stayed up all night partying and did not sleep, came from the shipyard straight to my class to read books. Here are some more horrors: So many of my students talk about de-
pression that it no longer seems like a disease. So many of them tell me they’ve thought about killing themselves, and so many have tried, that I take that information in stride. One young man, Sheldon, tried to kill himself by taking so many pills I don’t even remember the number, even though at the time I thought it would be one of those numbers that tattooed itself on my brain. Another shaggyhaired, blue-eyed young man, Colton, did kill himself by shooting himself in the head with a shotgun while his dad and brother were downstairs watching TV. His brother ran up and found Colton amidst splatter and gun smoke. Colton’s dad, a stoic blue-collar man with muscly hands, wept for days. Colton’s mom came into the office at school two days later and did not shed a tear. Just weeks ago another young man, Austin, killed himself. He was 17. More miracles: They keep fighting the depression, almost all of them. They fight it by talking about it. They fight it with stories. Melissa scribbled in her journal just two days ago, “I write to battle the hate.” Sheldon fought it at the very last second on Twitter, and his friend saw the desperate tweet and drove to Sheldon, and called 9-1-1, and sat with him until the ambulance raced him away. Two days after Colton died I walked into the principal’s office and I saw Colton’s Carhartt coveralls, the ones he wore in Ag-Mech, folded neatly on the floor
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by the principal’s desk. There was a note on them that said, “Sam.” Sam is Colton’s dad. When a student dies, the district office emails each teacher a careful and benign one-paragraph statement, and tells us in which period we should read it to our students. When Austin died, my friend Olsen got the one-paragraph statement via email. When the rest of Olsen’s students arrived for class, he faced them across Austin’s bellowing empty desk. But Olsen did not read the statement. He looked at his students very seriously and he told them Austin was dead. And then he walked to the desk of a young woman in the front row and he took her hand and he looked square in her eyes and he told her exactly why he was happy to have her in his class. Then he went to the next desk and took the next student’s hand and looked in his eyes. He spend the rest of the class period making certain that each of his students knew why he valued them, and knew that if one day they doubted their worth, and decided to remove themselves from the planet, he for one would weep salty heartbroken tears. He had different words for each student, but the words meant the same thing. I love you, he told them. You are miracles and I love you, I love you, I love you. Jeremiah O’Hagan is a writer and teacher in Washington state.
JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT / © THE ESTATE OF JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT / ADAGP, PARIS / ARS, NEW YORK 2016
By Jeremiah O’Hagan
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A NEW SORT OF REST On trying to pray the Rosary again, after fifteen years and so many scars...
By Erin White
AP PHOTO / STEVEN SENNE, FILE
n a morning last September I stood in a fallow field trying to pray the Rosary. I say trying because it had been fifteen years since I last prayed the Rosary, so now I fumbled with the beads and lost track of the prayers as crickets bumped against my legs and wild turkeys watched from the field’s wooded edge. I was crying while I tried to pray, and laughing when I forgot the words and had to rummage for my notes, and dropping the rosary beads in the dirt. But at least I was standing, which was better than the days before, when I went to the field with my rosary beads only to lay down on the ground, tears rolling into my ears. I first learned to pray the Rosary when I was twenty-four and converting to Catholicism. I was a striver, and so I memorized the prayers and recited them each morning. But after my conversion I fell in love with a woman, and no longer felt welcome in what is supposed to be the home for all hearts. I put away the rosary beads, and over time I relinquished the Catholic Church entirely. When my three-year-old daughter found my rosary beads in a drawer and asked if she could have them I told her she could. But then my friend James Foley was killed and I needed my rosary beads again. People were surprised to learn I knew Jim. “Were you close?” they asked skeptically. I don’t blame them. I live in rural Massachusetts. I volunteer in the school garden. It seemed unlikely that the first American executed by the fundamentalist murderers called Daesh would be my close friend. But I said, “Yes, we were close.” I met Jim in 2000, when we were both twenty-seven years old. After a few shared workshops he and his friends asked me to be in their writing group. They were a year ahead of me in school, so their invitation was both flattering and intimidating. What if they didn’t like my story? What if they didn’t like me? At our first meeting Jim drank my beer because I was too nervous to drink and Shauna pushed her plate of fries across the table to me. They let me in on all their running jokes, and told me how much they liked my story. Later, when we were walking to our cars, Jim said, “It was cool, having you,” and he put up his hand for a high five, closed his fingers around mine, pulled me toward him for a moment. For the first time since I had arrived at school I felt the joy of belonging.
I began to meet with them each week, at their apartments, in bars, in empty classrooms. Sometimes I could coax everyone to my house, which was two towns over from campus. On those days I spent the afternoon cooking when I should have been writing, chopping vegetables and re-reading Julia Child’s instructions on how to truss a chicken. When everyone arrived they would exclaim over the smells from the kitchen, teasing me about my domesticity, about my spice rack and houseplants and claw-foot bathtub. I didn’t even pretend to mind. These four were the friends I’d been looking for, because they were gifted and gracious writers, and also because they were Catholics, living somewhere in the land between practicing and lapsed. I admired the ease with which they wrote about belief —
both fervent and diminished. I didn’t tell any of them about my botched conversion, and we didn’t often speak about faith. But they were natives in a world I still longed to enter, and while this sometimes made me jealous, it also made them all the easier to love. Jim went on to journalism school; I had a baby. By the time my second daughter was born, Jim had been an embed in Afghanistan and a freelancer in Iraq. And when that baby turned two, Jim was taken captive in Libya and held for forty-four days. After his release, I wanted him to stay home. Why not get a desk job, meet a nice girl, file stories about climate change and campaign finance reform? I didn’t actually say these things to Jim. I cried with relief, but I didn’t call him. From what I could tell he now had millions of friends
— creative, connected, political friends — all over the world. His life seemed so big, while mine felt both overwhelming and mundane. My world was my children and my marriage and the writing I was trying to do and not getting done. I didn’t know what any of that could mean to Jim. When, in 2012, I got the email telling me Jim had been taken captive in Syria, I was annoyed. Really, Jim? That’s what I remember thinking. Syria? Annoyance helped to mask the sinking terror. I didn’t see how anyone — even Jim — could be lucky enough to be released twice. I was on vacation when I got the news of Jim’s death. It was Shauna who called. “It’s Jimmy,” she said in her message. “It’s bad news. Call me, and don’t go on the Internet.” For a little while I followed Shauna’s advice. But after we returned
I saw it in print. I once had a friend with that name. One night I found an interview from the days after Jim returned from Libya. Jim told the interviewer that he prayed the Rosary every day of his captivity, keeping track of the prayers on his knuckles because he didn’t have beads. He knew his mother and grandmother would also be praying the Rosary, and he wanted to reach them though those prayers. I didn’t finish reading the interview. I got up from the computer and went into my sleeping daughter’s room. I found my rosary beads on her dresser, although their crucifix was missing; she had taken it off and glued it above the doorway of her toy chicken coop. I took the beads to the living room and for a long time I just held them, a pool of wooden beads in my palm. I tried to remember the Rosary’s prayers, but couldn’t recall even one. I felt like an imposter. I started walking back to my daughter’s room to put the beads away, but then I stopped. I had lost so many chances to reach Jim, what if this was my last? I went to the computer, and Googled “praying the Rosary.” I wrote out all the prayers on small pieces of paper that I could keep with me during the day. I taped The Apostle’s Creed to the fridge. I propped the Hail Holy Queen against a hand shovel while I weeded the garden. I felt foolish but kept at it; giving myself a few lines to learn each day and then adding a few more the next, like sections of cloth I was sewing together. It takes a while to pray the Rosary, which is how I ended up in the field on that September morning. I didn’t want to be interrupted. I didn’t want anyone to know what I was doing, considering I didn’t know what I was doing. After I fumbled and wept my way through the first prayers (the Apostles’ Creed, an Our Father, three Hail Marys and a Glory Be) I wiped my tears on my sleeve, determined to make it all the way through. I checked my notes and went on to reciting Mysteries. The Mysteries are the defining events of Jesus’ life. There are twenty in all, divided into four groups: Sorrowful, Luminous, Joyful, and Glorious. Each day of the week has a set of Mysteries assigned to it, but I had decided to stick with the Luminous ones because Jim was nothing if not luminous. I conjured the first Luminous Mystery — the baptism of Jesus. I recited the ten accompanying Hail Marys. I recited the Glory Be. After the first mystery I wasn’t crying, and I was moving fast. I was Autumn 2016 35
onto the second Mystery, then the third. And all those Hail Marys. The Hail Mary isn’t hard to remember; it had the even rhythm of a heartbeat so you can speed up and not get jumbled. My fingers moved from one bead to the next and the prayers tumbled out: ten Hail Marys, a Glory Be, an Our Father, ten more Hail Marys — until I heard myself say, Oh Jim. Startled, I stopped praying. I held the beads still in my hand. I said it again. Jim. And just like that it was his name again. I saw his face then, and it was not the face of photographs. It was the face of memory; of the buoyant young man whose existence I had begun to doubt. But he did exist. I knew that now. He was driven and restless, but he didn’t contain the dark future. He was entirely himself; he was having a wonderful time. And I was lucky enough to be having it with him. And here’s the strange thing. After I said Jim’s name, after I saw his face, the sky changed. It became a breathing thing, tipping from one horizon to another. It was entirely visible yet impossible to touch. It was Jim. I watched the clouds move as the air filled with his kind sturdiness. I wanted to stay with him all day, to lie again on the dirt, this time only so I could see the sky more fully. I wanted to stay until the stars emerged. But Jim was close enough now that I could hear him laugh at the idea. Close enough that I could feel him sending me back down the hill. But before I went I prayed the last prayer of the Rosary, the Hail Holy Queen. Or I should say I read it, from a slip of paper that remains in my coat pocket today. I once wanted to be a Catholic because it was the religion of everyday miracles. Catholicism was about training your eye to see the hand of God in the world. I once thought of the Rosary as part of that magic, the way it both cataloged and conjured miracles. But the Rosary is just an imposition of order. It is a discipline and a ritual; a place for the frantic or grieving mind to go so the heart can fly around a bit — like those crickets in the field — until it finds a new sort of rest, a peace that, as the bible verse goes, passes all understanding. I believe in new things since I began praying the Rosary again. I believe in the return of old friends and in the lasting freedom of death. I believe that Jim came to me in the field, and that he waits there for me still. Erin White is a writer in Massachusetts.
GETTY IMAGES / PHOTOGRAPHER: JUAN MABROMATA
home from vacation I began staying up late, looking at pictures of Jim on the Internet. Not the ones taken in the last minutes of his life — I still haven’t looked at those — but pictures taken in Afghanistan and Iraq, in Libya, and New York. As I scrolled through, as I opened window after window, I burned with embarrassment. Who was I to grieve James Foley? Who was I to mourn the death of this handsome war correspondent, this seriouslooking man in the helmet and flak jacket, the one eulogized by worldfamous journalists, by the president and the pope? With every picture, Jim moved further from me, I knew him less. Had theJim I knew — that young man who knew nothing of the horrors to come — ever existed? Even his name began to cleave from him. How strange, I thought when
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Great To See You At Reunion 2016!
Nearly 1,200 alumni joined us back on The Bluff to reconnect with old friends and classmates at Reunion 2016. Highlights from the weekend included the GOLD Backyard Bash for young alumni on Thursday night, the Tapas Time social in the Pilot House on Friday, and, of course, Saturday’s big Welcome Home BBQ. Additionally, we celebrated the 50-year anniversary of the Class of 1966 and the 65th anniversary of spirit fraternity Upsilon Omega Pi. Thank you to all those who joined us!
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selected by a panel of expert judges, will be recreated and served at local brewery Grixsen Brewing. Congratulations to our fest award-winners: Doug Franz ’09 (Best of Show), Matt Brubaker ’01 (People’s Choice Award), Joe Horlacher ’09 (Most Drinkable), and Joseph Tanner ’10 & Dan Fitch ’05 (Most Creative).
New Alumni Website
This August, the University began transitioning to a new and improved website. Our new alumni site includes more detailed information about our regional chapters and upcoming alumni events, plus it’s now mobile-friendly, so whip out your phone and check it out at up.edu/alumni.
Four-Pack ticket package. To purchase your ticket package, contact the Pilots Box Office at 503.943.7525.
Life After UP: Home Sweet Home, Interior Design
Life After UP is an educational series that covers a range of topics designed to help students and graduates thrive as they navigate the world outside The Bluff. Join us on Thursday, September 15, as Amy Pearson ’04 leads a workshop focused on interior design tricks and tips. Find more information at up.edu/alumni.
Alumni Family Day Soccer, Oct. 2
GOLDs (Graduates of the Last Decade) are invited to a guided tasting of ciders at Bushwhacker Cider’s Woodlawn cider pub on Thursday, October 20. RSVP at up.edu/alumni.
Cheer on the UP women’s soccer team as they take on Loyola Marymount, and use our special $20 Alumni Family
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annual Brunch with Santa. $15 for adults and $7 for kids ages 2-12 years. Price includes brunch and a photo with Father Christmas himself. RSVP at alumni@up.edu.
Upcoming Regional Alumni Events
Head to up.edu/alumni to view upcoming regional events hosted by our chapters in Seattle, the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Hawaii, Denver, Chicago, the Twin Cities, and Washington D.C., and be sure that we have your updated address so we know which chapter’s e-newsletter to send to you. Go to up.edu/update to update your address.
Theology On Tap, Nov. 6
Join the Portland Alumni Chapter and special guest Fr. Ed Obermiller, C.S.C., for a fun, family-friendly evening at Lucky Lab Brewery. More information to come at up.edu/ alumni.
Alumni Showcase Brews At Homebrewers Fest
In July, 150 alumni and friends joined the Office of Alumni Relations at the Pilot House for the first UP Brewers Fest. Nine alumni homebrewers contributed beers to the event and the “Best of Show” brew, which was
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GOLD Tasting Series: Bushwhacker Cider, Oct. 20
Welcome, Twin Cities!
This summer, we officially launched the ninth UP regional chapter with a pizza pregame and baseball game in St. Paul, Minnesota. 30 alumni, parents, donors, and incoming students joined in on the fun. If you’d like to get involved with our Twin Cities Chapter or any other UP regional chapter, please contact Sara Grzelka at grzelka@up.edu.
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Chef’s Table Dinner, Nov. 12
After a year-long hiatus, Chef’s Table is back! Get a sneak peek into the inner workings of the Bauccio Commons kitchen as you dine on a multicourse meal prepared by Bon Appétit’s expert chefs. $85 per person. Limited to 20 participants. To reserve your seat, contact the Office of Alumni Relations at alumni@up.edu or 503-943-7328.
Brunch With Santa, Dec. 4
Alumni and their families are invited to join us on Sunday, December 4 for our second
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Save The Date For Reunion 2017, June 22-25
Mark your calendars to return home to The Bluff next summer from June 22-25, 2017. We’ll toast the 50-year anniversaries of both the Class of 1967 and Shipstad Hall, and celebrate all classes ending in 2 and 7. You can look forward to an amazing Welcome Home Barbecue, class photos, University museum displays, induction of the newest members of the 50 Year Club, tours of local points of interest, and lots of face time with classmates and family members on the beautiful University of Portland campus. If you would like to serve as a class representative for your year, please contact Anna Horlacher 12 at horlache@ up.edu or 503-943-8505.
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The University’s first telephone number, observes museum curator Carolyn Connolly, was not a number at all: In our first year (1901-1902) callers were just connected with “Columbia University,” which boasted one phone, in Waldschmidt Hall. Christie Hall, the first dorm, eventually got a pay phone for students, “right next to the steam pipe... so you sweated profusely while you made your calls,” as the annals record. Later general University numbers included UNiversity 2626, UNiversity 1641, TWinoaks 8841, TWinoaks 5541, and BUtler 9-5541; today the general number is 503-943-8000. The first private telephone in a dorm room was installed in 1957 in Christie by a sophomore student named Don Gorger; today, of course, there are probably more private phones than there are students. Our thanks to Carolyn and the University Archives for this entertaining photograph. Do we welcome gifts to help the museum and the archives? Sure we do. Call Kara McManus at 503.943.7460. Autumn 2016 37
C L A S S Fifty Year Club
Mitchell W. Heinemann, Jr. ’41 passed away on July 4, 2016, at the age of 98. Mitchell attended Oregon State University and the University of Portland before transferring to Reed College, from which he graduated in June 1941. He entered the University of Oregon Medical School (now Oregon Health Sciences University) in September 1941 and graduated with a Doctor of Medicine degree in September 1944. He served an internship at the Multnomah County Hospital and immediately thereafter entered the U.S. Armed Services. He received his honorable discharge in July 1947 with a grade of captain. He was associate pathologist at Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center, Portland and remained there, eventually becoming director of the laboratory. He retired in 1969. Survivors include his loving wife, Elaine; children, Mitchell Heinemann III, Shirley Heinemann, Ronald Heinemann, Lamont Willson, Brad Wallingford, Debbie Wiley, Joe Heinemann and Julie Strader; and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Our prayers and condolences to the family. David Maks ’42 died on June 6, 2016, in Eugene, Ore., from heart failure, at the age of 92. Dave was a child prodigy accordionist at 9 years of age. He loved making music playing the accordion and the piano. He was attending Columbia Preparatory School, now the University of Portland, when World War II began. He joined the United States Navy and served as a second class signalman in the Pacific Theater aboard the U.S.S. Arneb. After surviving TB and malaria, he returned to Portland to attend business school and entered the Veterans Administration as a stenographer; he would work there for the next 43 years. He took great pride in assisting veterans and their families from all walks of life. Dave was preceded in death by his parents, brother Stephen, sister Marlene, three wives (Carma, Jacqueline, and Rebecca) and his son, Joseph. He is survived by children, Kathleen (Mike), Stephen (Claudia), Suzanne, David (Mercedes), Christin, and Shannon (Honor). He is also survived by 12 grandchildren, 11 great grandchildren and 8 loving nieces and nephews. In lieu of flowers, donations to Catholic Charities would be appreciated. Our prayers and condolences to the family.
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Walter Niebuhr ’50 passed away on April 21 2016, at Samaritan Evergreen Hospice House with his family by his side. He attended all Catholic schools in Portland, and went into the Navy immediately after graduating from Central Catholic High School in 1945. He served in World War II in the Philippine islands as a brig guard for the 3rd Fleet. He was
N O T E S Mines as a research physicist for 30 years, retiring in 1986. Elaine preceded him in death in 2000; survivors include his daughter Judi and her husband Ron. Our prayers and condolences to the family. Benjamin Edward Tabler ’51 passed away on Saturday, June 19, 2016 in Clackamas, Ore. He was born on July 17, 1929, in Portland, Ore., to Stephen and
A follow up to our notice on the death of legendary Portland drummer Chic Colburn ’66: “My aunt Roberta said you were interested in a picture of my dad for your alumni magazine,” writes Emily Baginski, Chic’s daughter. “This is his high school graduation picture, taken in 1962, the same year he attended UP. We really appreciate your remembering Dad in your magazine.” Thank you, Emily, for gracing our magazine with a photo that captures a lot about your Pop. Our prayers for your loss. fond of saying that he did nine months in the brig during the war. When he returned from the Navy, Walt enrolled at UP under the G.I. Bill, and graduated with a degree in physics and math. Shortly after graduating from college he met Elaine Schnell, and they were married in 1957. Daughter Judi appeared in Albany in 1958. Walt worked at the Bureau of
Catherine Tabler. Benjamin is survived by his loving family. Our prayers and condolences. Mary Brady Sengstake ’52 died on November 22, 2015, after a short battle with cancer. Her long career was both remarkable and simple: she had a true gift for nursing. Mary offered skill, amazing medical intuition, deep compassion, empathy, and caring to pa-
Portland 38
tients, families, and colleagues alike. She worked as a private duty nurse and with St. Vincent Hospital before landing at her career home with the Veterans Administration Hospital of Portland. At the VA, she cared for men and women who served their country and who now needed her most. Single motherhood brought struggles and challenges, but Mary built a home of love and strong family bonds which continue today. Over her eighty-five years, Mary lived a life of service to her children, to her patients and their families, to her friends, and to her community. Survivors include brother, Robert; children, Seana Sengstake Stong (Jeff), Pollie Sengstake, and Cord Dana Sengstake (Katie); and grandchildren, Julia, Joseph, Quinn, Sophie, and Freddy. In lieu of flowers, please send donations to Portland Rescue Mission (portlandrescuemission.org). Our prayers and condolences to the family. We heard recently from Frank Reichert ’52, who writes: “Henry Pfenning, engineering class of 1952, passed away on May 16, 2016. After graduation he worked for Lockheed for over 30 years, mostly in what is known as the Skunk Works, where he participated in the design of many top secret and highly successful aircraft for the U.S. military.” Thank you for letting us know, Frank, and our prayers and condolences for the loss of your friend. Henry Pfenning passed away peacefully at home, surrounded and comforted by his family, on May 16, 2016. He lived to the respectable age of 85. He enjoyed golfing, traveling, and being in the company of his family and friends. He was very involved in his children’s and grandchildren’s lives, as well as being very active in the church. Survivors include his loving wife of 62 years, Alice Jean Pfenning (nee Reichert), with whom he shared the deepest of love. He was a caring father of seven children: Henry, Mary, Ann, Karen, Robert, James, and David; he had18 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. Our prayers and condolences to the family. Wayne Olmscheid ’53 passed away on June 4, 2016, in Astoria, Ore. Wayne served in the United States Marine Corps during the final years of World War II, then worked for Fred Myer for a number of years, becoming a store manager. In September of 1954, Wayne commenced what became a 33-year career in education.
C L A S S He coached and taught in Athena, Ore., for three years before becoming principal there. In 1965 Wayne became principal at Captain Robert Gray in Astoria. Three years later he opened John Jacob Astor when it became an elementary school. He continued there until his retirement in 1987. Wayne married Ada Elizabeth (Betty) Nicholson on May 11, 1954, in Vancouver, Wash. They were married for nearly 57 years. Betty passed away in April of 2011, Wayne by her side, at their home in Astoria. Survivors include Becky and Danny Cotter, Bonnie and Donnie Strowmatt, Ethan Cox, and numerous nieces and nephew and their families. Our prayers and condolences to the family. Charles T. Allen ’56 passed away on June 9, 2016, in Forest Grove, Ore. He was known by a number of monikers over his long life: “Buddy,” “Chuck,” “Chubby,” and his favorite when introducing himself, “Up-Chuck” Allen. Chuck attended Portsmouth Grade School until the 5th grade, when, with the addition of brother Gary, they moved to a larger home on NE 31st Ave. off of Fremont, where he enrolled at Alameda Grade School in 1940. He attended Grant High School, and was president of the student council, sang in the choir, and played left end and kicked extra points on the Grant Generals football team. In 1946 he earned momentary fame when his kick straight through the goal posts won Grant the state championship 7-6, against Hood River. Because of the accuracy of his field goal he acquired the name “The Educated Toe.” A plumber by trade, he was drafted into the military in 1955 and discharged in 1957. He married his wife, Ginger, on September 8, 1950, at First Presbyterian Church in downtown Portland; children Tom, Terri, and Tami soon followed. Retirement provided more time for travel, hobbies, and beach trips to the family cabin at Tierra Del Mar. Chuck was by all accounts a devoted family man, lover of all things Oregon, and hard worker. Our prayers and condolences to the family. Glenn Pelikan ’59 passed away on June 13, 2016. He went to work at Tektronix as an electrical engineer in the Patient Monitoring Products Division, where he was the research and development manager for medical products and negotiator for government contracts. That division was spun-off in
1981, becoming Spacelabs Medical, Inc., where Glenn held the position of executive vice president. Glenn was founder of Promise to Oregon and worked tirelessly for tort reform in the state through Oregon Litigation Fairness. His belief was that good leaders should first be good people. He was a life-long member of St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church, where he as-
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N O T E S and served as a rheumatologist at Alhambra Clinic in Los Angeles for 30 years, retiring in 2007. He served as a captain in the U.S. Army from 1965 to 1968, in the medical division in Dexheim, Germany. He and his first wife, Constance, moved to Pasadena in 1969, where they raised their children, Michael, Francis, Ann, and Laura. “He will be re-
ferent countries, and I also directed them twice at Carnegie Hall in 2012 and 2015. I will be directing a group at Carnegie as a guest conductor this coming May, in 2017. I still have relatives and friends in Vancouver, Washington, so I visit there quite often. I am coming up this week so I hope to drop by the Reunion on Thursday or Friday. Please check my websites: Doreenirwin.com, where you will see I still have a choir, Doreen Irwin Singers, in post retirement. I’m also involved in art and ranching (horses have always been a big hobby). You can see more about that at shandoniranch.com. My maiden name was Doreen Voeller, and I married Ken Irwin, who I met in the U of P choir. We have three grown children who are involved in music, horses, and sales. My marriage did not work out, but I have moved on and all is well.” Thanks so much for writing, Doreen, we’ll be sure to take a look at your post-retirement projects. Glenn P. Dorn Sr. ’63 passed away on April 27, 2016. Glenn met his wife, Valerie Jean Lamm, while attending Yakima Valley Junior College, and they married in 1954. He became a teacher in Yakima and earned his Ph.D. in 1974 at the University of Oregon. He was assistant superintendent of schools in Klamath Falls, Ore., and later superintendent of schools for the Jefferson School DisWe recently got a bon voyage message from Mary trict. After retiring he traveled Malone ’76, who writes: “My classmates and I loved extensively with Valerie, their our 40th UP reunion in June. A group of 13 of us left children, and their grandchildren, visiting nearly every U.S. that Sunday for a week in Alaska on Holland Amstate, Canada, Mexico, and Germany. Survivors include his erica. We are already planning our next adventure brother Jack (Judy); his wife together. I know UP has sponsored tours in the past. Valerie; four children: Marilyn, Glenn, Jr., Annmarie (Robert), Any future planned holidays?” Thanks Mary, we’ll and Steve (Kim); nine grandhave to work on that. children, three great-grandchildren; and sister-in-law Betty sumed leadership on a variety membered for his dedication, Heilman. Our prayers and conof remodeling and installation laughter, and generosity,” ac- dolences to the family. projects for both the church cording to Mary. Our prayers Donald Hing Ning Yee ’64 and the school. Glenn was and condolences to the family. passed away on January 26, active in the community in a We heard recently from 2016, in Honolulu. He was a variety of capacities for such Doreen Voeller Irwin ’61, who retired counselor for King Inorganizations as Northwest writes: “I saw that you are termediate School and McKinFamily Services, Loaves and looking for updates on past ley High School, and an Army Fishes, Cascade Pacific Council students. I’ve written in before, veteran. He is survived by his of the Boy Scouts of America, but somehow have not noticed wife, Violet; sons, Jeffrey and the Portland Marathon, SERRA any news from me. I am from Darren; daughter, Donnalyn Club, Central Catholic High way in the past but still doing Yamamoto; brother, Gareth; School, University of Portland, well. I graduated in 1961 from sisters, Lily Wong and Margaret and the Archdiocese of Port- the University of Portland and Chin; and six grandchildren. land. Glenn Pelikan epitomized got a master’s in music educa- Our prayers and condolences the triumph of the human spirit tion in 1962. Long story short, to the family. over adversity. Our prayers and I’ve had a great career as a The Oregon Zoo Foundation condolences to Glenn’s extend- music teacher, and just retired has elected Bob Maloney ’64 ed “family” at St. Rose Parish. from Sacramento City College as chairman of its Advocacy Richard M. Hollcraft ’60 pas- in Sacramento, California in Committee and to serve on sed away on July 9, 2016, in 2013. I taught in high schools the Executive Committee of its Gilbert, Ariz., according to his and junior high and the com- Board of Directors. The Founsister, Mary Hollcraft Milden- munity college for a total of 50 dation’s mission is to foster berger ’64. Richard was a doctor years. My choirs toured 17 dif- community pride and involve Autumn 2016 39
C L A S S ment in the Oregon Zoo, and to secure financial support for the zoo’s conservation, education, and animal welfare programs. Susan Marjorie Gratton Nichols ’64, of Auburn, Calif., passed away peacefully at her home on June 7, 2016, at the age of 73. She obtained a scholarship to study at the University of Portland, where she graduated with honors and was inducted into the national scholastic honor society Delta Epsilon Sigma, as well as the national dramatic fraternity Alpha Psi Omega, and the national professional speech arts fraternity Zeta Phi Eta. She later pursued graduate studies in theater history at the State University of Iowa and psychology at the University of Nevada Reno. During her sophomore year in Portland, she declared a major in speech and drama and began a work-study job in the drama department, sparking a deep passion for theater which continued throughout Susan’s life. Susan became an expert in all forms of stage craft, and went on to perform in, produce, and author a number of works in the many communities she called home. Among her favorite roles were Eleanor of Aquitaine in The Lion in Winter for Reno Little Theater, Madame Rosepettle in Oh Dad, Poor Dad for Sparks Civic Theater, Fraulein Schneider in Cabaret for the Nevada Repertory Theater, and Golde in Fiddler on the Roof for Hadassah at John Ascuaga’s Nugget. Perhaps her fondest theater memory was directing her dear friend Juila Lemaire in the one-woman show The Belle of Amherst for Sparks Civic Theater, which the two ultimately took on tour. She also authored, directed, and produced several plays in American Sign Language and received numerous awards. In the late 1960s, Susan was an integral member of a ground-breaking research team which successfully taught American Sign Language to chimpanzees at the University of Nevada Reno. Survivors include her siblings, James Gratton, Judith Wintermute, Jeanette Chardon, Colette Hawkins, Tracy Mitchell, and John Gratton; daughter, Marta Nichols Hubly; and grandchildren, Mira Hubly and Grant Hubly. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests friends attend theater performances to honor her memory or consider donations to Placer Community Theater in Auburn, Palm Springs Art Museum in Palm Springs, or Bay Area Cancer Connections in Palo Alto. Our prayers and condolences to the family.
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Mike Merzenich ’64 has been awarded the 2016 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience by the Norwegian Academy of Science for his work in documenting the fundamental plasticity of the human brain. Merzenich shares the prize with fellow neuroscientists Eve Marder of Brandeis University and Carla
N O T E S Sciences in 1999 and the Institute of Medicine in 2008. Merzenich was on the team that invented the cochlear implant, which gained FDA approval in 1984 and is now used by over 200,000 people worldwide to restore their sense of hearing. He is also the founding CEO of Scientific Learning Corpor-
lives of our alumni. This year’s 50 Year Club induction at Reunion was a great event, but we couldn’t help but wish even more 50 year (and more!) alumni could have been there to share their stories. Please take a few minutes to let your classmates know what’s going on in your life by sharing in “Class Notes.” It’s as easy as emailing mcovert@up.edu. Now that the dust has cleared from our 2016 Reunion, it’s time to start planning for 2017. While we welcome alumni from any and all years to come back to The Bluff, we also like to honor those whose class years celebrate five, ten, fifteen, twenty (and so on) year anniversaries. We will honor classes ending in 2 and 7 in 2017, so please start planning now, Classes of ’42, ’47, ’52, ’57, ’62, and ’67!
’71 Prayers, Please
Reunion 2016 was a resounding success, with alumni from across the decades coming home to The Bluff in droves. We welcomed the newest members of our 50 Year Club, the Class of 1966, and caught up with plenty of our regular attendees, like Dave ’73 and Jean (Ducyk) Lux ’82, doing their best version of American Gothic, above, and Constance Courtney ’76 (left). See more Reunion photos at http://www.up.edu/alumni. Schatz of Stanford University. Mike attended the University on a merit scholarship and was inspired to pursue neuroscience by biology professor Blondel Carleton. After finishing as his class’s valedictorian at UP, Merzenich attended Johns Hopkins University, earned his Ph.D. in neurophysiology in 1968, and completed a fellowship in sensory physiology from the University of Wisconsin in 1971. He joined the faculty of at the University of California San Francisco in 1971 and retired in 2007 as Francis A. Sooy Professor and co-director of the Keck Center for Integrative Neuroscience. Among many academic honors and appointments, Merzenich was elected to the National Academy of
ation, which markets and distributes software that applies principles of brain plasticity to assist children with language learning and reading problems. He was awarded the 2015 Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ Prize, the bioengineering profession’s highest honor, thanks to his work with cochlear implants. The Kavli Prizes are presented every two years in the fields of neuroscience, astrophysics, and nanoscience, and recognize scientists for pioneering advances in the understanding of existence at its biggest, smallest, and most complex scales. Congratulations, Mike, Dr. Carleton would have been very proud! Speaking of proud, the University is always proud to hear about what’s going on in the
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Anthony Burke Gerharz passed away on Saturday, February 21, 2015, at his home in Creston, Iowa. After his graduation from UP he went on to work as an accountant for the National Park Service at Yellowstone National Park. He married Ellen Rummel in Rawlins, Wy., and they lived and worked throughout southern California and Montana. They moved to Los Angeles for Anthony’s job as CFO for Thomas Nix, then returned to Montana. In 1999, they moved to Creston, where Burke did accounting for Papetti’s and for Southern Iowa Resources for Families. Survivors include his wife, Ellen Gerharz; daughters, Jennifer Gerharz and Jessica (Isaiah) Scales; son, Anthony Gerharz, Jr.; his fourlegged son, Baron and granddog, Gus; sisters, Christie (Thomas) Gorman and Julie (Ben) Webinger; and brother, John (Diane) Gerharz. In lieu of flowers, memorials are to the Creston Endowment Fund held at South Central Iowa Community Foundation. Online condolences can be given at www.powersfh.com. Our prayers and condolences to the family. Richard C. Johnson ’71 passed away on June 20, 2012, in Gladstone, Ore. He was born in Oregon City and served in the U.S. Air Force from 1950 to 1954. On February 20, 1959, he married Alverna Lindau. Survivors include Alverna; daughter, Rhonda Cullens; son-in-law Chane Cullens; grandsons Cody and Chad Cullens; and sister, Shirley Updenkelder. Our prayers and condolences.
C L A S S ’72 An Honored Year
Now that the dust has cleared from our 2016 Reunion, it’s time to start planning for 2017. While we welcome alumni from any and all years to come back to The Bluff, we also like to honor those whose class years celebrate five, ten, fifteen, twenty (and so on) year anniversaries. We will honor classes ending in 2 and 7 in 2017, so please start planning now, Class of ’72!
from UCLA, he took a memorable postdoctoral fellowship in Sweden. Before returning to the U.S., he and his wife traveled and camped for seven months in Europe. He later earned an M.B.A. from the University of Portland. Jerry had a long career in the hightech industry at DuPont, Tek-
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N O T E S ’81 Congrats, Doug!
Douglas A. Hensler, former provost of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., has been named dean of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay’s Austin E. Cofrin School of Business. Hensler will also serve as special assistant to the Chancellor for Business Part-
’76 Mari’s Update
G.Mari Erlandson and her husband, Bruce Morse, live in Sacramento, Calif., and have a small family business involving affordable rentals. In May 2016, Mari received a master’s degree in social work from California State University Sacramento. She intends to continue to pursue cooperative housing development and shared economies for a more sustainable future. “I am inspired by the millennials,” she adds, “and they give me hope for the future. If anyone is interested in dropping by and visiting our area, they may e-mail me at sardinesandonions@gmail.com.”
’77 An Honored Year
Now that the dust has cleared from our 2016 Reunion, it’s time to start planning for 2017. While we welcome alumni from any and all years to come back to The Bluff, we also like to honor those whose class years celebrate five, ten, fifteen, twenty (and so on) year anniversaries. We will honor classes ending in 2 and 7 in 2017, so please start planning now, Class of ’77!
’79 A Longtime Leader
Jean (Newton) Berg was featured in a story titled “After 37 years, the songs end for a Portland middle school music teacher” in the June 17, 2016 edition of the Oregonian. For the past 37 years, Jean has taught music at Robert Gray Middle School in Southwest Portland, and her retirement has been hard for both Jean and her students, not to mention colleagues, administrators, and thousands of former students. Her retirement announcement at the school’s annual December concert drew gasps of disbelief from the assembled throng— probably a good sign that Jean’s retirement comes on a high note. See the story at http:// tinyurl.com/zpoxpqt. Gerald E. Heppell passed away in his sleep on June 5, 2016, in Tigard, Ore., at the age of 79. After graduating in chemistry from the University of Washington and with a Ph.D.
the W. Frank Barton School of Business. Hensler also served on the faculty of the Pamplin School of Business, here on The Bluff.
’82 Keeping His Foot(s) In
We didn’t seem to fool many readers with our summer 2016 mystery faculty photo, least of all Mike McKeirnan, who writes: “Dr. Jim Seal... my main man!” Mike, known to his colleauges as “Crusher,” spends his professional time at Stone Creek Winery in Walla Walla, Wash., “Home of foot stomped hand crafted Vino.” Now that the dust has cleared from Reunion 2016, it’s time to start planning for 2017. While we welcome alumni from any and all years to come back to The Bluff, we also like to honor those whose class years celebrate five, ten, fifteen, twenty (and so on) year anniversaries. We will honor classes ending in 2 and 7 in 2017, so please start planning now, Class of ’82!
’84 A Teacher’s Teacher
We have an update from Karen Jacobson-Falato, who writes: “It has been quite a few years since I have given an update. I am still in the education field. In fact, I went back to graduate school and received a second master’s degree, in educational leadership. This summer my district closed all nine elementary buildings to join them into three megaschools, which will be stateof-the-art and air conditioned. You can check out my class projects at www.donorschoose.org/kfalato.Personally, it has been an up and down year. My 25-year-old son, Garrett, passed away Margaret “Maggie” Baudendistel ’69 was featured suddenly in Portland, but in an article titled “Nurse: The patients make me feel the up side was my youngalive” in the July 13, 2016 edition of the Catholic Sentinel, est, Quinn, graduating from Pacific Lutheran University and with good reason — Providence Health and Services with her bachelor of science in biology. My middle child, recently gave her a Lifetime Achievement Award for is working at Intel. “decades of intravenous injections, health assessments, Brittany, I am fortunate to have been surgery aid, and human kindness.” Her colleagues and blessed with a grandson by my late son. Rhett is a very patients have raved about Maggie’s awesomeness active 4 years old. Just like throughout her 48 years in the profession, which inhis dad! Thank you for allowing me time to update.” Our cluded caring for U.S. servicemen wounded in the pleasure, Karen, and our Vietnam War. Hats off and prayers of thanks to a most prayers and condolences on the loss of your son. gifted and generous woman. tronix, and Hewlett Packard. He enjoyed fishing (especially with his sons), camping, and extensive travel with family and friends. Jerry is survived by his wife of 58 years, Donna; brother, James; sons, Kevin and Scott; and grandson, Dylan. Our prayers and condolences to the family.
nerships, where he will organize university efforts to develop and grow collaborations to support student learning and faculty research. Hensler served as provost of the Naval Postgraduate School from June 2013 to October 2015. Prior to that, he served at Wichita State University as dean of
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’86 Time For Traveling
Jennifer Haralson writes: “Hi. I enjoy reading Portland magazine and thought I’d check in. After retiring from the Air Force in Ohio, I’ve enjoyed the extra time by traveling, volunteering with St. Vincent de Paul Society, and more traveling. Both my son and daughter are doing well in college — my son
C L A S S at Wright State and my daughter at Miami University.” Thanks for writing, Jennifer, and for your service to us all.
’87 An Honored Year
Now that the dust has cleared from Reunion 2016, it’s time to start planning for 2017. While we welcome alumni from any and all years to come back to The Bluff, we also like to honor those whose class years celebrate five, ten, fifteen, twenty (and so on) year anniversaries. We will honor classes ending in 2 and 7, so please start planning now, Class of ’87!
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Villa Maria dorm padre, announced that ROTC cadets were being called up and asked to report in uniform to the auditorium. Apparently, the Department of Defense had awarded too many engineering scholarships. I had seven days to choose another major and two alternatives or leave my dream behind. My parents had always shared with me that this life is not a given entity, and it’s the fighters of this world that have stood up
N O T E S ’96 A Smart Choice
Ken Richardson has been named as superintendent of Oregon’s David Douglas School District, and he was featured in an article titled “David Douglas school district names new superintendent” in the July 15, 2016 edition of The Oregonian. Ken has been an administrator at David Douglas since 2009, and most recently served as deputy superintendent. With nearly 11,000 students, David Douglas is the 13th largest
’90 Remembering Roman
Roman Mark Rillera passed away on May 19, 2012. Roman had a big personality — he greeted everyone with an outgoing smile and mischievous twinkle in his eye; he loved to play practical jokes, gave everyone he met a nickname, cherished his friends, and deeply loved his dogs. He is survived by his partner of 19 years, Robert Randel; his large extended family; and many beloved friends. Our prayers and condolences to the family. We got a heartfelt message from Pam Mattecheck Knell, who writes: “On behalf of my mom, Marianna Mattecheck, and all my siblings, we want to thank you for taking the time to honor my dad in Portland Magazine! We were so touched by your thoughtfulness and kind words. We also want to thank whoever was responsible for sending the beautiful purple and white flowers to the funeral, and to Fr. Ed Obermiller, C.S.C., who concelebrated with Fr. John Kerns and Msgr. Tim Murphy at dad’s funeral. It was such a nice surprise and blessing to have all of them there.” Thank you Pam, and our continued prayers for you and your family on your loss.
’91 Many Blessings
Chad Nelson writes: “Just a quick note and invite to UP. We are stationed here in San Diego, Calif., at what is likely to be our final duty station. These 26 years of active duty in the United States Air Force have blessed my wife, my family, my two children, and myself more than words might convey. The experiences are so many, with overseas residences on both sides of the world spanning fourteen years or so. I look back at my time on campus in 1987, when at 18 years of age, I actually walked on to the University basketball squad and made the team! It wasn’t more than one week later that Father Joe Corpora,
cook. She taught kindergarten at St. Rose School for three years before teaching at Head Start for several years. “MiMi,” as she was affectionately known, had a special way with children and she was loved by all of her students. Maria is survived by her son, Corey Johnson; her parents, Larry and Betty Johnson: sisters, Heidi Anderson and Patricia (Blake) Peacock; brother, Jeremy Johnson; nieces, Lindsay Anderson, Tabitha Anderson, and Grace Peacock; nephews, Bryson Peacock and Dallas Peacock; great-nephew, Max Richardson; aunts and uncles, and many friends. Our prayers and condolences to the family. Now that the dust has cleared from Reunion 2016, it’s time to start planning for 2017. While we welcome alumni from any and all years to come back to The Bluff, we also like to honor those whose class years celebrate five, ten, fifteen, twenty (and so on) year anniversaries. We will honor classes ending in 2 and 7 in 2017, so please start planning now, Class of ’97!
’99 Forty Under Forty For Sure!
Jim Knackstedt ’00 “came down with a little case of cancer,” he says, and in classic U of P style he was treated by not one but two Universityish nurses at the hospital: Lori Gay, whose daughter Alison will graduate in May, and Stephanie Pearsall ’08. Jim is a prosthetist and orthotist at Shriners Hospital for Children in Salt Lake City, where he’s been making prosthetic arms, legs, and braces for children for eight years. He and his wife have this burbling new daughter in their lives now. Our prayers for health and laughter, James. to survive. Four years later, I graduated with magna cum laude honors and was commissioned as a newly minted Air Force officer. What a journey to look back on. Thank you U of P! Let our fellow alumni know to contact us via email/phone when a visit to San Diego or Disneyland is on the horizon. Lodging in this area is, well, a little costly, and my family and I would be happy to share our home with our UP family.”
school district in Oregon. He is only the seventh superintendent in the history of the 56-year-old district. Congratulations, Ken, we know David Douglas is in good hands.
’97 Prayers, Please
Maria G. Johnson passed away on October 26, 2014. Maria was an outstanding athlete in her youth, excelling in track, swimming, softball, and soccer. She was an honor student, a gifted artist, and a fantastic
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Thomas Phuong was named in the 2016 Consulting-Specifying Engineer magazine’s 40 Under 40 listings in May. He serves as associate principal, senior electrical engineer at Interface Engineering in Portland, Ore. According to the story, “As a senior electrical engineer and associate principal at the company, he is a well-established and respected team leader and co-leads a team of 17 engineers, designers, modelers/drafters, and administrative personnel in a wide array of challenging MEP projects. He is deeply involved in mentoring junior staff and is a member of Interface Engineering’s Standards Committee. He also is on the board of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance Portland Lodge. In the past, Phuong has volunteered in the CANstruction event to donate food for the Oregon Food Bank. He will be participating in the Habitat for Humanity (building a home in the Portland metro area) as well as the SOLV Oregon beach cleanup.” He has a passion for basketball, and helps youth become better basketball players and use basketball as a way to understand what it takes to succeed in life.
C L A S S ’01 Notes From The Nolan-Partnows
Maia Nolan-Partnow’s husband Seth Partnow of Nylon Calculus has been hired by the Milwaukee Bucks as a consultant. Seth has emerged as one of the most well-respected voices in the NBA media on advanced analytics. He will contribute proprietary data to the Bucks. “I’d say this was a dream job, but that would imply that I had considered such a thing possible when I started doing this as a hobby a few years back,” wrote Seth. “I have to give a hearty thanks to the Bucks organization and specifically to Mike Clutterbuck, the team’s director of analytics, for this opportunity.” And wait — this just in! Maia and Seth have even more exciting news to share: “Seth, Reilly, and I are happy to announce the arrival of Bruce Reuben Partnow, born at 5:21 a.m. on Monday, June 20, after a precipitous labor, weighing in at 8 pounds 6 ounces and 21 inches long,” writes Mom/Maia. “Bruce is named in honor of Seth’s beloved uncle Bruce Boynick, who left us nearly four years ago and is dearly missed. His middle name, Reuben, comes from the Hebrew meaning “Behold, a son!” — since, as some of you know, we were told at our anatomy scan that we should expect a second daughter and were surprised when a followup ultrasound eight weeks ago revealed that, among other things, this was no little girl!” Congratulations on your growing family, Maia and Seth, and God bless. Sharon Rissmiller was appointed as interim assistant coach for the Oregon State Beavers women’s basketball team by head coach Scott Rueck on July 22. In her first season with the Beavers, in 2015-2016, she served as director of operations. Rissmiller was head coach at Pacific University for seven years, leading the team to back-to-back winning seasons in 2012-13 and 2013-14. She has also coached at Tacoma Community College, Clark Community College, and Sunset High School. A star player in her days on The Bluff, Sharon earned West Coast Conference First Team accolades as a senior. Congratulations, Sharon, we know you’ll do a fine job.
’02 An Honored Year
Now that the dust has cleared from our 2016 Reunion, it’s time to start planning for 2017. While we welcome alumni from any and all years to come
back to The Bluff, we also like to honor those whose class years celebrate five, ten, fifteen, twenty (and so on) year anniversaries. We will honor classes ending in 2 and 7 in 2017, so please start planning your return to The Bluff now, Class of ’02!
’03 Daniel’s Update
We heard recently from Daniel Oberreuter, who writes: “Hey, this is Daniel Oberreuter, UP alumnus and the lead singer
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N O T E S ’05 Class
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Great news to share: “I wanted to let everyone know that Amy Uberuaga and I (Gavin Clark, ’04) are proud to announce that on June 10th, Amy gave birth to a healthy and strong baby boy named Rowan Michael Clark. Callum is overjoyed to be a big brother, and Rowan has already told us that he is excited to meet his UP classmates of 2038. Such a little man already! Our growing family lives in Livingston,
so long. Her story of reaching such a difficult decision was featured in an article by Caitlin Murray in the May 19, 2016 edition of the Portland Tribune. See the article at http://tinyurl.com/z63a96v.
’12 An Honored Year
Now that the dust has cleared from our 2016 Reunion, it’s time to start planning for 2017. While we welcome alumni from any and all years to come back to The Bluff, we also like to honor those whose class years celebrate five, ten, fifteen, twenty (and so on) year anniversaries. We will honor classes ending in 2 and 7 in 2017, so please start planning now, Class of ’12!
’13 A Fallen Hero
Behold, a son! Maia Nolan-Partnow ’01 getting acquainted with her new baby boy, Bruce. See the whole story under Class of 2001. of Catholic rock band The Thirsting from Vancouver, Wash. We have been invited to play in Krakow, Poland for World Youth Day 2016. Two and a half million Catholics from across the world are expected to attend the event along with the Pope. We have been invited as a band to play on the main stage on the evening of July 26th. For more information on the band visit our website at www.thethirstingcatholic.com.” Eduardo Vergara Bolbarán writes: “How is the summer? Its cold down here in Chile; however, soccer victories tend to make things warmer. I saw on a Facebook page that I was in the magazine! Great, thanks for the talk and the space. Life is great, lots of work, I just got elected national vice president of the Partido por la Democracya (PPD)/Party for Democracy, one of the main and biggest parties from the coalition currently governing Chile. So let’s see where that takes me.” Thanks Eduardo, we expect big things from you.
Montana. I look forward to receiving the Portland Magazine at our new address and enjoy supporting the Salzburg 200102 Travel Scholarship.”
’07 An Honored Year
Now that the dust has cleared from our 2016 Reunion, it’s time to start planning for 2017. While we welcome alumni from any and all years to come back to The Bluff, we also like to honor those whose class years celebrate five, ten, fifteen, twenty (and so on) year anniversaries. We will honor classes ending in 2 and 7 in 2017, so please start planning your triumphant return now, Class of ’07!
’11 A Difficult Decision
Danielle Foxhoven surprised a lot of people when she announced her retirement from professional soccer in May 2016. A former star for the Pilots, she played for both the Portland Thorns and the Seattle Reign before deciding to step away from the sport she had made the center of her life for
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David A. Bauders died on Friday, May 6, at Al Asad Air Base in Iraq in a noncombat related incident. He was a state trooper in civilian life, and was assigned to the Washington State National Guard 176th Engineer Company of Snohomish, Wash. David earned a bachelor’s degree with a major in sociology and a minor in psychology from the University. Bauders was sworn in as a state trooper in March 2014 and patrolled North Seattle and King County. He joined the state patrol soon after his graduation in 2013, as a trooper cadet assigned to the property management division, and entered the academy in 2014, according to Chief John Batiste. David is survived by his mother, father, and two sisters. David’s family is requesting donations in his honor to the Law Enforcement Officer’s Memorial Fund (LEOMF). Our prayers and condolences to the family.
’14 Wedding Bells
Keaton Beyer married Ashley Wilson ’13 on June 18, 2016, at the Chapel of Christ the Teacher. Ashley writes: “We had our reception at the Benson Hotel in downtown Portland. We met on the Bluff in 2012 through mutual friends. We both stayed in Portland after graduation. I am an ER nurse and Keaton is a project manager for an IT consulting company. We had 21 alumni at our wedding! I attached a photo of all of the UP alumni and a photo of us on our honeymoon in Tahiti with our UP alumni shirts on!”
’15 Believe It, Jasmine!
There are some pretty cool jobs here at UP, and one of the coolest has be to that held by Dan McGinty ’97, who for years shepherded UP studentathletes through their college
C L A S S careers. “I have a very cool UP alumna story for you,” he shared recently. “Former UP women’s basketball point guard and 2015 graduate Jasmine Wooton contacted me about what she’s doing lately. I’ll let her message speak for itself!” Thanks Dan, and here’s what Jasmine has to say: “Hi Dan! Soooo much has happened since our last lunch! One, I quit my job! While I was at Kroger I started doing a lot of volunteering and realized that my passions were leading in a direction Kroger couldn’t take me. Two, I moved to Los Angeles, and had no idea how much I missed the sun and my friends. Three, I had my first National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics event in May in Kansas City, Mo. I never have seen so many passionate, hardworking, and talented women in one room. Four, I’m a coach! I’m coaching a travel team with my high school coach. I love it! I had no idea coaching was so fun and rewarding. This weekend I coached alone for the first time and I got my first win! (I’m surprised at how hard it is for me NOT to say ‘Pilots on 3!’). I also coach a basketball camp during the week at a private school in my area. I mainly work with the 5 and 6 year olds. They are absolutely hilarious and extraordinarily grateful when I teach them seemingly small things like the correct footwork for layups. We idolize one another and it keeps my heart very full. And five, I’m moving to Ireland in August! Coach Cheryl told me about a Victory Scholars program the day before I left Portland and I applied. I will be attending Dublin City University c/o 2017. I’ll also be playing for the college and working with Sport Changes Life — a mentorship program that sets this whole thing up. I literally cannot believe my life. I can’t believe I was brave enough to apply and then brave enough to say yes. I’m still waiting for the shock to wear off, and it’s been about a month.” Thanks for sharing, Jasmine, keep us in the loop with your upcoming adventures.
’16 Here’s One To Follow
We haven’t heard the last of Brian Carter and his startup earbud company, Audibility. Brian was featured in an article by Andrew Theen in the May 17, 2016 edition of the Oregonian, titled “Custom earbud company founded by Portland grads seeks $10,000 Kickstarter.” Carter turned his bad experiences with over-the-counter
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headphones into a passion for providing quality, custom-fitted earbuds to all at an affordable price. The molded-to-fit hearing aids he has worn since he was four years old provided the inspiration for Audibility’s innovative line of products. He’s hoping to use his recently earned UP master’s degree in biomedical engineering to change the way earbuds are
N O T E S in learning and leading with a neuroeducation focus from the University of Portland in May 2016. She also received her bachelors and masters degrees, both in education, from UP. She is described in the article as “a wife, mother, and second grade teacher, as well as a soldier and worship team leader at the Portland Tabernacle Corps.” Bonnie is a recipient of
Here’s a story: Jean Francois Seide ’16 from Haiti is headed to Oxford University this fall. Jean Francois was the first Molly Hightower Scholarship recipient, named for the cheerful 2009 UP alumna who died in the 2010 Haiti earthquake while working at an orphanage; her friends and family (including Rachel Prusynski ’09) set up the scholarship in Molly’s memory to bring students from Haiti to The Bluff. Love is a roaring force, yes it is. developed and marketed; he partnered with fellow UP graduate Gilbert Resendez, to create a new company focused on affordable and customizable earbuds in 2014. Read more at http://tinyurl.com/hyo46uh. Bonnie Robb was featured in an article titled “Portland Salvationist earns doctoral degree” in the June 2, 2016 edition of New Frontier Chronicle. Bonnie earned her doctor of education
the national Milken Educators Award and was recognized by Kappa Delta Pi as a Teacher of Honor. See the article at http://tinyurl.com/hbeqy77. Ed Langlois, who for 23 years has served as a reporter for Portland’s Catholic Sentinel newspaper, has been named as the paper’s new editor, as well as its Spanish sister publication, El Centinela. Langlois has earned more than 70
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awards from the Catholic Press Association and more than 20 from the Society of Professional Journalists. Langlois plans to maintain the journalism standards set by his predecessors and shepherd the Sentinel into the digital age, with more videos to accompany stories. Malika Andrews is one of nine college students from around the country who were rewarded for their devotion to covering the news and improving their communities through the 2016 Sinclair Broadcast Group Diversity Scholarship Fund. The fund awarded $43,000 in endowments to the group composed of first generation college students, exceptional volunteers, and driven future journalists. The fund was established in 2015 for aspiring young journalists who share the desire to make a positive difference in their communities. Malika graduated in May 2016 after serving as editor of The Beacon and is now interning at the Denver Post as part of the elite Sports Journalism Institute. Riley Clark won a Northwest Emmy Award for his video, “University of Portland Student-Athlete Advisory Committee Raises Money for St. Baldrick’s Foundation,” on Saturday, June 4, as announced by the Northwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. His video, produced through Portland Sports Network (PSN), won in the category of “ News: General Assignment-Serious” in the College Student Awards for Excellence division. PSN is the University’s in-house athletics video team, made up of two full-time creative video professionals: James Vega, director of video services, and Jose Nevarez, director of live video production. Student interns from various undergraduate academic programs help in both the creative and live video productions. The St. Baldrick’s video shows how the University’s men’s soccer team, faculty, staff, and students raised money for childhood cancer research by shaving their heads to spark fundraising efforts for the cause. Watch the full feature at http://tinyurl.com/zhxh39j. The Northwest Chapter of The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences serves television and media professionals in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Montana and Washington. The NATAS Northwest Regional Emmy Awards recognize outstanding achievements in television and allied media by
C L A S S conferring annual awards of merit in the chapter’s designated award region. Jennifer Snow Mayo, a recent doctoral graduate of the University’s School of Education, has been selected to serve a fullyear internship with NASA as a 2016-2017 Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow. She joins twelve other outstanding science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) educators selected to serve their fellowships in Washington, D.C., within the offices of three sponsoring agencies and four congressional offices. The 2016-17 Einstein Fellows were selected from a nationwide pool of applicants through a rigorous application and interview process, and will begin their appointments on September 1, 2016.
while raising close to $6,000 to add to the Upsilon Omega Pi Endowed E-Scholars Fund, according to Matt Waite ’84.
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N O T E S University, and received a Presidential Medal from the University of Oregon, an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Menlo College, and was a recipient of the Aubrey R. Watzek Award from Lewis & Clark College. He was a senator of the board at Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, Germany and was awarded the Silver Cross
Culligan Award wear the medal with their academic regalia, as a sign of the University’s highest faculty honor. The Deans’ Award for FacFaculty, Staff, Friends ulty Leadership, presented Portland businessman and annually to a tenured faculty philanthropist Earle M. Chiles member who exemplifies, in an passed away on Thursday, extraordinary way, the qualities June 23, after a long illness. of teaching and scholarship Chiles was a longtime supdescribed in the University’s porter of the University of PortArticles of Administration for appointment, advancement in rank, and tenure, was presented to Laurie McLary, international languages and cultures. The Outstanding Teaching Award, presented annually by the University’s Committee on Teaching and Scholarship to a faculty member who is a particular exemplar of the University’s commitment to superb teaching, was presented to Hannah Callender, mathematics. Reunion 2016: Recap, The Outstanding Scholarship Photos, And More Award, presented annually by Reunion 2016 was one of the the University’s Committee on biggest in recent history, with Teaching and Scholarship to a a total of 1,178 individual faculty member who presents guests returning to The Bluff. unusually significant and merHighlights from the weekend itorious achievement in profesincluded the GOLD Backyard sional scholarship during the Bash on Thursday night, atpast two academic years, and tended by 173 young alumni, whose work substantively enand a Tapas Time social in the hances the effectiveness of his Pilot House on Friday night or her classroom teaching, was honoring our Granada study presented to Elinor Sullivan, abroad program. Additionally, biology. more than 60 Upsilon Omega Portland Pilots head volleyPi members reunited on Saturball coach Brent Crouch led day, we had a record number the USA Volleyball Collegiate of 90 alumni and families National Team to a gold medal present to watch the alumni at the U22 Global Challenge, basketball game, and the Welheld in Pula, Croatia, in July come Home BBQ had more 2016. They defeated China in than 900 guests. To see photos the finals to claim the 12th taken during the weekend, go annual European Global Chalto http://tinyurl.com/jeohxnz. lenge Championship. The team also defeated England University of Portland and Slovenia on their way to Songs Available Online taking the title. “I’m really The Clark Library now has an proud of the players and staff online time capsule of alma associated with the training maters and school spirit songs Great news to share from Gavin Clark ’04: “I wanted and tournament,” says Coach from Columbia University “It’s no small task for to let everyone know that Amy Uberuaga ’05 and I are Crouch. (1901-1935), Columbia Prepara group of individuals to come proud to announce that on June 10, Amy gave birth to together and form a competatory School (1901-1955), and the University of Portland a healthy and strong baby boy — Rowan Michael Clark. itive team, much less a gold (1935-present). Recorded by medal winning team, in such a Michael Connolly and the Uni- Callum is overjoyed to be a big brother, as you can see.” short period of time. Our total versity Singers and Choir, the Thanks Gavin, and congrats on your growing family. training period was four days!” recording and sheet music The teams we played, the Rowan has already told us that he is excited to meet junior national teams of Italy, can be found at http://tinyurl.com/zlr5rtu. Russia, and China, trained his UP Classmates of 2038. Such a little man already! together all summer.” CongratUpsilon Omega Pi ulations Brent, this bodes well Celebrates 65 Years land and had been a member of Honor from the German for the 2016-2017 UP volleyball Past members of Upsilon of the University’s Board of Armed Forces. season. Omega Pi, which was founded Regents since 1975. Chiles was The University’s Faculty Rev. Richard Berg, C.S.C., in 1951, celebrated the 65th named to the Pilots Hall of Awards were presented on retired lo these many years as anniversary of its founding at Fame for his longtime support Tuesday, May 3, at the Faculty dean of the University’s College this year’s Reunion, June 23-26. of the University of Portland’s Awards Dinner, with the folof Arts and Sciences, informs With over 60 members in atathletic program in 1994; in lowing results: us that his book, Scars, which tendance spanning the five 1987, the University of Portland The James Culligan Award, examines the effects of post decades since 1951, Upsilon awarded him an Honorary Doc- established in 1953 in recogni- traumatic stress on family, rebrothers recalled memories of tor of Public Service degree. He tion of distinguished service, lationships, and work, has been past and present friendships held an Honorary Doctoral of was presented to Elise Moent- staged by the Lakewood Thefrom their time on The Bluff Humane Letters from Boston mann, history. Winners of the ater in Lake Oswego, Ore. Autumn 2016 45
C L A S S “Nancy McDonald is a professional actor, director, and drama teacher,” Fr. Berg says. “She directed ‘Catch-22’ and starred in other Broadway productions some years ago. Nancy also has a family member back from combat with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). She told me: ‘SCARS is not just a play; it is theater as a powerful tool.’ Our production began this summer with her actors, and will eventually include others (eg., with PTS) along with actors. All this, of course, will be with scriptwriter Roccie Hill and producer John Beaulieu’s collaboration. I think the initial tone of this was: we start small and then go big to help people understand and deal with post-traumatic stress.” Congratulations Fr. Berg, we know your stories will reach a wide and receptive audience. Amber Reneé Noonkester Ramsdell of Beaverton, Ore., adjunct instructor in the University of Portland School of Nursing, passed away on Sunday, July 3, 2016 in Portland, Oregon. Upon completion of high school, Amber entered the University of Texas at Austin where she earned her B.S. in nursing in 2010, and her RN license shortly thereafter. She went on to earn her masters of science in nurse education from Georgetown University in 2015. She was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force in July 2010. During her service, she worked at Wilford Hall Medical Center and Brooke Army Medical Center at Joint Base San Antonio, as a high risk labor and delivery nurse. In August 2014, she retired from the Air Force with the rank of captain. While serving in the Air Force, Amber met then-lieutenant Griffin Ramsdell in February 2011. Knowing immediately that they were meant for each other, Amber and Griffin were engaged in September 2011 and married on September 22, 2012, in Hurst, Texas. Amber was employed as a Labor and Delivery nurse at Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital. Survivors include Griffin; parents, Larry and Lorie Noonkester; brother, Adam; in-laws, Karla and David Angal; and numerous relatives including aunts, uncles, cousins and many close family friends. Our prayers and condolences to the family. Pearl Brown, who for many years was the face of the University’s payroll office, passed away recently, according to a message we received from her daughter-in-law. We asked our resident personnel expert
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Jim Kuffner about Pearl and he remembers her well: “She did almost everything related to payroll, including handling the payroll for the Holy Cross community. The old payroll systems were pretty challenging back then and were done on a mostly manual basis.
N O T E S She had a quick smile and big laugh, and everyone got along with her.” Thanks Jim, and our prayers and condolences to Pearl’s family. Congratulations to Rev. Robert Antonelli, C.S.C., and Rev. Claude Pomerleau, C.S.C., on the occasion of their fiftieth
They come from near and they come from far: the couples who do our University the honor of holding their nuptials in the Chapel of Christ the Teacher, a seemingly endless procession of them every season, summer especially, and we welcome and cherish them all. Here we have Chris Bell ’15 and Jenny Rodriguez ’14 (henceforth known as Jenny Bell) exiting the chapel in joyful disbelief during their wedding on September 5, 2015. Best of luck and blessings to the new couple(s). Pearl hung in there as long as she could in the face of new technology, but when she reached retirement age she decided to step down about 20 years ago. She was among a core of old-school financial-type employees that included Anna Mullens, Marilyn Mattson, and Ruby Mann.
anniversaries of ordination to the priesthood. The quietly gracious Fr. Bob Antonelli came to The Bluff in 1999, and soon set about working the minor miracle of establishing calm and order in the voluminous University Archives. A most humble and holy man, no task is above his able and
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affable talents. Fr. Claude joined the UP faculty in 1991, bringing his vast knowledge to bear in the political science department, at the time joined with the history department. He taught politics at Notre Dame in 1970s and 1980s, was rector of St. George’s College in Santiago, 1985-1989; and taught peace studies and international relations at UP. He graces the campus still in the role of professor emeritus. Rev. John Donato, C.S.C., who serves as vice president for student affairs at the University of Portland, celebrated the 25th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood this year. A native of Addison, Ill., Fr. John served his first pastoral assignment at St. Francis Xavier parish in Burbank, California; he spent nine years in pastoral ministry in South Bend, Indiana and Fort Lauderdale, Florida before coming to UP to join the Campus Ministry office. After leaving to earn a doctorate in educational leadership at Seattle University, Fr. John returned to UP in 2007 to serve as associate vice president for student development. He was appointed vice president of student affairs in January 2016. Xan Arch is the new dean of the University’s Clark Library, as of August 22, 2016. Arch comes to UP from Reed College, where she served as director of collection services. She also held many posts in the Stanford Univer-sity libraries, culminating her service there as the electronic resources and technology librarian. She was the 2013 recipient of the Esther J. Piercy Award given by the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services to a person who has shown “outstanding promise for continuing contribution and leadership.” Arch has a B.A. in English and French literatures and an M.A. in English literature from Stanford University. She also has an M.S. in library science from San Jose State University. A number of people who attended Fr. Tom Hosinski’s final UP lecture, “The Sacredness of the Ordinary” (and many who weren’t able to attend) have asked if it would be available as a podcast. A downloadable podcast of the lecture is now available at http://tinyurl.com/hfmwr8q, along with a transcript, thanks to the efforts of Garaventa Center co-director Karen Eifler.
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Turning 100 years young on October 1: the estimable retired School of Business dean Kent Collings, whose 11-year tenure (1971-1982) was marked by his doggedly determined goal of gaining national accreditation for the undergraduate business program, and he did it by golly, in 1977. But he is perhaps (make that definitely) most proud of the many gifts he bestowed upon the University: the Kent Collings Endowed Business Scholarship, the Kent and Ruth Collings charitable gift annuities, gifts to the Pilot basketball program, the Pilot Athletic Fund, the Pamplin School of Business, and many more, adding up to just over $600,000. Kent lives near his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren in Spokane, Wash., and is a newlywed of three years, happily married to his wife Lorraine after losing his beloved Ruth in 2007. Prayers and gratitude to you, Kent, and your wonderful family. Deaths
Mitchell W. Heinemann, Jr., ’41, July 4, 2016. David Maks ’42, June 6, 2016, Eugene, Ore. Walter Niebuhr ’50, April 21, 2016. Benjamin Edward Tabler ’51, June 19, 2016, Clackamas, Ore. Mary Brady Sengstake ’52, November 22, 2015.
Henry Pfenning ’52, May 16, 2016. Wayne Olmscheid ’53, June 4, 2016, Astoria, Ore. Charles T. Allen ’56, June 9, 2016, Forest Grove, Ore. Glenn Pelikan ’59, June 13, 2016. Richard Hollcraft ’60, July 9, 2016. Glenn P. Dorn, Sr., ’63, April 27, 2016.
Donald Hing Ning Yee ’64, January 26, 2016, Honolulu, Hawaii. Susan Marjorie Gratton Nichols ’64, Auburn, Calif. Anthony Burke Gerharz ’71, February 21, 2015, Creston, Iowa. Richard C. Johnson ’71, June 20, 2012, Glastone, Ore. Gerald E. Heppell ’79, June 5, 2016, Tigard, Ore.
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Roman Mark Rillera ’90, May 19, 2012. Maria G. Johnson ’97, October 26, 2014. David A. Bauders ’13, May 6, 2016, Al Asad AB, Iraq. Earle M. Chiles, June 23, 2016, Portland, Ore. Amber Renee Noonkester Ramsdell, July 3, 2016, Beaverton, Ore. Pearl Brown, summer 2016.
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The Pilot legend Phil Loprinzi ’43, who was named All-West Coast as a senior, served in the Navy during the Second World War, helped start the famous Loprinzi bodybuilding gym, and then taught at the University and in Portland’s public schools the rest of his career. We never tire of great funny goofy publicity photographs from the years of Pilot football, 1902-1950. The gridironists finished with 150 wins, 136 losses, and a startling 34 ties, but closed up shop because it cost too much. We still have what the world calls football, of course, as well as a raft of other sports for all students, and all gifts thereunto are very welcome indeed. Call Colin McGinty at 503.943.8005 or mcginty@up.edu.
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SHILEY PROUD! Here’s a story. One day the dean of the University of Portland’s Shiley School of Engineering, the slight relentless bolt of energy Sharon Jones, sends a note to University regent Darlene Shiley; it was Darlene and her late husband Donald Shiley ’51 who donated the many millions of dollars that totally rebuilt and re-energized and rebooted engineering on The Bluff. Sharon signs her note SHILEY PROUD! Soon the phrase has spread to faculty, staff, and student shirts during Engineering Week (the wild few days every February when there are soldering contests and robot races and chili cook-offs and other such mania all around Shiley Hall, and gentle moments like this one with University president Father Mark Poorman and a student), and to banners on campus, and and and... It’s sweetly funny, this shout of a slogan, and it somehow does sing the wry brilliance of Donald Shiley (who invented, among much else, a heart valve that saved many thousands of lives), but it also catches at the booming energy of the School itself. There’s a new biomedical engineering master’s program; among the first graduates are two students who already started their own businesses. Undergraduate enrollment is the highest ever: 720 students in civil, computer, electrical, and mechanical engineering. A stunning 40% are from minority groups, and women make up more than 30% of recent classes — a remarkable stat in a profession so long and thoroughly male. And Forbes just ranked the University 18th in America for excellence in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education. And on and on. Indeed they are proud in the Shiley School, and with good cause. Want to help shove them higher? Want to foment more of the inventiveness that Donald and Darlene Shiley invested in? Call Connie Ozyjowski at 503.943.7479, ozyjowsk@up.edu. Be generous. Invest in creativity. It’s imagination and hard work making dreams work that will better the bruised and battered world.
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THE BRAVE OLD BARN
LAST DAYS OF HOWARD’S HALL The University’s first and for the longest time only “gymnasium-auditorium” began life in November of 1927; it opened the next February, blessed by Archbishop Edward Howard of Oregon, for whom it is named, and it will probably return to dust sometime next year, at age 90. The gleaming new Beauchamp Rec Center is now the campus gym, and the Chiles Center long ago took over mass-meeting duties. Yes, Howard’s roof leaked right from the start, and yes, the basketball floor creaked and groaned and developed dead spots, and yes, maybe there were mysterious monsters in the pool, but the old barn worked awfully hard for campus life over the years, and held up generations of camellias, and shared its ground with some truly epic and massive sequoias (which the artist here, Father Mark Ghyselinck, is hoping will survive Howard’s demise). Do we have scholarships celebrating the grace and discipline of the many thousands of student-athletes who savored their hours in the old brick boat? Indeed we do: call Colin McGinty at 503.943.8005, mcginty@up.edu.