Portland Magazine, Summer 2019 by University of Portland

Summer 2019

The Search Continues More than 70 years after a pilot perished in WWII

FEATURES

28 And Yet by Philip Metres How one writer wrestles with the hard truths of clergy abuse and still finds space for his faith.

2 ON THE BLUFF 3 Visiting Voices 5 The Experts 6 Campus Briefs 8 Sports 10 Dream Teams 11 The World We Want 12 Second Look

40 CLASS NOTES 44 In Memoriam 49 For the Love of It

14 J.H. Carroll Jr., We Remember You by Eileen Bjorkman UP’s Praying Hands War Memorial is this WWII pilot’s only marker on US soil.

30 Three Pilots, One Stage by Katelyn Best Three former UP soccer players are in the Women’s World Cup this summer, and it’s time to get ready to cheer them on.

Summer 2019 Vol. 37, No. 2 President Rev. Mark L. Poorman, C.S.C. Editor Jessica Murphy Moo Designer Darsey Landoe Associate Editor Marcus Covert ’93 Contributors Rachel Barry-Arquit, Roya GhorbaniElizeh ’11, Anna Lageson-Kerns ’83, ’14, Hannah Pick, Amy Shelly ’95, ’01 Cover J.H. Carroll Jr., a self-portrait; photo courtesy of Carol Leitschuh Portland is published three times a year by the University of Portland. Copyright © 2019 by the University of Portland. All rights reserved. Editorial Offices Waldschmidt Hall, 5000 N. Willamette Blvd., Portland, OR 97203-5798 Email jmurphymoo@up.edu Online up.edu/portlandmagazine Printed on 10% recycled and FSC-certified paper in Portland, OR.

Revlon, 280 Bubbly

Think Big, Think New

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.

At the 20th anniversary of the Entrepreneur Scholars Program, five graduates share their projects and how they carry the entrepreneurial mindset into their careers.

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 Magazine, University of Portland, 5000 N. Willamette Blvd., Portland, OR 97203-5798.

by Katherine Gamble ’19 She could take “the road less traveled” in the field of marksmanship, but was it what she really wanted?

ADAM GUGGENHEIM

EDITOR’S LETTER

Somehow I DIDN’T KNOW what to tell the writer. She was working on a book about the US military’s truly incredible efforts—even decades after a conflict had ended—to find the remains of those who had fallen behind enemy lines. I had full confidence in this writer’s expertise and fantastic craft, but we didn’t have quite the right focus for Portland magazine. So I decided to go for a walk. I went out to the Praying Hands War Memorial. What a beautiful place—those hands. And what a challenging place—those jagged edges, the crumbling brick, reminders, all, of war and our fragility in the midst of it. I started writing down the names etched on the bricks. I stopped for a moment at J. Carroll. I know a J. Carroll. If I’d been of a different generation, this might’ve been my friend, and this hypothetical truth gave me pause. I put the list of names on my desk and sent out a few questions to our archivist and our ROTC administrators. I still hadn’t figured out how to help the writer tell the story I knew she could tell. But the day wasn’t done with me yet. My family and I had been invited to celebrate Mass on campus for the Feast of St. Joseph. (It was a lovely Mass, though truth be told I missed most of it chasing after my three-year-old.)

Dinner followed. There weren’t seat assignments, so I plopped myself down in an open spot and introduced myself to a woman named Carol. After learning I was the editor of this magazine, she said, “I have a story I’ve been wanting to tell you.” She told me that her uncle who went to UP died in the Pacific Theater during World War II. He was a pilot, and his remains had never been found, though the military had recently contacted her for her DNA. “The memorial at UP is the only marker of his life on US soil, so it means a lot to my family,” she said. “What was his name?” I asked. “John Carroll.” Readers, I nearly fell off my chair. I told her that I’d written his name down only hours before, that his name was sitting on my desk, that I was somehow, somehow working on her uncle’s story before I knew his story. I raced in the next morning to tell all my colleagues about Carol and her uncle. I then wrote to our writer to tell her I had someone for her to call. “J.H. Carroll Jr., We Remember You” is the story.

Jessica Murphy Moo, Editor

SUMMER 2019

43RD ANNUAL HAWAI’I CLUB LŪ’AU

PORTLAND

BOB KERNS

Since 1976 the University’s sizable, tight-knit Pacific Islander student body has practiced the art of Aloha—a wonderfully rich word meaning not only hello, good-bye, and welcome, but also compassion, love, mercy, affection, and peace—in their annual Lū’au.

ON THE BLUFF VISITING VOICES

Amazing Grace In March, Christopher Pramuk, Chair of Ignatian Imagination and Thought at Regis University, came to University of Portland and spoke to a packed room in Franz Hall. What follows is an excerpted version of his talk, “Amazing Grace: Diversity, Deep Listening, and the Anatomy of a Song.”

WRITTEN IN THE MIDDLE of the 18th century by English pastor and composer John Newton, “Amazing Grace” has long been one of the most beloved hymns in the English-speaking Christian world. And yet there are parts of Newton’s story, darker chapters of his life, that not too many people know about. Before John Newton became a beloved pastor— indeed, so beloved that the church building had to be enlarged several times to accommodate his overflowing flock—before he wrote the hymn that would secure his legacy in Christian history and worship, John Newton was a slave trader. From the age of 20 and for almost 10 years, he invested and worked in the slave trade, working the ships that carried newly captured African men, women, and children to North America across the Middle Passage. Even after his conversion to the Christian faith, Newton did not entirely separate himself from the slaveholding industry. Thus his story, and the personal history behind the song, raises some hard questions still very much with us today: questions, for example, about the legacy of Christianity and white supremacy in America; questions about whether redemption can come too late for a person like John Newton, and indeed, if we are honest about our own moral failures, whether grace can come too hard or too late for us; questions about to what extent a beloved work or body of art can be separated from the artist, when history reveals the artist, after all, to be a deeply flawed person. (Think here of R. Kelly, Michael Jackson, or Pablo Picasso.) So I’d like to ask you to consider with me the meaning of “grace” itself—to think about experiences or events in your own life that you might

call graced, about which you might now say, “I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.” Grace is like that, I think. As we will see in Newton’s story, grace doesn’t magically or mythologically change reality overnight or all in a flash; rather, grace reveals reality to us more clearly than we had seen it before (sometimes only bit by bit), and in the revelation of the truth, we are potentially set free. For grace, too, is a powerful force in which we all live and move and have our being. Yet unlike the fear and violence that screams across our headlines, grace moves more quietly in the world; like the wind that blows through the trees and the sap that rises through frozen boughs at the end of winter, she moves in the rhythms of the earth herself—and in the goodness that dwells in the human heart. And so we’ve got to learn how to look and listen beneath the surfaces to catch the movement of grace in our own and in other people’s lives. Music can help us to do that. As a young man in his early twenties working the slave ships, Newton established a reputation as one of the most crude and profane men in the business. But in March of 1748, the first stirrings of a change in Newton began to happen. He was on a ship in the North Atlantic when a violent storm came upon the vessel, so rough it swept overboard a crew member who was standing right where Newton had been just moments before. For 11 more hours, the crew fought to keep the ship from sinking, until at last, the storm subsided. Two weeks later the battered ship came to port in Ireland, Newton and the surviving crew near to starving. But even then, after facing death, his conversion was not immediate. For two more years, he worked the ships until, at age 30, he grew gravely ill.

HEAR THE WHOLE THING Listen to Christopher Pramuk’s entire talk at: up.edu/amazing-grace

SUMMER 2019

ON THE BLUFF VISITING VOICES

Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound) That sav’d a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, Was blind, but now I see. ’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, And grace my fears reliev’d; How precious did that grace appear The hour I first believ’d! Thro’ many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come; ’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, And grace will lead me home. —John Newton, Olney Hymns, 1779

Only then did he begin to ask himself “if he was worthy of God’s mercy...as he had not only neglected his faith but [he had] directly opposed it, mocking others who showed [any kind of faith],” and all the while “deriding and denouncing God as a myth.” In other words, when he wrote “Amazing Grace” decades later as a pastor, and would confess that grace had “saved a wretch like me,” he truly meant it; he felt himself to have been a wretch beyond all possibility of forgiveness. In 1788, Newton finally broke his silence about his earlier years, publishing a pamphlet called Thoughts Upon the Slave Trade, in which “he described the horrific conditions of the slave ships during the Middle Passage.” The pamphlet sold so well that it required many re-printings. He allied himself to William Wilberforce, the famous abolitionist, who was a member of his congregation, and he would live to see the passage of the Slave Trade Act of 1807. But of himself, Newton did not hold out for much hope, writing in the pamphlet,

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“[My] confession...comes too late.... It will always be a subject of humiliating reflection to me, that I was once an active instrument in a business at which my heart now shudders.” Ironically, as he grew ill and approached death, Newton lost his eyesight—literally he became blind— yet he had been saved, arguably, from a much worse kind of blindness. And he had actively worked to save others from the same destructive blindness in his work for abolition. Perhaps, after all, his redemption had not come too late. But would grace move Newton to alter his position on white supremacy? It was quite possible to be a committed abolitionist, to detest slavery for its barbaric cruelty, yet still to hold the belief that whites were superior to blacks, that European culture and the Christian religion were far superior to African culture and religion. I don’t know where Newton came down finally on such questions. For me, the more interesting question has to do with us, with our attitudes

and commitments today. To say it more personally, when we as individuals and as a people look back over the course of our lives and take an honest measure of the social histories we have inhabited, to what extent might we recognize with sadness, perhaps even with shock, our own blindness and complicity in realities happening today at which our heart will one day shudder? Just as Newton did not change his ways overnight or in a singular flash of renunciation, the movement of grace in our lives seems to work quietly, by stealth, as it were; grace beckons our freedom but never overrides it. In the terms of Catholic theology, grace works according to nature—messy, broken, beautiful, sometimes painfully captive human nature. Grace meets us at least halfway to the truth and more, but the rest is up to us. We can count ourselves as “woke” all day long—I can know all the right things to say and what not to say, and be ready to pounce on anyone who says or does the wrong thing—but until we risk moving beyond our comfort zones and practice deep listening with the stranger, until the eyes of our hearts have been opened through friendship and solidarity, until I learn not only to tolerate but to celebrate the God-given beauty and distinct gifts of other peoples and cultures, to count myself as “woke” may be little more than virtue signaling, window dressing, cheap grace. It’s not terribly creative, risky, or interesting. It creates little change. On the other hand, to be truly “woke” in Newton’s sense would be to dedicate ourselves to the creation of communities of justice, diversity, and kinship in which we can authentically say, in the words of one of my students, that “no matter where you come from or what you look like, you are welcome here. We are part of each other’s story.” That, to my mind, is a vision worth living and fighting for. Dare we strive to be instruments for this kind of more vulnerable, costly grace in our classrooms, in our churches, in our society? And what about our country, our nation, our world? Can grace lead us home as a people? If not now, when? When will it finally come, our revelatory moment, our graced moment?

ON THE BLUFF THE EXPERTS

ADAM GUGGENHEIM

KELLY MARGHEIM Administrative Assistant to the Dean of Nursing

Work Family KELLY MARGHEIM WON University of Portland’s most recent Margaret Henzi Outstanding Office Employee Award, and for all the best reasons. “I love this place,” she says, and she has loved seeing it grow. Her initial role was as program specialist more than 11 years ago in the School of Nursing; she then worked directly with students to help them thrive. At that time the program admitted about 180 students. Now there are 300 nursing first year students. “I used to wipe a lot of tears and give a lot of hugs in that role,” she says. “The program is so rigorous, I wanted to let them

know, ‘You can do this; you have another chance; buckle down and be successful. Sometimes you have to give up some stuff. You can’t do everything.’ ” In her current role, Margheim serves as administrative assistant to the dean, and much of what she learned from her students transfers to her skillful ability to keep lines of communication open among nursing professors, administrators, and staff. She knows how to read a room and how to foster relationships. “It’s like raising another family, except this is my work family.”

SUMMER 2019

ON THE BLUFF CAMPUS BRIEFS

#PilotsGAVE THE PILOT FAMILY came together to raise

more than $1,108,000 for University of Portland students during #PilotsGive 2019. Alumni, regents, students, faculty, staff, and friends made a total of 2,610 gifts, completing 37 matching challenges during the 24 hours of #PilotsGive. Special gratitude goes out to those who funded the giving challenges. Their leadership motivated the Pilot community to give generously to the causes they care most about. Thank you!

Noteworthy Numbers

National rank as a producer of Peace Corps volunteers

among peer institutions

5 $ 51m % 97 50 Fulbright US Student Awards for 2019

$51,747,073 awarded by UP

ADAM GUGGENHEIM

in need-based institutional support, donor-endowed and annual scholarships, and tuition-funded grants

Graduation rate for UPâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s NCAA Division I student athletes (national rate is 88%)

Years since the great fire of 1969 destroyed Education Hall April 18, 1969

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Thank you, Sharon

BOB KERNS

SHARON A. JONES, dean of the Donald P. Shiley School of Engineering, recently accepted the position of vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Washington Bothell. Her final day at University of Portland will be June 30. As vice chancellor at UW Bothell, Jones will oversee all academic units, drive the development and implementation of academic policies, and lead efforts to enhance campus culture for faculty and staff. Since joining UP in 2011, Jones has spearheaded enhancements to the school’s curriculum, provided support for faculty scholarly and curricular development, and increased diversity—today, 39 percent of undergraduate students in the Shiley School of Engineering identify as a minority, and 33 percent of its faculty are women. Sharon Jones is a tireless, laser-focused, forward-thinking engineer, and we gratefully acknowledge the lasting changes and momentum she brought to the Shiley School of Engineering and the University as a whole.

THE OREGON ACADEMY OF SCIENCE (OAS) selected mathematics professor and department chair Stephanie Salomone as a winner of the 2019 Outstanding Educator: Higher Education Award, honoring her for “unique contributions made by the candidate to teaching excellence in higher education science and/or mathematics classrooms.” Salomone’s colleagues and students could add a number of other attributes to her Outstanding status: her tireless efforts to raise awareness and support for STEM education at the K–12 level (especially for underrepresented students); her 2009 Outstanding Teaching Award; her grant writing skills, which attract hundreds of thousands of dollars for STEM advancement from the Western Regional Noyce Alliance; and her dedication to improving the art and practice of teaching STEM subjects.

STEVE HAMBUCHEN

Outstanding Salomone

SUMMER 2019

KMSP/FFA

ON THE BLUFF SPORTS

Like Father, Like Son EMMANUEL “MANU” ROUDOLFF-LÉVISSE had planned to spend spring break relaxing with friends and family at home in the Parisian suburb of Verrières-le-Buisson. A little R&R seemed like a good idea after a grueling indoor track season, in which he set personal records in the one mile (4:05.69) and 3000m (7:55.05) distances. But he left his return flight to Portland open-ended, just in case. Just in case he felt rested enough to run in the French Cross Country Championships the following weekend. And just in case he did well enough to qualify for the IAAF World Cross Country Championships two weeks later in Aarhus, Denmark. Manu says he wasn’t really planning to run, but “at the end of the week, I was feeling good, so I thought ‘why not?’ ” So, on March 10, after a week at home, Manu laced up his spikes and attacked the soggy course in Vittel—the muddier, the better, in his opinion—and crossed the finish line as the next French national cross country champion. “I am super happy and very proud of what I achieved,” says Manu, who had previously finished third at the French nationals. “I was leading, but I didn’t really believe I was going to win until the last 30 meters. I kept thinking someone was going to come from behind.” Manu’s achievement is alone remarkable, but there’s more to this story. There was someone in the crowd cheering him on who knew exactly what Manu had achieved, because this individual, too, had been France’s national champion in this event more than three decades before. That person was Manu’s father, Pierre Lévisse. He won the same race in 1979, 1984, 1985, and 1986, and he ran

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his last national championship race on the same Vittel course in 1994. “My father didn’t say much after I won. He just took me in his arms,” says Manu. “This win was amazing and I feel a sort of pride to put my family’s name at the forefront of cross country again.” This victory qualified Manu for the World Championships in Denmark on March 30, where he finished in the top 50.

“This win was amazing and I feel a sort of pride to put my family’s name at the forefront of cross country again.” In the fall, Manu will finish his MBA studies and compete in his final cross country season as a Pilot. Then, he’s planning to run his first marathon; he has his sights set on Chicago or Berlin. And he hopes once again to follow in the footsteps of his father, who competed for France in the 1972 Montreal Olympic Games. Manu is aiming to qualify for the Olympic games on his home turf in 2024. —Amy Shelly ’95, ’01

KARL MAASDAM

SPECIAL OLYMPICS OREGON PARTNERS WITH UP ATHLETICS UP ATHLETES PROVIDED a warm welcome—and some clinic skill-instruction—to more than 188 local elementary, middle, and high school athletes from local Unified Champion Schools. The Unified Champion Schools Program is a branch of the Special Olympics that finds opportunities for students with and without disabilities to play sports together, learn from one another, and promote positive school culture. Look for a more detailed article about this event online soon.

SUMMER 2019

ON THE BLUFF DREAM TEAMS

WHEN EDUCATORS Bonnie Robb (’95, ’01 MEd, and ’16 EdD) and Dylan Hite ’19 want to set expectations in their second-grade classroom, they often draw a picture of those expectations. If they want their students to be kind, for instance, they sketch what kindness looks like. If they want students to be seated and still, feet on the floor, voices quiet during story time, they draw students in chairs with thoughts in thought bubbles. Beyond classroom management and expectations, they also draw new concepts and ideas. They don’t draw pictures because they’re artists. They do this because, as they say in near unison, “It works.” The visual cue not only equalizes expectations for students who may each have learned different definitions of kindness, but the visuals also give students a symbol for their brains to gain a foothold on new concepts—from reading and literacy to science and math. The practice is tied to the neuroeducation classes they both took at UP with Ellyn Arwood, EdD, whose groundbreaking work focuses on the role of language in the learning process.

BOTH PHOTOS BY KARL MAASDAM

Teacher to Teacher

This particular area of neuroscience looks at how the learning happens in the brain—UP is involved in this research right along with neuroeducation leaders in the field at Harvard and Johns Hopkins. And these teaching practices aren’t just for kids. The “realtime visual flowcharting” Robb uses in her “Creativity in the Classroom” course for UP’s School of Education stems from best practices in neuroeducation. This past year Robb, a 24-year veteran teacher, has been a mentor to Hite as she completes her studentteaching requirements. They have worked together at Portland’s Duniway Elementary since the fall, and this last semester Hite took over the class full-time. Hite feels she could not have asked for a better mentor. Among other recognition by the Oregon Department of Education, Robb has been named

the Oregon Teacher of the Year by the Milken Family Foundation. “She is a great role model,” Hite says, clarifying that she means both in and out of the classroom. Robb juggles being a teacher to 23 students, a mom (to one of those students this year), a wife, an active member of her church, and an adjunct professor at UP. During their time together, Hite has learned how to juggle her classes, teaching, and her track seasons. Hite’s event is the steeplechase, a two-mile endurance race that involves 35 hurdles, seven of which land the runner in a water pit. Yes, you read that correctly. Hurdles and water pits. To be competitive, she has to be prepared and mentally tough, qualities that will no doubt help her in the classroom. Next year Hite will be a teaching assistant in France for a year, and then she will return to be a part of University of Portland’s PACE (Pacific Alliance for Catholic Education) program. Robb will switch to a first-grade classroom. She’ll also continue mentoring a UP student, adjunct teaching at UP, and paying it forward.

(top) Bonnie Robb (left) Dylan Hite

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ON THE BLUFF THE WORLD WE WANT

STEVE HAMBUCHEN

All Things Wise and Wonderful

Professor Russell Butkus with a student

FROM THE VERY BEGINNING of his career at University of Portland 34 years ago, Russell Butkus knew he wanted to connect his theological studies with his passion for protecting the environment. As an avid fly fisher, he was drawn to wilderness and water and fish and the holiness and responsibility they entail. By 1993 his work took on a decidedly environmental bent. He taught “Christianity and the Environment,” “Salmon and Sacrament,” and “Science, Religion, and Climate Change”—his voluminous academic output has continued to be an exemplar of the power of interdisciplinary cooperation, truth, and the sanctity of God’s creation. Since 1995 Butkus has teamed with the Molter Chair in Science, Professor Steven Kolmes, to promote environmental and theological awareness on campus and beyond. With the full blessing of their theology department colleagues, Butkus and Kolmes paved the way for a major in environmental studies in 1997. Their award-winning textbook, Environmental Science and Theology in Dialogue (2011), came about when they were unable to find the textbooks they needed for their team-taught environmental studies courses. Today the program boasts 112 majors, a steadily increasing faculty, and a bright future even as its founding directors enter their retirement years. Butkus retired this spring, though he shows no signs of stopping. He looks forward to connecting with local non-governmental organizations like Oregon Freshwater Trust, traveling, and “rolling up my sleeves and getting out in the field, spending time exploring in the Sandy River basin, the John Day River, you name it. Oregon has so many environments, so many rivers!” He’s right about that, and we can all be grateful he plans to continue his crusade on their behalf.

SUMMER 2019

ON THE BLUFF SECOND LOOK

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Peruvian artist Talavera-Ballón came to UP in April to speak to students about “art, migration, and the role of women in social justice.” This painting is from his “Mujeres Luz” series. It depicts a woman he met named Bernarda, handing out water to migrants traveling by train through La Patrona, Mexico. In spite of the dangers, many migrants travel on top of the train, which has earned the nickname “la Bestia.”

OIL ON WOOD PANEL. 39" x 28".

“Esperanza en las vías” by Talavera-Ballón

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REMEMBER J.H. CAR ROLL J R.,

YOU

T H E S TO R Y O F A YO U N G P I L OT

BY E I L E E N BJOR K M A N

SUMMER 2019

HE LINGERING SUMMER sunlight made it easy to find the sculpture— the robed hands clasped in prayer, the shock of white against a backdrop of red bricks. Carol Leitschuh had learned about the Praying Hands Memorial just minutes earlier that evening in 2016, from a priest at dinner. Now, as she drew closer to the sculpture, she began to see names engraved in some of the bricks, memorializing students from University of Portland who died serving their country during World War II. Carol had come to find one name: her uncle, John H. Carroll Jr., whom she had never met. A few days later, Carol showed photos of the memorial to her aunt Jeanne, John’s younger sister. Jeanne stared at the photo of the brick inscribed with the name of her only brother, who had died 72 years earlier. The University’s Class of 1948 had built the memorial, but somehow its existence had escaped her and the rest of the Carroll family. Her voice tinged with sadness, she said, “That’s the only marker we have for John.”

The senior Carroll had received a Purple Heart in World War I and was reluctant to let his only son enlist in the military, but after the attack on Pearl Harbor, he gave his blessing. John hated the war but wanted to serve and fulfill what he considered his duty to help keep America safe. He left school to enter the Army Air Force in March 1942 and received his commission and Air Force pilot wings on January 7, 1944. He returned to Portland to marry Violet Law five days later and then left for the South Pacific, where he flew B-25 bombers. John wrote regular letters home to Violet and his parents. He told his parents he attended Catholic Mass and Adoration regularly; he found great comfort in the rites. He looked forward to having the war behind him. He ended each letter: “Sending lots of love, Your son, Johnnie.”

Born on May 5, 1922, John H. Carroll Jr. seemed destined to become a renaissance man: during high school, he lettered in football, was president of his sophomore class, and was a member of the physics, chemistry, and drama clubs. He learned to ski without a chairlift, climbing to the top of a mountain in the Cascades and then skiing down. After graduating from high school in 1940, he began studying for an engineering degree at University of Portland, where his father, John H. Carroll Sr., worked as a purchasing agent. The next year, John attended a civil pilot training course in Portland, entering a pool of pilot candidates the military could call upon if needed.

John’s wife, Violet; his mother, Ethel; and John’s sister Patricia

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SUMMER 2019

17 PHOTOS AND ARTIFACTS COURTESY OF CAROL LEITSCHUH

deep faith and a letter from the priest who performed the Mass provided comfort: he assured the family that no one was better prepared to meet God than John.

On November 12, 1944, John’s B-25 was hit by Japanese anti-aircraft artillery during a raid in the Dutch East Indies (now Pegun Island). One of the other pilots in the formation saw the back part of John’s bomber engulfed in flames. The nose of the crippled aircraft pitched up, and the plane stalled, spun into the ground, and exploded. The aircraft had been flying too low and too fast for the five crewmembers to have any chance of bailing out. An Army Catholic priest went to the site of the crash the next day and celebrated Mass. The Army was slow to notify the Carroll family of John’s death. He wrote his last letter home two weeks before he died, and his parents and wife struggled to understand why they suddenly stopped hearing from him. Then one day Violet received a shipment containing his belongings, although the Army still hadn’t confirmed or denied his death. She finally received a telegram with the official notification on December 15, 1944. John’s body was not recovered. For his service, he received the Purple Heart and the Air Medal. The family’s

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After the war ended, the military tried to identify as many remains as they could. The success rate was low, given technology at the time. Sergeant Charles Langord was the only one identified from the five crewmembers aboard John’s B-25. A letter to Violet in 1950 expressed sympathy for the situation: “Realizing the extent of your grief and anxiety, it is not easy to express condolence to you who gave your loved one under circumstances so difficult that there is no grave at which to pay homage.” John’s older sister Patricia, Carol’s mother, treated wounded Army soldiers as a flight nurse; Patricia and her mother were prolific letter writers, and her mother’s greatest sorrow was that she could no longer write to John. Despite her own grief, John’s mother put her arms around the family and led them in moving on. The family continued to work, attend Sunday Mass, and do the things that families do: dinners, birthdays, Christmas celebrations, going to the movies. The Holy Cross fathers on the University campus regularly offered Masses for John. John Sr. passed away in 1948. Violet remarried. Carol grew up hearing stories about her uncle and seeing pictures of him. Every year on Memorial Day, the family headed to a local cemetery with the graves of ancestors dating back to the 1800s. While the boys clipped the grass around the markers, other family members decorated graves with flowers plucked from their garden. There was no grave to decorate for John.

SUMMER 2019

J.H. Carroll Jr., UP yearbook portrait

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Nearly all cultures memorialize their war dead, but the United States stands apart in its determination to “leave no one behind,” even decades after a soldier dies or is captured in combat overseas. This ethos, while not codified in any official military doctrine, has resulted in our modern-day combat search and rescue capabilities, along with an endless quest to find and identify remains of the fallen. Although nearly all downed or trapped personnel since the end of the Vietnam War have been rescued or had their remains recovered, more than 82,000 Americans are still missing from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and other conflicts. The Pentagon’s Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) coordinates with hundreds of locations around the world while searching for remains, with the goal to provide the fullest possible accounting to families of the missing. In 2018, DPAA identified the remains of nearly two hundred personnel. Part of the US obsession with rescuing personnel and repatriating its war dead surely stems from our ability to afford the people and equipment needed to do so. But no other wealthy country expends equivalent resources on the recovery of soldiers’ remains. These efforts seem to line up with the parable of the lost sheep. We rejoice more over the one we have searched for and found than the ninety-nine who were never lost and whom we may have put at risk to search for the lost one. Ensuring no one is forgotten has a long tradition at University of Portland.

Every Veterans Day for more than sixty years, University ROTC students have held a 24-hour vigil at the Praying Hands Memorial to honor those who died or are still missing, along with all who have served during wartime. On Memorial Day, Carol Leitschuh now has a place to decorate with flowers for John. She would like to thank the students in the Class of 1948 who built the memorial. In the summer of 2018, Carol received a letter from the Army asking for a DNA sample. After reviewing military documents from the 1950s in her grandmother’s papers, she learned that there were three unidentified soldiers from the island where John died. One was subsequently identified, and the other two are now interred at a cemetery in the Philippines. However, a follow-up letter acknowledging receipt of her DNA noted, “The request for DNA sample does not imply there are recovered remains associated with your loved one.” Given that DPAA identifies only about two hundred sets of remains each year, the chances of recovering John Carroll are very low. Many of the missing will never be found and are remembered only in the memories of loved ones, scrapbooks, or an inscription on a memorial. Words that adorn the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington Cemetery also pay tribute to the unidentified fallen: “Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God.” Also known to us— a young man named J.H. Carroll Jr., forever etched in brick on the memorial at home on The Bluff.

EILEEN BJORKMAN is a retired Air Force officer and freelance writer. Her first book is The Propeller under the Bed: A Personal History of Homebuilt Aircraft; she is now writing a book about combat search and rescue, Unforgotten in the Gulf of Tonkin.

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B Y K AT H E R I N E G A M B L E â&#x20AC;&#x2122; 1 9 I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y T E S S R U B I N S T E I N

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Revlon, WH EN TH E MEDIA STARTED FEATU RI NG H ER AS A N EW TALENT TO WATCH, SH E HAD TO STEP BACK AN D DECI DE I F TH E STORY TH E WRITERS WERE TELLI NG WAS TRU E.

280 Bubbly To be honest, I didn’t think the real story was all that interesting, so I let the reporters write the other one for me. The real story: I was fourteen years old and an avid ballet dancer who could hold my own in a game of tennis. The other story: I was a markswoman with dead aim, a shooting champion, a talent to be watched. In the eyes of the media, the coaches, fellow competitors, my father— my coach and I were the textbook definition of “good winners”; gracious, humble thank yous came easily to us as they praised me for my accomplishment with a rifle. But here’s the truth: I wasn’t the breakout talent they all believed me to be. I wasn’t my coach’s gifted new protégé. I was just lucky. I had taken aim at a bull’s eye ten times and made ten perfect shots. Everyone saw it happen. Well, everyone but me.

SUMMER 2019

IRST SERGEANT ANDREWS. There wasn’t a name that commanded more respect in our small military community, nestled in the Bavarian countryside. He was a Vietnam veteran, a beloved JROTC teacher at the high school, and an award-winning rifle coach. The first thing I noticed about him was his uncanny resemblance to the Keebler Elf. Our paths rarely crossed. Twice a week I sat in the back of the JROTC classroom at the end of the school day, impatiently waiting for my brother to finish practice. When First Sergeant started asking me questions one day, I didn’t listen much to what he was saying, and honestly, I couldn’t tell you what I said back to him. My young mind was distracted by the lasagna waiting for me at home, the color of the lipstick I was thinking of buying, the guy I had a crush on. One evening toward the end of the school year, my father called me into his home office. I took my time walking downstairs, wracking my brain for the reason why I was in trouble. First Sergeant had called about the conversation we’d had earlier that day, my father said. Before I could recall any details or generate an excuse for whatever trouble I must have caused, my father interrupted me. Apparently First Sergeant and I had had a delightful conversation, and he had called my parents to tell them he must teach me how to shoot. I was female, left-handed, and mathematical, he said, all the qualities he needed to make a great markswoman out of me.

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I wasn’t particularly interested in shooting, and it wasn’t something I had ever considered. The entire scenario, quite frankly, seemed bizarre. I couldn’t grasp why, out of all the potential marksmen in my school, he had decided I would be his next protégé. Nonetheless, my father always told me to take advantage of every opportunity because you never know where it may take you. So, there I was a few days later behind the firing line, a rifle in my hand. Summer break had just started, and my parents, along with a few curious spectators, sat in the back while I learned the fundamentals of shooting. I hung on to every piece of First Sergeant’s advice, repeating his staccato instructions again and again in my head: Squeeze—never pull—the trigger. Breathe. An hour later, after I had learned the basic mechanics, it was finally time for me to take my first shot. With the onlookers eagerly watching—all of them convinced I was going to be a natural talent—I lined up my sights. With the most elementary understanding of what I was doing, I tried my best to get the outline of the circle in my sights perfectly around the target, which seemed to get smaller the longer I looked at it. After what felt like an eternity of watching the target sway back and forth, I was still unsure of what to do, and I was quickly running out of breath. To end this sorry spectacle, I pulled the trigger. Everyone, myself included, turned to First Sergeant, who was watching through his scope. He couldn’t find the shot on the target. I had shot the floor.

y first season shooting can generously be described as unremarkable. I was happy to take my place in an end lane and stay under the radar. I was merely a participant and was content with that being the extent of my dubious reputation. I learned later that my spot in the 2012 European Championships later that year was a favor the organizer had done for my coach. I was a rookie fourteen-year-old who was there for the experience, I was told, and so I expected nothing more. On the first day of the championship, I quietly took my place (per usual) in the end lane. The only trace of my presence would be 10 bullet holes scattered haphazardly on my target. Well, I hoped they would be on my target—and not the floor. I saw no purpose in trying to control my nerves. Fully aware that I was out of my league, I walked up to the firing line, rifle in hand, with calm disinterest. My one goal: to go unnoticed. I meticulously set up my gear, checked my rifle, lined up my scope, and went to check my sights. Opening the case, I noticed that my sights had somehow broken during travel. Without them, I wouldn’t have the standard magnification; I wouldn’t have a precise view of my target ten meters away. There was nothing I could do. Broken sights would require major repairs, and I had only minutes until I had to begin shooting. Straining my eyes, I could just barely make out the blur that was my target. I put my sights down and closed my eyes. I couldn’t control anything anymore. Unencumbered by unrealistic expectations and the stress that went with fierce competition, I did what I had been taught my first day. I searched my brain for every bit of First Sergeant’s instructions. Breathe. Just breathe. I was in no rush. I wedged my eye in between my broken sights and cheek plate, breathed in, and exhaled. I waited for the perfect moment. Right at the end of my breath, just before I felt the need to gasp for air and just after I felt my heart slow, I took my first shot. Later I was told no one could detect when I had actually pulled the trigger. The only indication I had taken a shot was the bobble of my head, my lifting up from the rifle. I would pull the trigger back until the tension was perfect, and then it would release itself, almost as if I hadn’t been the one taking the shot. Now, I could breathe again. Replicating the process, down to the thuTHUMP of that heartbeat, I shot again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. Shots in the dark, all ten of them. It took me the full twentyminute time limit, about double the time it took every other shooter. It never occurred to me to ask what my score was. I was in all ways very below average. I picked up my rifle, eager to depart the range unnoticed (as planned). As I turned to leave, I was embarrassed by the number of spectators, coaches, and even some competitors standing behind my lane with scopes glued to their eye sockets, entertained, I was sure, by my series of blunders. Then First Sergeant blocked my plan for a quick exit. He brought me over to his scope and, without saying a word, motioned for me to look through it. I moved the scope, searching for the target placed at the end of my lane. There was no way I was seeing this right. Ten perfect shots. Bull’s eyes, all of them. I couldn’t believe it. Someone else must have shot at my target. Then the clapping started. Later that day, to my and First Sergeant’s utter disbelief, I was presented a large shiny cup. The plaque on it read: “European Precision Champion.” First Sergeant and I received the award gracefully. I had unwittingly

There was no way I was seeing this right. Ten perfect shots. Bull’s eyes, all of them.

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caused a major upset in the world of European Marksmanship. We were, by far, the most dumbfounded people in the room. To everyone else, ours was an epic story waiting to be told: he was a great coach, and I was his newest protégé, blessed with an abundance of natural talent. Reporters started writing articles about us, and spectators and coaches whispered about us, their eyes glinting with awe and envy. Their narrative: a piece of fiction far more intriguing than reality. And I quickly became their favorite character.

I played into the persona that had been created for me: I wore Revlon, 280 Bubbly nail polish, pearl earrings, and a full mask of makeup, complete with a steel grin to hide my nerves.

was heralded as a breakthrough, compelling talent. But I was also a curiosity. How had I, a 14-year-old rookie—small, blonde, dainty—become the European Marksmanship Champion? As they tried to piece together how I had “mastered” the sport having only taken my first shot a few months ago, I remained carefully quiet. I was the golden girl of the sport, my newly minted reputation “earned” through undeniable natural talent and dedication. But underneath the swarm of subsequent reports, interviews, magazine articles, praise, and accolades, my coach and I knew the truth they didn’t. I was just the luckiest person in the room. After my extreme display of luck, I was determined to live up to the expectations that day had set for me. It wasn’t just my reputation at stake but, more importantly, my coach’s. Before the next season began, I managed to develop my actual skill level to match that of my accidental reputation. I became a staple at competitions and a reliable victor. Slowly, my gear went from standard issue black to custom monogrammed hot pink. I played into the persona that had been created for me: I wore Revlon, 280 Bubbly nail polish (my favorite shade of pink), pearl earrings, and a full mask of makeup, complete with a steel grin to hide my nerves. I loved my character, and I leaned into it at every opportunity. Being an anomaly in the sport, reporters often highlighted these details, along with my blonde hair. Shooting near perfect scores became habit and was no longer newsworthy. My appearance and my nail polish got more ink than my scores.

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When I was contacted by the United States Military Academy at West Point, I was sure they had the wrong person. That Katherine Gamble with dead aim? That was only a character. I wasn’t that serious shooter; I was just having fun. A few weeks later, bewildered and flattered, I was flown to New York to meet with the West Point marksmanship coaches. A couple of months after that, I was at the National Championships training with who we all believed would be my future coach at West Point. At the first mention of “Rio 2016” a few years later, I decided the charade needed to end. My good luck, disguised as something I had earned, had carried me too far. My passion, dedication, and commitment were not to the sport but to a character: the blonde girl with bubblegum pink nails and pearl earrings, who happened to be a sharpshooter. In a sense, I had checked my sights. I could see that shooting was my favorite game. I could also see that I didn’t want my skills in shooting to be more than a game. Breathe. Days later, without consulting anyone, I withdrew my commitment to West Point and accepted admission to University of Portland to study finance.

KATHERINE GAMBLE graduated this May. Immediate post-graduation plans include a little vacation and her first half-ironman.

SUMMER 2019

And yet

Something keeps calling him back BY PHILIP METRES

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NASHCO PHOTO

I’M ALWAYS IN AWE, each year, when we meet the new catechumens—people newly entering the Catholic Church. They stand shyly before the altar, like new fawns trying to find their first footing, longing for some steadiness that the world has not provided. Yet I also shake my head in wonder. Don’t they know what’s become of our Church? Haven’t they read the papers about the sexual abuse scandals, the thousands of people that our Church has betrayed and harmed? And yet I’m there at Mass longing for that steadiness too. So I turn the question to myself. Why, in spite of the betrayals of my Church, do I keep coming back? Part of my answer has to do with my own restlessness—some of which derives from my own nature, some of which is a byproduct of our society. “Our hearts are restless,” St. Augustine wrote in The Confessions, “until they find rest in Thee.” I, too, long for the sweet rest that Augustine prayed for. How to find it amidst capitalism’s relentless consumerism, Freud’s notion of the primacy of desire, the Internet swallowing our attention, causing us to skitter like insects along the screens of a virtual world? And then there is the deep shame I feel, that our Church has been the cause of suffering for so many vulnerable people. Our hearts are terribly restless, and so many of us have lost trust in the Church—and by association, God—as the way toward inner calm. AND YET SOMETHING keeps calling me back. When we started coming to St. Dominic Parish in Shaker Heights, Ohio, we felt so welcome. My wife, Amy, and I would take turns weeping during Mass at the loving words spoken by Father Tom or the soaring chorus, exhorting that all are welcome in this place. We wanted to raise our children in the Church—not because it is perfect but because it is a place and time where we set aside our busy lives and seek communion, to seek encounter with the divine. I love what Father Greg Boyle has said, that Church is not a museum for saints but a hospital for sinners, those seeking wholeness, those longing to be healed. When I was a child, I was bored as hell by the Mass. But as I’ve grown, I’ve become more and more rapt by it—the singing, the asking for mercy, the recurring stories and their parabolic power, the kiss of peace, the gathering at table, the procession toward communion, the rhythms of liturgical seasons…and this enigmatic, beautiful, challenging, luminous, loving figure at the heart of it.

The skeptical side of me balks, struggles against teachings that strain understanding. I bridle against the Catholicism that suggests we are stained, our bodies are sinful, and the world is corrupt. Aren’t we also made in the image of God? Doesn’t creation sing the glory of the Lord? YET ISN’T THE STRUGGLE part of the faith? Jacob, Sarah, Job, Jonah, Mary, Martha, even Jesus—in the end, who didn’t wrestle with God? The struggle has spoken to me more loudly than submission. So I go, praying, wrestling with the angels, trying to overcome or be overcome, trying to quiet my cynicism, to make a space in myself for God. Sometimes, when praying, I feel totally present to the moment; sometimes I go through the motions; sometimes I question every word of a prayer. It can be easy to start wrestling with the words, because the prayers are old translations from other tongues, from ancient worldviews. If I believe, as St. Ignatius of Loyola teaches, that we might see God in all things, then even in my struggles, distractions, lazy prayers and poems, the divine is curled, sleeping, and dreaming of waking. When God becomes weaponized, used to damn people, justify wars, accelerate the fires of hatred, I’m disheartened and want to flee from being associated with the faith. Yet I long for the God behind the God of religion. The God hidden in the God we have constructed, the one at the core of the mystery of existence. I long for a Church as great as the love that the faith invites us to. Perhaps it is a weakness of mine that I don’t want my existence (indeed, all human existence) to have been a random biological accident. But this faith rhymes with something in me and to reject that would be to lie. I love too much the idea that we are invited into the fullness of divinity insofar as we stand with the marginalized and the broken, the imprisoned and the exiled, the hungry and the forsaken (Matthew 5:3–12). It seems to me that all the great faiths meet in the following ideas: That we belong to each other. That each person is an encounter with the divine mystery, a door to some almost-imaginable place (John 14:2), in which we all can come home.

PHILIP METRES is the author of Shrapnel Maps (2020), The Sound of Listening, and Sand Opera, and is a two-time recipient of the NEA and Arab American Book Award.

SUMMER 2019

THREE PILOTS, ONE STAGE

WHO TO WATCH FOR AT THE 2019 FIFA WOMEN’S WORLD CUP

B Y K AT E LY N B E S T

WHEN SOME 500 of the world’s top soccer players converge on France this summer for the Women’s World Cup, three University of Portland products—Megan Rapinoe ’08, Christine Sinclair ’06, and Sophie Schmidt ’10— will again suit up for their countries, marking the third World Cup for Schmidt and Rapinoe and the fifth for Sinclair. The Pilot contingent will be far from the largest at the tournament, but pound for pound, it may be among the most impactful. What Rapinoe is known for on the international stage, more than anything, is a quasi-magical clutchness, an often impossible-to-believe ability to drag her team back from the brink with a moment of absolute brilliance. She did it in the 2011 World Cup against Brazil, when in the 122nd minute, with the USA down 2-1, Rapinoe sent the world’s most perfect cross into the six-yard box, where Abby Wambach pounced to head the ball into the net and send the game to penalties. Rapinoe also did it in the semifinal of the 2012 Olympics, where she scored two of the USA’s three goals— one an absolute stunner from the

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Megan Rapinoe of USA celebrates with fans after the FIFA Women’s World Cup Final between USA and Japan at BC Place Stadium on July 5, 2015, in Vancouver, Canada.

SUMMER 2019

STUART FRANKLIN - FIFA/FIFA VIA GETTY IMAGES

ADAM PULICICCHIO/GETTY IMAGES

Captain and forward Christine Sinclair of Canada blasts the ball inside the 18 yard box against Costa Rica in an exhibition match on June 11, 2017, at BMO Field in Toronto, Canada.

corner of the 18, and one that curled straight into the net off a corner kick, a feat known as a gol olimpico. Coincidentally, on the other side of that game, which the Americans won in the 123rd minute, was Rapinoe’s former UP teammate, longtime Canada captain Christine Sinclair. Sinclair’s 19-year international career is impossible to do justice to in this space; to simply list all of her many accomplishments at the college, club, and international levels would be unfairly reductive. She is by far the best soccer player Canada has ever produced and has a strong case for being the best ever in the women’s game. She combines athleticism, technique, and intelligence, and, remarkably, is at least as good at age 35 as she was at 25.

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With 181 international goals (as of this writing), she is just four shy of being the most prolific international scorer of all time. She is also renowned for being one of the nicest people in the sport. Also on the Canadian team will be Portland graduate Sophie Schmidt, who went on to play club soccer in Sweden, the US, and Germany, including a three-year stint at FFC Frankfurt, during which she featured in seven Champions League matches in a 2015–2016 campaign that saw her team reach the semifinal round of the prestigious tournament. Schmidt returned stateside this year and currently plays with the Houston Dash. Sinclair, meanwhile, still lives in Portland, where she’s the Thorns’ captain and tentpole player, the leader

everyone wants to emulate, and the one everyone looks to for guidance when things go wrong. It’s no coincidence that the Thorns’ most important player is a UP product; The Bluff, after all, is where women’s soccer first gained a foothold in this city. Over the last 20 years, as two professional leagues came and went, as the US women’s national team broke into mainstream consciousness and then faded back out of it again and again, a fanbase was quietly building in Portland. Fans who followed the Pilots in the Clive Charles days had gotten hooked on the sport, and when Merritt Paulson became the owner of one of eight teams in the nascent NWSL, those fans turned up in droves. They made scarves and flags, chanted and pounded

SEAN BURGES/ICON SPORTSWIRE VIA GETTY IMAGES

This is a team that represents the best possible future for women’s sports in America —and it started at UP.

Sophie Schmidt of Canada in an international FIFA women’s friendly soccer match between Canada and Brazil at TD Place Stadium in Ottawa, Canada, September 2, 2018. Canada defeated Brazil 1-0.

drums, roared with excitement when things went right and booed the refs when they went wrong. The scene around the Thorns was and still is like nothing else in the history of the women’s game: an honestto-God following, one that shows up week after week and sings their hearts out for a club team. This is a team that represents the best possible future for women’s sports in America—and it started at UP. But if Portland remains the global capital of women’s soccer, this World Cup could represent a big moment for the sport, one in which interest slowly seems to be growing in countries like France, England, Spain, and Italy, traditional strongholds of men’s soccer where sexism has long impeded the growth of the women’s game. Women’s sides like Barcelona and Juventus have drawn record crowds in recent months, and in England, Barclays recently signed a reported £10 million sponsorship deal with the women’s league. Longtime followers of this sport have been burned before in hoping that the hype around a World Cup would translate to sustained interest, but growth isn’t always linear, and each bump in enthusiasm nudges the graph in a positive direction. So, outside of the UP graduates, who should you be watching this summer? Look for the USA, England, France, and Australia to make deep runs. The Americans are still the most talented squad in the world, and they have to be considered favorites again, but France and England’s technically gifted squads threaten the USA more and more each year. If there’s one can’t-miss game at this tournament, it’s a likely meeting between the Americans and their French hosts in the quarterfinals. Expect Australia, meanwhile, to be the most fun team at the tournament, with a young, hungry lineup eager to make a statement on the world’s biggest stage. Oh, and they have a player named Sam Kerr, the best forward in the world right now, and a woman who, after a reported million-dollar investment by Nike, is poised on the brink of superstardom. KATELYN BEST is a freelance writer.

SUMMER 2019

Big, New

Think Think Entrepreneur Scholars Program Turns 20

University of Portland’s nationally recognized Entrepreneur Scholars Program has been training students to bring extraordinary ideas to life for two decades. Started by visionary investors Bob Franz and Elsie Franz Finley and led by Robin Anderson, dean of the business school, the program encourages students of every academic discipline to create new business ventures, do vigorous research, take risks, expand their professional network nationally and globally, and seek ways to think big and think new. More than 300 graduates of this program have created products, tackled social problems, and explored new businesses. (Also of note: some 60 graduates have returned to UP as mentors.) Some ideas are still going strong; some have lived a full life; some flopped and inspired the next idea. The array of projects is staggeringly diverse. We had the chance to speak with five graduates of this program—two from the program’s early days and three more recent graduates. Even in this small sample, the program’s strength is clear: entrepreneurial skills translate to leadership skills in our world today.

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Fatima Ruiz Villatoro

Engineering Management, Spanish / 2015

TH E PROJ ECT

I partnered up on a classmate’s idea to create a nonprofit that decorated rooms for children who were terminally ill. TH E WHY

I was hospitalized when I was in high school, my junior year. Up until that point I thought I wanted to be a doctor. Surprisingly, I later learned I enjoyed the construction side of hospitals. FROM TH ERE

For the past three years I’ve been working in construction of medical facilities. I’m currently an assistant project manager working on my first ground-up project: a 15,000 square-foot expansion to an emergency department in Tacoma. I feel I’m making a difference for the people that receive care at these facilities. Even if it’s just a new coat of paint, it always seems to make a difference. CHALLENGES

Most of the projects that I work on are in active clinics or hospitals. This means that our construction activities are scheduled around the activities of the hospital. Any time we do a connection of utilities, whether it be water or power, we need to have a shutdown to connect everything safely. Imagine a patient coming into the hospital to seek care, but they have no access to water or toilets—these are the types of problems that we try to solve and work around. The constructability piece is different too. With a corporate headquarters, you’re likely focused on how it looks. We look at function. Is it going to work? Will the patients enjoy the experience, and will they feel that they are receiving the best care possible? WEAKN ESS

The inability to say “no” when items are added to my to-do list. SU PERPOWER

SY BEAN

Getting the job done.

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Vail Horton

Interdisciplinary (Business, Philosophy, Spanish) / 2002 ADAM GUGGENHEIM

TH E PROJ ECT

LESSON

I started an innovative underarm crutch company. The “Keen” crutch included shock absorption and pivoting crutch tip and is aesthetically stylish and sexy.

When starting your own company, make sure that the idea doesn’t become your baby. You don’t want to coddle the idea. Let it breathe and live on its own, apart from your identity. Allow the market and customers to say what they have to say. Embrace other perspectives. Be inquisitive about other perspectives.

TH E WHY

I depended on crutches for my daily mobility almost my entire life, as I walked using prosthetic limbs. As of 2001–02, crutches had not been updated since the days of pirates and peg-legs. I had survived so many slips, falls. I had destroyed my wrists and shoulders. I innovated crutches out of necessity. FROM TH ERE

After innovating a crutch, we moved on to other durable medical products, i.e., wheelchairs, walkers, and mattresses. TH E EASY PART

Ideas! ADVICE “U NTAKEN”

Work for someone else first.

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SU PERPOWER

Getting in front of anyone—truly anyone—to share my vision. WEAKN ESS

I love to see the future for what I think it should be, but I live too much in the future. NOW

I still own Keen but have retired from the day-to-day. I work full time for the nonprofit I started, which unlocks the potential of people. I want people to understand that pain and challenges are not bad things, and I want to help people love themselves.

Thomas Iwasaki Finance / 2014

TH E PROJ ECT

A Bluetooth speaker, customizable with imagery or designs of your choice. TH E WHY

I had been building speakers for fun, and when I looked at the market, I wasn’t especially excited by all the uniform black, silver, and compact Bluetooth speakers available. I wanted to create a music product as expressive as a music collection. FROM TH ERE

I pursued cost and design for manufacture with a local audio engineer but stopped short of a product launch. Instead, I ended up joining a local technology startup as an early employee (via an E-Scholars connection). LESSONS

You need to expose your ideas to improve them. Feedback from users, the market, or whoever you can get to weigh in will test, strengthen, and validate your idea. TH E VALU E OF RESEARCH

I was having a hard time finding pants that fit properly, so I set up a fake website offering to “copy your favorite pants” as a test to see if others were facing the same problems as I was. There was some interest mostly in denim jeans. When I moved into conversations with denim folks, I learned that promising an exact fit in denim isn’t really possible. And prices were going to be a couple hundred dollars per pair. The idea has been shelved. I watched closely as Japanese retailer Zozo also ran into trouble with this idea recently. SU PERPOWER

I run without coffee. WEAKN ESS

Office snacks.

ADAM GUGGENHEIM

NOW

I recently moved on from Nike to co-create a new company, Usonia. We’re helping businesses use their data to grow in smart and effective ways. We’re moving and shaking!

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Molly (Sexton) Gowan

Organizational Communication / 2000

TH E PROJ ECT

I created an executive management seminar, specifically business training for parish pastors/priests. TH E WHY

Pastors are responsible for running (sometimes) multi-million-dollar businesses, but they do not typically receive any business training. Priests were asking for this. FROM TH ERE

I started “Windy Media” in Chicago, worked for a division of Infinity Broadcasting for two years, then moved to Reynolds and Reynolds, then medical sales, and am now selling for Dell Technologies. MI N DSET

Anything is possible. The entrepreneurial spirit is alive in any career path you may choose—even if it entails working for someone else. An entrepreneur is a selfstarter who finds creative ways to solve problems—those skills have served me well my entire career. TH E EASY PART

Creating a vision, setting a path, and sharing them. TH E CHALLENGE

Risk. SU PERPOWER/ WEAKN ESS

I care. I truly care about people, their experiences with my company, and their impression of me and my level of support/service. This quality is definitely both a strength and weakness—it keeps me up at night, but I directly attribute it to my success. YOU N EVER KNOW

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JIMENA PECK

I met a woman on an airplane—we were both flying stand-by and got the last two seats. She worked for a well-known medical device company. That chance meeting led to a successful 11-year career.

Devin Ajimine Computer Science / 2019

TH E PROJ ECT

Paramine is a product design company—our first product is a magic wallet—and a community of creatives. We started from a successful Kickstarter, and we are now shipping wallets all over the world. TH E WHY

Wallets are an essential tool. Having lived in Hawai’i and Oregon, I always needed a wallet that was also made for the outdoors. So I thought, how might I make a nice wallet that is minimal yet durable? With experience making leather camera straps and an early understanding of design concepts, I created a wallet mixed with a magic trick I learned when I was little.

ADAM GUGGENHEIM

alum Nate DeVaughn ’16. We co-released a giveaway, and both our companies grew in following. LESSONS

I now know I can travel anywhere, build a network, and communicate an idea. I have also learned to take chances and embrace failures. Failures and brick walls have been the biggest asset in my entrepreneurial journey. If I didn’t try anything, I wouldn’t have lost anything, but I wouldn’t have learned anything either. SU PERPOWER

Ability to focus on a passion project. WEAKN ESS

TH E PROCESS

Netflix.

At the end of the day, what made the project exciting was being able to invite my friends and creative people to take part in the development process. Other than collaborating with photographers and creators to help capture content, the coolest collaboration was with a new friend and UP

Product management at T-Mobile, while earning a master’s degree at University of Washington in Human Centered Design and Engineering (HCDE).

N EXT U P

SUMMER 2019

Warm and Proud Itzel Moreno-Vega ’19’s internship through the Latino Network at César Chávez School in North Portland was initially focused on parents. A social work major, Itzel’s job was to increase parent engagement by creating accessible programs and to find ways for parents to connect and get involved. But when the weather turned cold and rainy in the fall, she also started turning her attention to the students. She couldn’t help but notice that many students went out for recess without a coat. Itzel decided to find a solution. She discovered Operation Warm—a nonprofit that manufactures its own coats for children—and took on the extra work of filling out a grant application, her first. After a couple weeks perfecting her ask—a brand new coat for each and every student at the school—she pressed send, though not without doubts. “I didn’t think I was going to get it,” she says. “I knew it

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was highly competitive, and I was asking for a big donation.” A couple months later Itzel received the news—all 525 students would be receiving a brand new coat, and the organization kicked in 100 more for siblings or community members. “Not only was it a special moment for the students, but it was one of the best days of my life,” Itzel says. “It was overwhelming for me to watch the students pick out their coats.” Originally from the St. Johns neighborhood, Itzel felt a special attachment to the school community. “I have a connection to these stories and to these families’ backgrounds,” she says. “In that moment, I realized that I attended UP for a reason, and that reason was to give back to people who are close to my heart and home.” Itzel graduated in May and is headed to Madrid, Spain, for 10 months as a language and culture assistant through the Council on International Educational Exchange. —Roya Ghorbani-Elizeh ’11

CLASS NOTES

70s 1975

Craig Werking ’75 was one of five deaconate candidates to be installed as lectors at the Cathedral of the Madeleine, Salt Lake City, on October 13, 2018. His group was scheduled to be installed as acolytes on May 11, 2019, and to be ordained in January 2020. Craig and his wife, Teri, are going through the training together.

1978

Mike Irwin ’78 won the 2019 Distinguished Alumni Award. A 26-year Air Force officer, Mike followed his military service with a 16-year career as a senior executive service leader with the Department of Homeland Security. He has commanded humanitarian missions around the globe, flown multiple combat-zone missions, and, during the September 11 terror attacks, was on duty as director of operations at the White House. He recently retired as federal security director for the State of Oregon, leading the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) at Portland International Airport and others.

80s 1980

This May, Pei Ling (Mucki) Tan ’80 returned to The Bluff to receive an honorary doctorate—specifically the Doctor of Public Service, Honoris Cause. He was honored for his leadership

of his family business— the Rodamas Group— which brings a dizzying array of world class business ventures to Indonesia. He also founded ACS Jakarta, a Christian school that aims to be a “beacon of light and truth,” teaching and empowering students of different faith traditions.

1981

We heard recently from John Kloucek ’81, who writes: “My daughter Sarah Kloucek married Keith Hummel on August 25, 2018. Both are members of the Class of 2013. Three other members of the wedding party are also alumni: Christine Smith ’12, Megan Yamamoto ’13, and JoAnna Langberg ’13.”

1987

Margarita Bautista Gay ’87 is the recipient of the 2019 Rev. Thomas C. Oddo, C.S.C. Outstanding Service Award. Margarita has dedicated her career to serving the people of Guam as a neonatal intensive care unit nurse. She currently works as the chief of nursing for Guam Department of Public Health and Social Services. Joan Reimer ’87 was featured in an article titled “This Nurse Helps New Moms When They’re Most Vulnerable: Joan Reimer, R.N., delivers hope and a trunk full of diapers” in the January 8, 2019, edition of Woman’s Day magazine.

90s 1997

Central Catholic High School announced the hiring of Danyelle Ramsey ’97, ’13 as

Butterfly Effect If you’ve been reading these pages for a few years, you probably read the story “Gus and Travis” in the Fall 2015 issue. So you know about Gus Little ’06 and his successful kidney transplant. You also know that his friend, baseball teammate, fellow business major, and “brother” Travis Vetters ’08 was the person who donated one of his healthy kidneys after finding out they were a match. Well, there’s more to their story: Gus recently became board chair of Donate Life Northwest—a community of people who have been recipients of a liver, kidney, or cornea and others who are waiting for a match. Through his own experience Gus learned that it was sometimes hard to be open about his situation. “Kidney failure was lonely,” he says. “It’s comforting to know that others have lived through it. This organization is an opportunity to help and spread awareness.” Travis’s life has also changed as a result of the transplant, though not in a way anyone could have predicted. In August 2018, Travis married Whitney, one of Gus’s post-surgery nurse coordinators. They now live in Idaho and recently had twins, Parker and Paxson (pictured with Travis above). Gus is their godfather. When Travis reflects on his decision and the goodness that grew out of it, he says, “In school, in professional sports, it was always about me and my benefit.” (Before starting a career with Nike, he played four years with the LA Dodgers in the minor leagues.) “This was the first time I thought about someone else and gave in to that, and I can see what that has given me.” (Again, see the babies above.)

SUMMER 2019

CLASS NOTES

its new principal, effective July 1, 2019. Danyelle has been teaching at Central for the past 14 years and also serves as assistant principal in campus ministry.

00s 2001

Craig Dunn ’01 has been promoted to vice president of Collective Artist Management, a Nashville, Tennesseebased company that provides artists with support and resources to optimize their careers. Clients include Sara Evans, Born To Fly Records, Grant Landis, Clint Black, Corey Smith, Edwin McCain, Steve Wariner, and more. Craig joined CAM in 2012 and previously served as vice president of Music City Networks.

2002

Lindsay Smart ’02 was recently hired as director for leadership in the Office for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences. Lindsay serves as assistant professor and clinical psychologist in the UNM Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and is also the training director for the American Psychological Association Accredited Clinical Psychology Internship Training Program. She also provides clinical services at the UNM Children’s Psychiatric Center.

2003

Anna Abatzoglou ’03 is now director of marketing for Ridgefield-based food and beverage distributor Corwin Beverage Co. Her past roles include director for market-

PORTLAND

ing at Rogue Ales and the Alliance for Coffee Excellence. She received a master’s degree in business administration from Portland State University. Casey White-Zollman ’03 was appointed to a threeyear term as a director of the Pendleton Round-Up & Happy Canyon Hall of Fame in January 2019. A former editor of The Beacon, Casey moved to Pendleton after earning her journalism degree on The Bluff. She married Casey Zollman (yes, Casey & Casey) and they have a two-year-old son, Ryder.

2004

Congratulations to Jessica Lamendola ’04, who took the reins as administrative and financial services director for the city of Topeka, KS, on March 4, 2019. She served previously in the city of North Hempstead, NY, as finance director and acting comptroller since July 2016.

2006

Stephanie Kreiger ’06 is part of a new team based in Tigard, OR, with Heritage Bank. She is a senior credit analyst with expertise in financial analysis and cash flow, collateral analysis, portfolio management, and commercial real estate. She also volunteers with the Oregon Food Bank, Store to Door, Special Olympics of Oregon, and the Oregon Humane Society.

2008

Allison (Vandehey) Pollock ’08 of North Plains, OR, married Randall Pollock at St. Edward Catholic Church on August 4, 2018. Her maid of honor was UP alum (and former UP roommate) Christine Morrissey ’08.

“Pilots stick together!” says Allison, and we couldn’t agree more.

10s 2012

Holly Duffy ’12 was promoted to assistant vice president of Timberland Bank in Greys Harbor, WA, according to an April 2019 announcement by bank president Michael R. Sand. Holly joined Timberland in 2016 and serves as a marketing and data coordinator.

2013

Molly Craft Johnson ’13 is the winner of the 2019 Contemporary Alumni Award. Molly says that her studies at UP helped her to focus her energy toward working for equity in environmental concerns, stating that UP “taught me that there are issues of social justice at stake in all cases of environmental harm.” Molly has returned to Portland to work as the special assistant to the CEO and board liaison at Meyer Memorial Trust.

2015

Scott Matthew Geiger ’15 and Suzanne Redfield ’15 were married in the Chapel of Christ the Teacher on the UP campus on June 16, 2018. Congratulations, Scott and Suzanne! We can’t get enough of UP love stories. Christine Menges ’15 landed her first job as a professional journalist in January 2019, joining the reporting staff at The St. Helens Chronicle, touted as “Columbia County’s oldest newspaper and oldest business.”

2016

John G. Ilao ’16 has been appointed by the governor of Guam to the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board. For the past year, he worked as the office manager for ARI Technologies. Former ASUP president Khalid Osman ’16 has been awarded a prestigious Ford Foundation Fellowship. Khalid is a doctoral student in construction engineering and project management at the University of Texas Austin. His current work involves analyzing public perceptions of water infrastructure and the management of existing infrastructure systems. David Wanner ’16 took part in the 2018 Composing in the Wilderness course with the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival. With several composers from around the world, David hiked through Denali National Park. He composed a new piece, “Wolves’ Lamentation,” based on his trek.

2018

Lillian D’Amico ’18 married John Stone ’18 on March 2, 2019, in the Chapel of Christ the Teacher on the campus of their alma mater. Fate seems to have smiled upon Lilly and John, who met at Orientation, shared classes together, and the rest, as they say, is history.

2019

Cathryn Casey ’19 won the 2019 Thomas A. Gerhardt ’55 Memorial Award for Student Leadership, thanks in large part to her guiding principle of commitment to service. She will put her nursing degree to good use when she joins the Jesuit Volunteer Corps Northwest, serving in a rural community in Alaska.

University of Portland Chapters There are so many ways to stay connected to University of Portland and to fellow alumni, whether you live in the Portland area or not. If you are local, come on by the Alumni Center to find out what is happening nearby. If you are in other areas of the US, consider joining a Regional Chapter…or get one started!

Regional

Dear Alums

Jennifer (Swinton) Williams ’00 is your new National Alumni Board President because she believes in University of Portland and what its network of alumni can achieve—for one another and for the growth of the school itself. And boy is she ever motivated to dig in and do the work—so motivated that she’ll be commuting from New Jersey to The Bluff six times a year to meet with the Alumni Board and the Board of Regents. Even without two young children and a robust career in the social and digital branch of a sports marketing agency, this time and travel commitment would be significant. University of Portland holds a difficult-to-put-into-words meaning for her. She came here because she wanted both academic rigor and Division I basketball. But she could never have guessed how University of Portland would play a part in her path from there on out. “I couldn’t have designed any of it,” she says. When she contemplates her career, she says, “It’s only strategic after I look back. I never could have written down where life would take me.” But she knows her education (she was an organizational communication major) and the incredible people she met here are a big part of her path— which took her from Portland to the Bay Area to Dallas and then the East Coast—and also her sense of self. Her years here, she says, were formative, and she wants to give back. “The Bluff is changing and evolving and growing,” she says, and she wants alumni to take part in shaping those changes. Don’t be surprised if her leadership nudges you toward fresh reasons to connect with your alma mater. After all, during her years playing basketball on The Bluff, she was on a team that went to the NCAA tournament, and she was voted “Most Inspirational” three out of four years. You’ve been warned!

Bay Area* Boise Chicago Colorado Hawai’i Los Angeles New York City* Seattle* Twin Cities Washington, D.C.

Affinity Chapters Engineering Nonprofit MBA Nursing*

Please note: In the fall, you will receive an alumni survey. Please take the time to fill it out. Jen wants to hear from you!

* These chapters were designated Chapters of Excellence in 2018 for their above-and-beyond inspiring service to the Pilot community by welcoming and connecting alumni in their area, supporting UP students and faculty, and garnering enthusiasm and support for the school.

SUMMER 2019

CLASS NOTES IN MEMORIAM

Our heartfelt prayers and condolences go out to the families of the following individuals. Requiescat in pace. J. Frank Stupfel, M.D., ’44 died at the age of 96 on January 18, 2019, at the family home in Portland. It was during his internship at St. Vincent and Providence hospitals that he began dating, in his words, “the most beautiful student nurse at St. Vincent,” Colleen Ann Heideman. They were married on November 8, 1947, beginning a 63-year journey interrupted only by Colleen’s passing in 2010. Frank served as team physician for University of Portland basketball teams in the 1950s and 1960s, as well as a team doctor for Jesuit High School football. He is survived by his eight children, including Irene (Stupfel) Lavelle ’84; 21 grandchildren; and 18 great-grandchildren. The family asks that remembrances be made to Providence Cancer Center, St. Jude, University of Portland, or a charity of your choice. Don Donofrio ’47 passed away on December 28, 2018. He served in World War II in the 20th Armored Division as a Sherman tank gunner. After earning his degree on The Bluff, he went to work for Windolph Motors in Portland as a finance and insurance manager. Don spent 61 years in car sales, serving as president and general manager of four dealerships at the time of his retirement. Survivors include his six children, 13 grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren.

PORTLAND

Robert John “Bob” Hanigan ’47 passed away on February 24, 2019. He died peacefully in his sleep at his home, according to his family, exactly the way he’d prayed it would happen. Bob’s UP education was interrupted by World War II, and he joined the US Navy as a pilot. He married Jill Connolly on May 31, 1952, and set to work raising a family of eight children— Mary, Susie, Christy, Liz, Annie, Mike, Kevin, and Katie. He never missed Sunday Mass, often attended daily Mass, suggested the Rosary on any car ride longer than 15 minutes, and led a good and faithful life with integrity and kindness. Survivors include Jill, their children, 22 grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren. Prayers, please, for William Wetmore ’47 and his family on the loss of his wife, Gloria L. Wetmore, on January 15, 2019, in Lake Oswego, OR. Gloria and Bill were married for 69 years, and she was a devoted wife, mother, and homemaker. Survivors include Bill, four children, nine grandchildren, and 13 great-grandchildren. Jim Carr ’49 passed away peacefully on January 4, 2019, and will be deeply missed. He played football for Grant High School and was proud that his team won the 1943 state championship. He served as a Merchant Marine medic during World War II. After retiring from Crown Zellerbach, Jim became a realtor and was a member

of the Clackamas County Million $ Club. Jim and his wife, Lori Dussault, shared 61 happy years together. Survivors include two children, three grandchildren, and four greatgrandchildren. Robert “Sam” Schlichting ’49 passed away on December 5, 2018, just five days short of his 96th birthday. He met Ruth in Vancouver, WA, and they married in September 1946. He worked in the auto insurance field and for J.P. Finley and Sons as their business manager until his retirement in 1984. His real passion and dream job was playing jazz tenor saxophone throughout the Pacific Northwest, until he “put his horn away” at the age of 87. Survivors include two daughters, three grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. Please remember Leo Cassinelli ’50 and his family in your prayers on the loss of his beloved wife, Dorothy Cassinelli, on December 20, 2018. Leo was by her side as she passed peacefully. They met at Roosevelt High School in North Portland, and they married in 1953. They joined Holy Redeemer Parish, which became the heart and soul of her world. One of Dorothy’s biggest achievements was founding the parish’s bingo—before it was legal. She worked around the legalities by asking for “donations” and using candy as “winnings.” Survivors include Leo, their two children, and nieces and nephews.

David A. Larsell ’50, ’62 passed away on March 23, 2018. He attended UP after serving in the Navy during World War II. He taught for 32 years for the Portland Public School District and was well loved by his students. In 1947 he met Joan Parker at Timberline. They both loved skiing, were married in 1948, and had six children, all of whom became skiers. According to his daughter, Katie Larsell, David’s “claim to fame” was when he got to carry the Olympic torch in Portland in January 2002, in preparation for the Salt Lake City Olympics. “He was chosen for being a good father,” she recalls fondly. Survivors include Joan; their four sons and six daughters; 14 grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren; and brother, Richard Larsell ’49. Ugo William “Rags” Raglione ’50 passed away on February 15, 2019, with his family by his side. After completing medical school, Rags wed the love of his life, Joan Dove (deceased), in 1953. Before completing his surgery residency, he served as chief of surgery for the naval base at Mare Island, CA. He had an unlikely combined career as a surgeon and shipyard engineer. In those dual capacities, he was on staff to oversee the planning and design of the new St. Vincent Hospital on Barnes Road. Survivors include six of his children (son Joseph Matthew is deceased), 14 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

Joseph T. Dang ’51 died in Honolulu on November 1, 2018. He was born in Wailuku, Maui, and retired from the Federal Government in the Cargo Department. He was also a United States Army veteran. He is survived by two children, six siblings, and two grandchildren, and was predeceased by his wife, Velma. Louise Helen “Dolly” (Sacchini) Piacentini ’52 died in Portland on January 16, 2019, at the age of 88, surrounded by loving family. She married John Piacentini on May 19, 1956, and they went on to raise seven children. Louise always saw the best in everyone and volunteered much of her time helping those in need. She delivered meals for Meals on Wheels for more than 40 years and donated time to Outside In, a Portland organization supporting homeless youth. Survivors include her children, 14 grandchildren, and two siblings. Edmund R. Cade ’53 passed away on January 22, 2019. His family moved to Portland during World War II when his mother Elizabeth found work as a welder in the shipyards. In 1955 Ed started working for the Campbell’s Soup Company in Seattle, then worked with Kelley Clark food brokerage until his retirement in 1995. He spent much of his time volunteering at Our Lady of Victory Parish in Seaside, OR, where he provided Sunday meals to more than 130 families. Survivors include his wife of 67 years, Bernice E. (Meyer) Cade; their eight children; 18 grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren.

Lucille Claire Carich ’53 passed away on February 16, 2019, at Willamette View Retirement Community. Her daughter Diane was by her side. Lucille met the love of her life, Lawrence Carich ’52, in the summer of 1949 at the Croatian Fraternal Union lodge picnic at Oaks Park. The two of them were completely smitten from the very beginning. She was active in many ways at St. Rose Church, particularly as a reader and a member of the St. Elizabeth Ann Seaton Guild. She taught her children many things about life, the most important being compassion and empathy. Survivors include their three children, two grandsons, and four great-grandchildren; Larry passed away on November 26, 2012. Gilbert N. Frey ’54 passed away on June 17, 2017, surrounded by his loving family. A life-long Oregonian and the youngest of 12 children, he attended Kennedy Grade School, Jefferson High School, and played on the golf team at UP, representing the State of Oregon at the US National Championship in 1949. A veteran of the US Army, Gil was committed to preserving Portland’s Memorial Coliseum, which was dedicated to veterans and later named the “Veterans Memorial Coliseum” in part because of his efforts. He and his wife, Joyce, rode in the 2016 Rose Festival parade in a car marked “Gil Frey, Coliseum Champion.” Survivors include Joyce, his daughter and son, five grandchildren, and two sisters. Ivan J. Jones ’54 of Rainier, OR, passed away on March 2,

May 12, 1934– March 11, 2019 Mary Constance O’Brien Glennen ’57 passed away in March after a long illness. Mary was the beloved wife of the late Robert E. Glennen, Jr. ’55, ’57, former head baseball coach for the UP Pilots. In January 1958, Mary and Bob met on a blind date plotted out by classmates Dick Lindsay ’56 and Madelon (Jacobs) Lindsay ’57. By April, Mary and Bob were married. The wedding day was scheduled for a free weekend during the Pilots’ busy baseball schedule. The break meant the new couple could enjoy a 24-hour honeymoon at the Oregon coast. When UP president Fr. Howard “Doc” Kenna himself called to tell them the next game was rained out, “that meant they could have a 48-hour honeymoon,” says their eldest daughter, Maureen, with fond laughter. Mary was a nurse in ICU and cardiac care for many years and switched to teaching nursing in the 1970s. In 1981 she began working with Bob during his stints as president at Western New Mexico University, Emporia State University, and Colorado State University. Mary soon mastered “town & gown” relationships, improving communication all around. The Glennens knew how to throw a party, and Mary’s love of people and entertaining and promoting higher education was legendary. The Glennens had eight children, and Mary made sure they knew their table etiquette—“you never know when you might have dinner with the governor or a president” was her mantra. Daughter Maureen relates that, in her mother’s final six months, dementia often allowed Mary to revisit happy events and loved ones from her childhood. It was clear Mary was ready to rejoin her family and friends and, most of all, get the Bob & Mary Glennen team back together.

Mary Glennen

SUMMER 2019

CLASS NOTES IN MEMORIAM

2019, at St. John Medical Center, surrounded by his children. He served in the Air Force ROTC at UP and earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering. Ivan served four years as an active duty fighter pilot in the Air Force, then spent 27 years with the Oregon Air National Guard. He is survived by two sons, one daughter, three grandchildren, two siblings, and many nieces and nephews.

August 19, 1950– July 14, 2018 The following tribute was written by one of Mike Rearden’s daughters for the Great Falls Tribune: Michael J. Rearden, husband, father, Irishman, scotch drinker, and off-the-beaten-path pilot, flew home to heaven on July 14, 2018, after 67 years of shenanigans, laughter, and love. He tossed the baggage of Alzheimer’s right out the window as he shouted clear before taking flight. Joining him on this next adventure will be all of his best memories—of falling in love with his beautiful wife, of his year abroad in Salzburg, Austria, of water-skiing at Seeley Lake, of holding his children, and of making his grandchildren laugh. He will be welcomed by his parents Don and Betty Rearden and a glass of Paddy’s Irish Whiskey. Mike attended St. Gerard’s school, Great Falls Central High School (Class of ’68), and the University of Portland (Class of ’72) with a bachelor’s degree in business. He was an active member of the Great Falls International Airport Authority, the Montana Pilots Association, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and Our Lady of Lourdes and Holy Spirit parishes. He dedicated 43 years of his life to the family business, Glacier State Electric Supply, Inc., where he retired as president in 2015. His legacy was in the way he made people feel, the way he took care of friends, the way he looked at his children with tears of pride, and his unending love of the cabin. He was always the last person to leave a gathering and never the first to arrive. His last flight has taken him from us, but we all know that pilots never die—they just fly away. He’ll be waving his wings from above as he always has to those he loves.

Mike Rearden

PORTLAND

Joseph R. “Bob” O’Harrow ’56 died peacefully in his sleep on January 20, 2019, surrounded by his loved ones. He worked at local branches of the First National Bank of Portland (later Oregon) for 38 years as a bank auditor. It was at work that he first met the love of his life, Virginia “Ginger” Lambert, and mustered the courage to ask for a date when, according to him, she flirted with a wink. (She disputes that.) Their 65 years together were full of happy memories, some heartache, cherished traditions, laughter, beach vacations, berry picking, and large and loud family dinners. Survivors include Ginger, seven children, 19 grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren with two more on the way, and a great-great grandchild on the way. Bert Sewall ’56 died on November 8, 2018, at his home in Vancouver, WA, with his loving family by his side. His family moved from Minnesota to Vancouver in 1941 so his father could work in the shipyards; Bert lived there for the rest of his life. He was a Korean War veteran and used his GI Bill benefits to attend UP, then had a 40-year career with Safeway. Bert was happily

married to Beverly Jacquart for 49 years. Survivors include two sons, one daughter, and three grandchildren. James Liedtke ’59 passed away on October 11, 2018. During the spring of 1959, while still a student at UP, James met Lloye Sawyer at a church gathering, and they married in June of 1961. They celebrated 57 years of marriage this past June. Survivors include Lloye, who misses his warm smile, twinkling eyes, and loving heart; one daughter; three grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. Stanley Joseph Culkins ’60 passed away on January 14, 2019. He is survived by his two children, six grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. Frederick J. “Fred” Phillips ’60 died on December 8, 2018, with his daughter Katherine by his side. During his time in Medford, OR, Fred was a member of the city’s Planning Commission for several years, and he considered the founding of the Rogue Valley Chapter of Habitat for Humanity as his crowning achievement. He moved to Butte Valley in the 1960s and quickly became an active member of the community, ultimately becoming mayor for a time. Fred is survived by his five children, 11 grandchildren, nine brothers and sisters, and multitudes of nieces, nephews, and dear friends. Dennis B. “Denny” Voeller ’60 died on December 4, 2017, in Vancouver, WA, just three weeks shy of his 58th wedding anniversary. He served during the Korean

War in the US Air Force. Denny married the love of his life, Kathleen, in 1959. They enjoyed many wonderful adventures together, including 16 cruises around the world. Survivors include Kathleen, their two daughters, six grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. Jerry A. Gatto ’61 passed away on February 26, 2019. He was a teacher and athletics administrator at Boise Elementary, Cleveland High School, and Lewis & Clark College, and he created NW Star Academy and Productions, where he lived his dream of providing life opportunities to all student athletes. Jerry was proud to be recognized in five halls of fame, including Cleveland High School, Oregon State High School Baseball, Portland Interscholastic League, NAIA District II, and Lewis & Clark College. Survivors include his wife, Carol; their two children; six grandchildren; and sister, Roselle Soriano ’67. David Niles McIntyre ’62 passed away unexpectedly on December 12, 2018, of a toxic reaction to chemotherapy. Skilled as a “numbers guy,” he retired in 2005 as CFO of a hightech firm in Portland. Survivors include his wife, Joanne; their two children; and five grandchildren. John P. Lee ’64 passed away at his home after a brave battle with pancreatic cancer on December 15, 2018. He was a proud graduate of Central Catholic High School and continued to have strong relationships with his classmates throughout his life. John met Sally Carol ’67, his wife

of 53 years, on The Bluff. John’s distinguished career spanned more than 40 years in the health care industry, including 26 years with Providence Health System, where he was Senior Vice President of the System with responsibilities for all operations in Oregon, Alaska, and California. For his service to the Catholic Church in health care, he received a papal medal, the “Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice,” from Pope John Paul II. He served on the UP Board of Regents for nine years and was recognized with the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2013. He was also awarded the Blessed Basil Moreau, C.S.C., Humanitarian Award, along with a group of his friends, for their efforts to arrange for medical assistance and care for classmates Herman and Joena Buchholz. He led a wonderful life and left this world extremely grateful for God’s blessings upon him. Survivors include Sally, their three children, seven grandchildren who loved their “Papa John” with all their hearts, and two sisters. Anita R. (Vattimo) Stitt ’64 died on April 6, 2018, after a ten-year battle with oral cancer. She died in a peaceful hospice environment with her husband by her side. She is survived by her husband; her children, Laura and Tony; and her three grandchildren who visited often during her final months. She had been living in Cherry Hill, NJ, for the last 43 years. Jack Taylor Jr. ’65 passed away on December 22, 2018, at the age of 85 with family members at his side. He served in the

United States Coast Guard from 1953 to 1957. Jack began his teaching career at Portland State University in the business administration department, where he taught for 34 years, retiring as professor emeritus in 1994. He is survived by his loving wife of nearly 63 years, Maureen (Hurley) Taylor; their three children; eight grandchildren; and one sister. Richard Louis Togni ’65 passed away, surrounded by family, on February 16, 2019, following five years of living gracefully with Alzheimer’s. While at UP he met his wife of 52 years, Nathelle (Thelly) Taylor ’63. Dick absolutely loved what he did as an educator for 30 years. Survivors include Nathelle, their four children, and seven grandsons. Michael Dugaw ’68 passed away on December 28, 2018, in Longview, WA. He had an enormous impact on the community through his 40 years of teaching at Lower Columbia College (LCC), service to the Boy Scouts of America, and as a board member of the Cowlitz Historical Society. He is survived by his wife, Margaret; five children; and nine grandchildren. Prayers, please, for Anne Royer-Pingo ’68 and her family on the loss of her husband, John Pingo, on January 7, 2019. His “second career” was competing in PGA professional golf tournaments and as a teaching pro at Glendoveer Golf Course until moving to Tucson in 2011. He will be missed by all who knew him. Survivors include Anne, their two children, and five grandchildren.

Burt Stein ’69 passed away peacefully on January 12, 2019, after a lengthy illness. Burt is survived by his wife, Barbara; two daughters; one grandson; his sister; and two nieces. A brilliant builder and designer, he also had experience as a Fuller Brush man, sous chef on a naval ship, and taxi driver in New York City. Elaine “Chic” Sutherland ’69 passed away on February 21, 2019, at the age of 94. Chic was born Elaine Sarah Riley in St. Paul, MN, on June 17, 1924. Chic was an elementary school teacher and retired from the Vancouver School District in 1986. Survivors include her three children, five grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. Sr. Anne Therese Allen, CSJ ’72 passed away on February 12, 2019. She entered the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1940 and taught for many years at parish elementary and high schools in California. She was an adjunct English evaluator, assistant dean, and academic advisor at the University of San Francisco. She retired to Regina Residence in 2009. Glen Caniparoli ’72 passed away on December 12, 2018, in Great Falls, MT. He met his late wife, Cathy Daly ’72, at UP, and they moved to Montana in 1975. He retired in 2015 after a long career in education and juvenile corrections. Survivors include three children, one grandchild, and two siblings; Cathy passed away in 2002. Robert P. Wilson ’74, of Albany, OR, passed away at the Evergreen Hospice House on January 14, 2019.

SUMMER 2019

CLASS NOTES IN MEMORIAM

He grew up in Portland and graduated from Roosevelt High School. He received his bachelor’s degree from University of Portland and his doctorate in dentistry from the University of Oregon Health Sciences Center. Bob practiced dentistry for close to 30 years, first in Canada and then in Rainer, OR. Survivors include two siblings and two nephews. Mary M. Cotter ’77 died on November 16, 2018, of natural causes. After graduation, she began her professional life in the insurance industry. Following admission to the Washington State Bar, Mary launched her career as a trial lawyer, defending indigent defendants in and around Vancouver, WA. Mary will be remembered for her generosity and kindness extended to all people. John M. Durum ’77 passed away on March 1, 2019. John served in the Army, including a tour in Vietnam in 1970. Upon his return in 1971, he married Connie. John worked for the US Army Corps of Engineers for over 20 years, serving as the project manager for the Corps’ response to the Mount St. Helens eruption and then as project manager for salmon recovery on the Columbia River. Survivors include Connie, their two daughters, three grandchildren, and a very large extended family. Brian James Eterno ’77 passed away at the age of 66 on March 2, 2019, surrounded by his family, after a short battle with congestive heart failure. He spent most of his life educating children in the

PORTLAND

Evergreen School District. Brian believed in building relationships with students so he could help give them the confidence to be the best version of themselves. Brian is survived by his three children, two grandchildren, eight siblings (including brother Robert Eterno ’74), and a large extended family. Frances M. (Fischer) Munson ’79 passed away on March 4, 2019. Her loving husband of 66 years, Gene (Morris) Munson ’54, misses her dearly and looks forward to seeing her again. Fran was a devout Catholic, and her faith never wavered throughout her 91 years. Most of her 30-plus years of teaching were at St. Joseph’s in Vancouver, WA. Survivors include Gene, their five daughters, 13 grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren with one on the way. Gayle Frances Spulniak ’88 suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and left this world on January 8, 2019. In every encounter, she gave unconditional love and listening skills. Survivors include her husband, the Reverend Canon Robert Crum; one sister; and numerous nieces and nephews. Alice White Boerner ’98 died peacefully in her home on February 9, 2019, in Cosmopolis, WA. Alice became a fourth generation teacher within her family by teaching technology classes to the third and fourth grades for Central Elementary School in Hoquiam, WA. She married the love of her life, Stephen Darrell Boerner, in July of 1979. She was a loving wife, mother, and grandmother.

Her family was the apple of her eye. Survivors include Stephen, their four children, eight grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. FACULTY, STAFF, FRIENDS Prayers, please, for Marshall Smith ’18 and his family on the passing of his father, Christopher Scott Smith, on December 24, 2018. Survivors include Marshall; his siblings, Ashley Kavanaugh and Melissa Smith; his mother; and many siblings and extended family. Richard Charles Baker, father of Anthony Baker ’81, Anne Manning ’85, Rose Hurner ’87, Peter Baker ’93, Mary Baker ’94, and Patrick Baker ’97, passed away on December 18, 2018. He was employed by Rose City Paper Box Company for 36 years and was part owner when health problems forced his retirement in 1984. He considered paying for 96 years of Catholic tuition for his six children, first grade through college, to be his greatest accomplishment, all six earning degrees from University of Portland. Survivors include his wife, Therese, and their children. Prayers, please, for Rev. Michael J. Heppen, C.S.C., who passed away at the age of 82 at Holy Cross House, Notre Dame, IN, on February 4, 2019. He was received into the Congregation of Holy Cross on August 15, 1955, and made his First Profession of Vows on August 16, 1956. Fr. Heppen was ordained to the priesthood on June 13, 1963. He taught finance at University of Portland from 1967 to 1976. As was the norm at

UP in those days, Fr. Heppen wore many additional hats during his career on The Bluff, serving as admissions director, assistant senior vice president, and friend and mentor and father confessor to countless students and colleagues. Former University of Portland men’s soccer head coach Dennis O’Meara passed away on February 16, 2019, from cardiac arrest, according to reports from friends and family. Dennis served as head coach of the men’s soccer team on The Bluff from 1974 to 1978, transitioning the program from club to NCAA varsity status prior to the 1977 season. He led the Pilots to a remarkable 14-5-1 record in their first season as a varsity program, coming up one win shy of advancing the team to the NCAA playoffs. Dennis was also instrumental in the creation of the first UP women’s soccer club team in 1978. Dennis detailed the remarkable history of Pilot soccer in a Portland magazine story, “The Beautiful Game,” which he wrote in 2013. He was the son of legendary local journalist and Pilot supporter Edward (Ed) O’Meara ’37 and also served as the first public relations director for the Portland Timbers franchise prior to his long career as a Wall Street banker. The family has asked that donations be made in Dennis’s memory to the UP men’s soccer program in support of the physical, academic, and personal development of its student athletes, at www.giving.up.edu/OMeara. A remembrance is also being planned to coincide with the opening of the men’s soccer season in late August.

ADAM GUGGENHEIM

FOR THE LOVE OF IT

The Language of Nature IN MY ORDINARY Differential Equations class, we study how to describe and quantify change in the natural world. How does a hot rock cool when placed at room temperature? How does a projectile rise and fall on our planet? How does a population grow when subject to limited resources? How does a current change when traveling through a circuit? How does the speed of water-flow change when its channel is narrowed? We find specific solutions to those specific questions, but we also take a step back and consider the bigger context of the natural world: How does nature work? What is the language of nature? If you were to write down the natural world and how it works, what language would you use? I love the fact that at University of Portland the questions can also include the “G” word: If God were writing down the laws of nature, what language would She use? How would She describe our wonderful, complex universe?

Would She use Latin? Aramaic? Hebrew? Greek? Nahuatl? English? Of course, the question is somewhat of a setup, as I know the answer I am going to propose: God would use the language of mathematics! Indeed, how best to capture the way a baseball rises and falls on Earth? How best to determine what will happen to a population of rabbits hunted by foxes? How best to describe the oscillations of a swinging pendulum? I often finish this reflection in my class by asking my students to imagine God going to bed (classic image of the old man with the beard) after a long day and picking up a book to help fall asleep. What type of book would it be? Wouldn’t it be a book in the language of the beautiful universe and the amazing nature He created? I am convinced God would pick up a book by Euclid or Ramanujan or Noether. HERBERT A. MEDINA, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences

SUMMER 2019

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Paul’s Letter to the Galatians A P O E M B Y M AT T H E W M I N I C U C C I

It all depends, of course, on how you define betrayal. For some, rock slips beneath, and the world tumbles from temple to new moon. Such foolish distinctions in the diction of our wounds: scratches on some tablet of clay—blinded retinal day. Let’s not pretend we haven’t heard the morning cry of this fleeting bird; a solemn thing. It licks the sky. It does not wonder why sand seems so much like home. Instead it only sees land like lovers’ hands—arms draped in halfknots—how shape changes the story. Remember: faith is always a place we wash up on weary, and without our weapons. In the end, it’s hope that brought us here.

“Paul’s Letter to the Galatians” first appeared in Small Gods, the collection that recently won the 2019 Oregon Book Award for poetry. Matthew has taught English classes at University of Portland since 2017.

PORTLAND