The Politics of Anger

The Magazine of the University of Oregon Spring 2010

A Daughter’s Odyssey • Saul Zaik • Rose Bowl! • Michael Posner

The Magazine of the University of Oregon Spring 2010 • Volume 89 Number 3

Northwest Modern 28 OregonQuarterly.com

F e a t u r e s Departments

28 4 EDITOR’s note The arc of the architect 6 Letters by Todd Schwartz Saul Zaik’s style of Northwest Modern 10 UpFront | Excerpts, Exhibits, architecture can be seen in homes, com- Explorations, Ephemera mercial buildings, and resorts around the Front of the Bus a Square Gets His Mind state—and he’s still eager to do more. 34 Blown by Lila Marz Harper where Stories End, Where 34 Stories Begin by H.L. Davis and the Number One Reason A foot soldier’s bus ride to Avoid Doom and Gloom . . . by Ana Maria Spagna by M. A. Sanjayan An old, hazy story about her long-dead father inspires a daughter to explore an 16 UpFront | News, Notables, early battle in the civil rights movement. Innovations Rock Star Economist Beware the Underdog 38 38 Political Junkies? When the Shirt Hit the Fans At the zoo PROFile: Michael Dreiling by Robert Leo Heilman Michael Posner Honored with As anger has become a staple of the politi- National Medal of Science cal discourse around the nation, an act of ner; Jack Liu ss vandalism in Douglas County inspired this 46 Old Oregon Le s essay about gorillas, tea parties, and the Brewing Up Big Buzz

Jame heavy weight of our karmic footprint. l Student Alumni Association ichae M 42 Dentist Alfresco

orida; Oregon’s First Track-and-Field l F f rose bowl! rose bowl! Superstar o s We Love Our Ducks 42 Photos by Jack Liu UO Alumni Calendar rchive A Images from the culmination of a magnifi- Class Notes COVER | Tea Party Protest, Hartford, cent season for the Oregon football team. Decades

rary and Connecticut, April 15, 2009. Creative b Commons Photo by Sage Ross. 64 duck tales Rockin’ the Bard by Kim Cooper Findling im LaBarge; State Li T Fromtop:

THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON 1 BookBook YourYour Summer!Summer! Big return from a I N O R E G O N small i nvestment Four-week courses, shorter workshops, seminars, and institutes are offered throughout the summer to fit your plans. Formal admission is not required.

Invest just four weeks, and com- languages, environmental studies, plete a course that advances your computer science, journalism, professional goals. Or marine biology, or take a weeklong seminar music. just because the subject fascinates you. Even a Take advantage of in- two-day workshop can novative, summer-only change the way you see courses. Earn credit for the world. an archaeological dig or a photography workshop Immerse yourself in art while enjoying the great workshops, foreign Oregon summer.

Important information about courses, including course descriptions, special programs, housing, registration, and fees can be found on the Summer Session website in early March or in the 2010 Summer Session Catalog, which is available in early April. S u M M e R S e S SI o n Registration begins May 3. University of Oregon 2010 Summer Schedule First four-week session: June 21–July 16 Second four-week session: July 19–August 13 Eight-week session: June 21–August 13 June 21–August 13, 2010 Twelve-week session: June 21–September 10

uosummer.uoregon.edu

2 OREGON QUARTERLY | SPRING 2 0 1 0 BookBook YourYour Summer!Summer! Big return from a I N O R E G O N small i nvestment Four-week courses, shorter workshops, seminars, and institutes are offered throughout the summer to fit your plans. Formal admission is not required.

uosummer.uoregon.edu

THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON 3 Editor’sNote | Guy Maynard, Editor

The Magazine of the University of Oregon Free Speech, Hate, and Community Spring 2010 • Volume 89 Number 3 This winter term, the UO has hosted an open and free—and unplanned—colloquium on that bedrock principle of our country and our university: free speech. EDITOR Guy Maynard In case you haven’t heard, the University’s commitment to free speech has been MANAGING EDITOR tested by a group called the Pacifica Forum, a “discussion” group founded by emeritus Ross West professor Orville Etter, which meets weekly on campus. The group is in no way affiliated ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Susan Thelen with the University, but access to University facilities is one of the privileges granted ART Director to emeritus faculty members. In recent years, this open discussion “on war and peace, Tim Jordan militarism and pacifism, violence and nonviolence,” has become a safe haven for people CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS with blatantly racist, sexist, and anti-Semitic views. Following a December meeting at Jack Liu, John Bauguess which a forum participant reportedly gave a Nazi salute, students launched a series of OFFICE MANAGER Shelly Cooper protests with some calling for the University to ban the group from meeting on campus. PROOFREADERS In our Summer issue, we will present some student views of this controversy, which is John Crosiar, Scott Skelton still being heatedly debated. INTERN Melissa Hoffman But while the controversy continues, I want to salute the initial responses of student EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD leadership, the University administration, and the University community. The student Mark Blaine. Betsy Boyd, Kathi O’Neil Dordevic, Kim Evans, David Funk, Kathleen Holt, Mark Johnson, senate rejected a resolution that would have called for kicking the forum off campus, later Ann Mack, Alexandra Mock, Barbara West passing a resolution supporting the students who were protesting against the forum. The website administration condemned the content of the hateful speech coming out of the forum, OregonQuarterly.com but refused to use that as a pretense to ban it. To reduce tension, the administration OFFICE address 204 Alder Building wisely moved the forum meeting location from the EMU in proximity to student groups 818 East 15th Avenue Eugene OR 97403-5228 who were threatened by the rhetoric coming out of the forum or angry about it (or both) Phone 541-346-5045 to Agate Hall on the southeastern edge of campus. Fax 541-346-5571 And when the tension surrounding these issues was ratcheted up a notch by vandal- EDITORIAL 541-346-5047 ism—a swastika spray-painted into the carpet in the office of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, ADVERTISING Transgendered, and Queer Alliance—the University community responded swiftly, con- 541-346-5046 demning that act and offering support to the group who had been attacked through subscriptions $30 per year domestic statements, vigils, and marches. The Oregon Daily Emerald quoted a freshman staff $40 per year international person from LGBTQA: “Seeing the way this community has responded to this event and E-MAIL the feeling of love . . . I know that, now, for every tear shed in the past couple of days, [email protected] oregon quarterly is published by the UO in every time we felt broken, victimized , or sad . . . it was all worth it.” March, June, August, and November and distributed The spray painting is a crime for which the perpetrators should be prosecuted and free to alumni. Printed in the USA on recycled paper. Copyright 2010 University of Oregon. All rights punished. But free speech—even hateful speech—is a fundamental right of all Ameri- reserved. Views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the UO administration. cans and should be protected, especially in places that make their living on the vitality change of address of open discourse. Speech that challenges a community’s normative values is the speech Alumni Records, 1204 University most in need of protection. In the past—the-not-too-distant past in some cases—speech of Oregon, Eugene OR 97403-1204 541-302-0336, [email protected] that promoted interracial harmony, women’s rights, peace, workers’ rights, and open ADMINISTRATION acceptance of gays and lesbians was considered destructive and evil—hateful, even—in President: Richard Lariviere some American communities (see page 34; see also related stories on pages 18 and 38). Senior Vice President and Provost: James C. Bean; Vice President for University Relations: Michael Redding; An argument for banishing the Pacifica Forum is that the platform it provides for Vice President for Finance and Administration: Frances nouveau Nazis and others make some students feel unsafe on campus. Unfortunately—or Dyke; Vice President for Student Affairs: Robin Holmes; Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies: fortunately, really—we can’t and shouldn’t try to make people feel safe by sheltering them Richard Linton; Vice President for Institutional Equity and Diversity: Charles Martinez; Associate Vice President for from ideas that make them uncomfortable. But we can and should try to make them Public and Government Affairs: Betsy Boyd; Executive feel safe by responding as a community to those who preach hate and intolerance. If a Director of the UO Alumni Association: Daniel Rodriguez community does not stand up to rebuke purveyors of bigotry, then people should feel UO Information 541-346-1000 unsafe and we are all the lesser for it. But so far, through this unplanned real-world course of study, the UO has done well in teaching all of us about the complexities of free speech and the power of a community to defend its members from expressions of hate.

The University of Oregon is an equal-opportunity, affirmative-action institution committed to cultural diversity and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. This publication will be made available [email protected] in accessible formats upon request: 541-346-5048.

4 OREGON QUARTERLY | SPRING 2 0 1 0 Clients Come First (It’s all about you!)

Tate Justesen Deanna Rusch Shirley Farmer Tara Costanzo

Brad Miller Matthew Blum Ken Goodin Arthur Saito Sandy Faber

Grace Lee Laurel Hook Gordon Phillips

Teresa Foster

Joel Kent Ron Johnson

Jody Stahancyk

STAHAFamilyNC YLawK K EN T JOHNS EstateO PlanningN & HOOKP.C. Other firms practice with an “It’s all about them” philosophy. We believe that “It’s all about you!” That’s why... if you don’t hire us, your spouse will. www.oregondivorce.com www.washington-divorce.com

P O R T L A N D B E N D VA N C O U V E R A S T O R I A P R I N E V I L L E (503) 222-9115 (541) 318-9115 (360) 750-9115 (503) 325-9117 (541) 447-9115

THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON 5 Letters to the Editor

by the University. The prize: tuition and fees paid for four years. How wonderful that they will graduate with no student loans. I would “We believe this say in this economy that gives them a big step up. Is the University also placing them in jobs exclusion of our after graduation? As a resident of this state for twenty years plus with two daughters who children because graduated from the UO with student loans, this giveaway annoys me. As middle class we make too much people who have worked and paid our bills money is economic and taxes, we believe this exclusion of our children because we make too much money discrimination.” is economic discrimination. Don’t you think that, given the chance, I would have loved to use my taxes specifically for my children so they would not have to be in debt? Yet they the students—instead focus, as I believe all are taken and the University dispenses them universities should, on educating students to as it sees fit. Has the University ever heard be productive and worthy people who will that when people are given things without ultimately make this world a better place. Slim Memories having to do anything for them they gener- Sheilah D. DeBlander ally don’t appreciate the gift as much as if Salem In 1986 I met Watermelon Slim [“Continu- they had worked for it? Now the University ing Education,” Winter 2009] at a blues jam at will retort that these lucky few have to keep Winter Pleasure Taylor's, hosted by Roosterman, and we put a grades up and so on, but I say let them take band together with Dick Robataille (drums) student loans out like a majority of students Your Winter 2009 issue was a pleasure. It and Low Robert (bass). Slim sang and played and work a job as well as go to school. Hav- made so many faces and facets of the UO, harmonica, and I played guitar. The band ing an income of less than $28,000 does not past and present, come alive. “America’s was called Blues Fuse. We did gigs at some mean that those students are less capable Amazon,” “Roman Holiday,” and “Where of the smaller clubs in town. If you saw any of staying in school because in the article Have All the Lesbians Gone?” [UpFront]— of those gigs you were fortunate. When he it states that “many of these students were all show that academics can be a joy to read. was “on,” Slim was electrifying. I have some just as certain that they would find a way to Chris Dawe Bettis Adams ’68, M.L.S. ’69 tapes of those gigs and they make my hair attend college.” Why didn’t the University let Portland stand on end! My son was three at the time them try? and Slim found a teddy bear somewhere (I The second comment concerns the ad for I really enjoyed the article “Roman Holiday” don’t want to know) that was about four feet a building to be used as “the dynamic new [Upfront]. Mary Jaeger did a nice job of tell- high that he gave to him. It was a big hit. entry point to the University of Oregon cam- ing us about some of the history behind our I’m so glad Slim is still out there work- pus . . .” Why is the University in these times holiday customs. It’s interesting to find out ing. Thank you for sharing his story. pursuing the building boom? Especially for how far back in time that the origins of these By the way, if anyone wants to get a flavor structures whose sole purpose is other than traditions go. I especially liked the part about of what he does they should Google Water- educational? I realize that it is being funded the master reversed with the slaves at holiday melon Slim and see his video of “Smokestack by former graduates who have done well but time. I know that when I was in the Army, Lightning.” He is just amazingly authentic! why not concentrate on educating citizens the officers did serve the meal at holiday Lawrence T. Ward Jr. ’87, M.U.P. ’94 without saddling them with ten or more years time. Thank you for having this article in the Platteville, Wisconsin of debt? Quarterly. A few suggestions from a taxpayer who Keith Neal Middle Class Path? would like my contribution used for the bet- Astoria terment of the students, not the glory of the The Winter issue arrived at our address University of Oregon and its administration. since our daughter graduated from the UO Why not have a tuition-and-fee freeze for Oregon Quarterly but does not live at home. Two things stood middle-class students? Since the adminis- Letters Policy out: one article entitled “A Pathway to Gradu- tration does not need to worry about the The magazine welcomes all letters, but ation” [UpFront] and the ad for “A Place to wealthy paying their student’s bills and can reserves the right to edit for space and Call Home.” provide tuition and fee costs for those mak- clarity. Send your comments to Editor, The article indicates that a select group of ing under $28,000, it seems a fair treatment Oregon Quarterly, 5228 University of students who come from families earning less for all students. Isn’t that what this “redistri- Oregon, Eugene OR 97403-5228; via fax at than $28,000 are the recipients or winners of bution” is all about, making a level playing 541-346-5571; or via e-mail at quarterly@ uoregon.edu. what I would call the “education lottery” with field for everyone? My last suggestion is, quit the parameters (those being income) chosen building structures that do not directly serve

6 OREGON QUARTERLY | SPRING 2 0 1 0 THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON 7 Letters to the Editor

The Way We Weren't

The way you were not all of us were [“The Way We Were,” Old Oregon, Winter 2009]. As curriculum director for McClymonds High School and eight feeder schools in Oakland, California, during the seventies, DUCK GEAR FOR EVERY I worked with Sandy Seale, wife of Bobbie Seale, and had several meetings with Bobbie Seale of the Black Panther Party. As Sandy and Bobbie told me one night, “That’s the SEASON OF THE YEAR. way you white guys act, come down here and stand for nothing. It’s your responsibility to stand for what will make our children successful and it’s not the f**k word.” Sandy was the department head of the English program and one of the founders of the California Writing Project. Leslie G. Wolfe ’58, M.Ed. ’61 Aurora EUGENE • PORTLAND • BEND More Klonoski UODuckStore.com I was a student of Mr. Klonoski’s [“Jim Klonoski: Deep Questions and Gored Oxes,” Autumn 2009, by Rita Radostitz] on several occasions—only because he taught the bulk REgiStRAtiON OPEN NOW aaa.uoregon.edu/summerinthecity of the classes in my chosen subject area. He was a partisan and he would readily admit that. Anybody who holds an opinion to the contrary is deluding themselves (this means Radostitz). Klonoski liked putting the pres- sure on students—some would bend and Summer some would break. I did not like him for his partisan politics or actions in the classroom, but I found it to be true of him, like the fictional Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, “the the more you hate me, the more you will learn.” in To quote Klonoski, running his right hand through his white, thinning hair, his right foot up on a front row desk, he punctuated city the air with, “Are you with me?” June –September 2010 Stuart Pennington ’90 Art + Design Workshops Spend your coolest summer in the Blaine, Washington Architecture Summer Session greenest city—Portland, Oregon. Engage with university faculty members, local Fabrication Lab Workshops artists and designers as you study art, Design Camp architecture and design. Credit and non- credit programs available. Correction Design Camp is an intensive nine-day In the letter from Gunnar Lundeberg experience geared toward high school students and adults interested in ’69 about Jim Klonoski (Letters, Winter exploring the disciplines of architecture, 2009) we misspelled his name as well as digital arts, landscape architecture and the name of Professor Emeritus Daniel product design. Goldrich. We apologize for these errors.

A&AA in Portland • White Stag Block • 70 N.W. Couch Street • Portland OR 97209-4038 • 503-412-3718

8 OREGON QUARTERLY | SPRING 2 0 1 0 SEEKING FUTURE DUCKS

The Office of Admissions invites you to tell us about your children, grandchildren, friends, and others who are searching for the right college.

Recommend future Ducks at: admissions.uoregon.edu/alumni

Office of Admissions 1217 University of Oregon Eugene OR 97403-1217

(800) BE-A-DUCK (541) 346-3201

THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON 9 Excerpts, Exhibits, Explorations, Ephemera

A Square Gets His Mind Blown Is it a meditation on visions, visionaries, and, perhaps, even God; a wry critique of Victorian England; a playful—but useful—introduction to non-Euclidean geometry and the dizzying idea of dimensions; or all of these? Whatever it is, the slim volume titled Flatland has captivated readers for more than 125 years with its mind-blowing tale of interdimen- sional travel and the tragic conflict between those who can and cannot transcend established ideas. Lila Marz Harper, Ph.D. ’96, a senior lecturer in the Department of English at Central Washington University, has edited a new edition of the book (Broadview Editions, 2010) and written a carefully annotated forty-three-page introduction, excerpted here.

dwin Abbott’s Flatland may subjects, and it is valued by teachers of The realization that Euclidean geome- be one of the most unclassifi- mathematics because it has proved to be try was not the only geometry possible was able works of literature ever an effective way to introduce students to quite controversial in the late nineteenth published. While it is acknowledged to the concepts of higher dimensions. Abbott century, and as Flatland gave its readers beE a classic of early science fiction, a work himself was a member of the Associa- a clear image of the fourth dimension, it of Victorian social satire, and a religious tion for the Improvement of Geometrical led the way to the concept of hyperspace allegory, it also presents, through its intro- Teaching (AIGT), the earliest British asso- and space-time (where the fourth dimen- duction to higher dimensions, an impor- ciation devoted to the teaching of an aca- sion is a time function), concepts important contribution to the development of demic discipline. Beginning in the 1870s, tant to understanding Einstein’s space-time an area of mathematics that was eventu- the AIGT challenged those who wished continuum in his 1915 general theory of ally merged into non-Euclidean geometry. to limit the teaching of mathematics to relativity. . . . Flatland is an unusually effective work that Euclidean deduction and to what could [I]n the 1870s, when the AIGT sought spans disciplines and challenges divisional be empirically demonstrated. In England, to revise a curriculum that was heavily categories. Since its publication in 1884, exams based on a thorough knowledge based on Euclid’s Elements, they had the the book’s popularity has continued today of Euclid’s Elements were used as part of foresight to see that new developments as its readers have embraced it as science the entrance and advancement processes in mathematical research would require fiction, popular science, and metaphysics. for military and government institutions; a different approach to the teaching of Working from the groundwork of philo- therefore, there was strong resistance to mathematics in England. By the 1850s, sophical issues raised by Plato’s Republic, any change in the schools’ mathematics while other countries used a range of Flatland merges social satire and geometry curriculum. Additionally, such scientists geometry textbooks, the English curricu- to produce a novel situated in two-dimen- as T. H. Huxley insisted that mathematical lum was committed to Euclid, so much so sional space, a believable world populated education was merely a deductive exercise, that between 1800 and 1850, 214 editions by memorable inhabitants whose geo- useful only in exercising mental faculties of Euclid’s geometry were published. Dis- metric shapes designate their positions in such as training in how to think. This posi- cussions of the use of Euclid in the class- a complex social structure, one that bears tion, however, was not acceptable to math- room became one of those causes célèbres some resemblance to the Victorian class ematicians of the nineteenth century, when created when a pedagogical issue becomes, structure. the field was rebuilt on new logical foun- under the influence of media attention, a The subtitle of Flatland—A Romance of dations that went beyond what was easily representative of some basic element of Many Dimensions—refers not only to the visualized. Attempts to revise Euclid so as national character or identity; this debate physical dimensions covered in the book, to make it easier for students to understand was not limited to academic publications, but also to the many levels of interpretation and to prepare students for less intuitively and it became surprisingly intense and per- from which the book can be approached. understood concepts led to a “textbook sonal as it was covered in the magazines On one level, Flatland reflects Abbott’s war,” as traditionalists resisted any modi- of the day. One anonymous 1868 review pedagogical ability to illuminate difficult fication of Euclid. . . . (actually by Augustus De Morgan) of a

10 OREGON QUARTERLY | SPRING 2010 Like a three-dimensional being contemplating a two-dimensional world, this Turkic period image stone stands in Western Mongolia. From Archeology and Landscape in the Mongolian Altai: An Atlas (ESRI Press, 2010) by Esther Jacobson-Tepfer, Maude I. Kerns professor emerita in the UO Department of Art History; James Meacham ’84, M.A. ’92, cofounder and director of the InfoGraphics Lab in the UO geography department; and photographer Gary Tepfer ’75.

new geometry textbook by James Wilson, by encouraging the use of imagination in characterization of Flatland’s inhabitants is published in The Athenaeum, declared exploring new mathematical territory. As noted in Banesh Hoffmann’s description, that Euclid would not be replaced since a result, nearly all popular books dealing published in his introduction to the 1952 “the old geometry is a very English subject with higher-dimensional geometry or rela- Dover edition: . . . .” Attacks on the primacy of Euclid in tivity begin by introducing Abbott’s narra- the teaching of mathematics continued up tor, the Square, as a means of illustrating The inhabitants of Flatland are sen- until the turn of the century, as Bertrand physical problems with perception. tient beings, troubled by our troubles Russell criticized the consistency of the To comprehend how much our per- and moved by our emotions. Flat they logic of the Elements in his 1902 essay “The ceptions are shaped by our physical space, may be physically, but their characters Teaching of Euclid.” all we have to do is to eavesdrop from our are well-rounded. They are our kin, our Flatland reflects this pedagogical con- omniscient position in three dimensions own flesh and blood. We romp with cern. The book has been a strong influ- to the goings on in Abbott’s two-dimen- them in Flatland. And romping, we ence on the teaching of mathematics, as it sional world. Indeed, our relationship to suddenly find ourselves looking anew encourages mathematical speculation and Flatland’s two-dimensional society—we at our own humdrum world with the refutes the limitations placed on math- are able to see more than the inhabitants, wide-eyed wonder of youth. ematics by others who would demand that yet not be seen ourselves—is very similar the study of mathematics reflect the physi- to the relationship between a reader and Abbott’s ability to create believable, cal world. Thus, Flatland, in its consider- a novel. understandable characters who hold ation of how perception could be shaped by Additionally, the inhabitants of Flatland our attention, while still maintaining a our sense of space, looks forward to later are not truly alien; it is easy to identify with physically alien world, makes Flatland developments in theoretical mathematics their emotions and behavior. The engaging successful. Gary Tepfer

THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON 11 Where Stories End, Where Stories Begin A chance encounter with a Basque shepherd on a lonely road in eastern Oregon—an event that, seen through the keen eye of H. L. Davis (1894–1960) tells a far larger story. Sometimes called “the Northwest’s Mark Twain,” Davis is the region’s only winner of a Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his 1935 novel Honey in the Horn. Davis’s best writing—stories, essays, poems, letters, and excerpts from his most famous novels—are collected in Davis Country: H. L. Davis’s Northwest, edited by Brian Booth ’58 and Glen Love, UO professor emeritus of English. The excerpt below is taken from an essay titled “Oregon,” first published in Holiday magazine in 1953.

ll the Great Mountains. They are near the southeastern Basin is high corner of the state, a 10,000-foot wall sepa- country. The rating the Great Basin on the west from the altitude of the flatlands around Picture tributaries of the Snake River on the east. ...ARock Pass is over 4,000 feet, and the moun- There is a wild-game refuge in a creek val- tains are twice that. In the short timber ley along the western rim, with antelope northeast of Picture Rock Pass are mule and pheasants and flocks of wild ducks and deer; to the southeast, around Hart Moun- geese scattered all through it. tain, there are antelope. In between, lying . . . The little lake high up in the moun- under the huge hundred-mile length of tains looked about as it did when we used mountain scarp known as the Abert Rim, to ride up over an old wagon road in the is a chain of big alkali lakes—Silver Lake, late summer to fish for speckled trout. It Summer Lake, Abert Lake, Goose Lake. was small, not over a quarter of a mile long, Some are over thirty miles long. During and not shown on most maps at all. The cycles of scant rainfall, they are dry beds thickets of dwarf cottonwood around it of white alkali, as they were during the had not grown or dwindled, the water was 1930s, and in 1858 when Lieutenant Philip rough and dark and piercingly cold, and H. Sheridan camped in the area on some the remains of old snowdrifts in the gul- obscure Indian campaign. When the cycle lies back of it still had the curiously regu- turns, they run full of water again, as they lar shapes that looked, at a little distance, are beginning to do now. The water is too like spires and towers and gables in a white alkaline for any use except as scenery, and town. There was no town anywhere near; Abert Lake has a pronounced odor, but the closest was over a hundred miles away. it is pleasanter to live with than the dust It looked as quiet as it always had at sun- clouds, and the uselessness seems a small down—the dark water, the ghostly cotton- thing when the great flocks of wild ducks woods, the scrub willows along the bank, and geese and black-headed trumpeter a few scrawny flowers spotting the coarse swans begin to come down on it in their H. L. Davis, c. 1927 grass. About dark, a wind came up, and it northward migration every spring. began to rain and kept it up all night. By There is something wild and freak- creatures, no bigger than pigeons and as morning it had eased up a little, but the ish and exaggerated about this entire tame, following the fresh-turned furrow wind was stronger and it was spitting sleet. lake region in the spring. The colors are in search of worms. A flock of white snow Being snowed in, in such a place, was not unimaginably vivid: deep blues, ferocious geese turning in the high sunlight after the a tempting prospect. I loaded the soggy greens, blinding whites. Mallard ducks bob earth has gone into shadow looks like an camp rig into the car, turned it around serenely on mud puddles a few feet from explosion of silver. gingerly in the mud, and headed out. the road, indifferent to everybody. Sheep The black-headed swans trumpeting There was a sheep camp in the cot- and wild geese are scattered out in a grass sound like a thousand French taxi horns tonwoods at the head of the lake where meadow together, cropping the grass side all going at once. If you happen to be close the road turned down the mountain. The

y OrHi27399 by side in a spirit of complete tolerance. when they come down, the gigantic wings camp tender was striking camp to pull out, t

cie Horses and cattle stand knee-deep in a sinking past into the shadows will scare the the tent hanging limp on the ridgepole and So roadside marsh, their heads submerged life out of you. It is no wonder that the Indi- flapping cumbrously when the wind struck

rical to the eyes, pasturing the growth of grass ans of this country spent so much of their it, the pack mules standing humped against to underneath the water. A tractor plowing time starting new religions. the grains of sleet and gouts of foam from

n His a field moves through a cloud of white . . . Frenchglen, Steens Mountains. the lake that kept pelting them. The sheep go Mormon sea gulls, little sharp-winged Nobody hears much about the Steens were already on the way out; they were Ore

12 OREGON QUARTERLY | SPRING 2010 Fly easy...

Sheep grazing in Jordan Valley jammed so close together down the road “It is slow moving a camp with pack that it was impossible to get the car into it. mules,” I said. I stopped, and the herder called his dog and “We work with what we have,” he said. went ahead to clear a lane through them. There didn’t seem much left to say on It was slow work trying to crowd them that. I tried the weather. off into the cottonwood thicket and there “Que tiempo malo,” I said. was open ground beyond, so I waved to “Hay cosas peores,” he said. “There are him to drive them on through to where worse things.” He was loosening up a little. Eugene to Bay Area now boarding now boarding they would have room to spread out. He He had something specific in mind, I Eugene to Denver nodded, and came back to stir up the tail- thought. If he had been over here only two now boarding enders. It was not a big herd; three hundred, years—“You saw the Civil War in Spain?” Eugene to Las Vegas maybe, mostly old ewes, hardly enough for He nodded, and took a deep breath. two full-grown men to be spending their “Nobody sees all of a war. I saw people shot. Eugene to Los Angeles now boarding time on. He got the tail-enders started, and I saw our house burned. My father was stood back and dropped the cottonwood shot. I didn’t see that, but I saw enough.” Eugene to Phoenix now boarding branch he had been urging them along “You are desterrado?” I said. It was a with. I expected him to say something, but polite expression the Spaniards used for a Eugene to Salt Lake City now boarding he looked away, watching the dog round up political refugee. It meant some thing like a few stragglers. He was about forty, heavy- exile. Eugene to Seattle now boarding boned and slow-looking and bashful, as if “A little,” he said. Then he took it back. he was trying to avoid being spoken to. It “No. I am not desterrado. This is my coun- struck me what the reason might be, and I try, here. It is the only one I need.” took a chance on it. His handful of lumbering old ewes “De Vascondaga, verdad?” I said. plodded down the open slope in the wind. That was it. He had been trying to The mules flinched and humped uneasily dodge around admitting that he didn’t as a blast rattled sleet against them. Some know English. A good many Basque sheep- torn leaves from the cottonwoods skimmed herders in that country didn’t. past. “Si, Vizcaya,” he said. “Aldeano de “Some people would call it bleak,” I Zarauz.” said. “Weather as cold as this.” Vizcaya was one of the Basque prov- “Nobody can know what is good until inces. Vascondaga was the collective name he has seen what is bad,” he said. “Some ibrary bb003839 L

for all of them. He was from the country people don’t know. I do.” h adjoining some town named Zarauz. He went to help the camp tender with “Hace mucho?” I said. the packs. I drove out of the cottonwoods esearc R y “Dos anos,” he said. “Mas o menos.” and through the sheep and on down the t

cie He was not being exactly cooperative. I mountain. It was Oregon, all right: the So would have given a good deal to be able to place where stories begin that end some-

rical sling a sentence or two of Euskera at him, where else. It has no history of its own, only to just to see him jump, but wishing did no endings of histories from other places; it

n His good. Spanish was the best I could manage. has no complete lives, only beginnings. go I tried a change of subject. There are worse things. Ore

THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON 13 And the Number One Reason to Avoid Doom and Gloom . . . A top scientist for a top conservation organization reflects on global warming . . . and realizes that “We have done a spectacular job of demoralizing and depressing people.” Among the depressed and demoralized is funnyman David Letterman, who had M. A. Sanjayan ’89, M.S. ’91, a lead scientist with The Nature Conservancy, as a guest on his late-night television program. Sanjayan reflected on the experience in an article titled “And the Number One Reason to Avoid Doom and Gloom . . .” in the Winter 2009 issue of Nature Conservancy magazine. Reprinted by permission of The Nature Conservancy. Copyright 2009.

avid Letterman seemed When the scientist is depressed. His first question to me, right out of the gate, more optimistic than set the tone for the evening: “Is there any- Dthing positive to report?” the comedian, I know I had been preparing for this interview for weeks. Though I had done some live we have blown our television before, late-night TV was in another league. As an undergraduate at the messaging about the University of Oregon, my dorm mates and I ended evenings with Track Town Pizza state of the planet. and Letterman. Now, twenty years later, in the historic Ed Sullivan Theater on Broad- way, with a live audience that included my nowhere could you hope to even hear the parents, it was me in the hot seat. howl of wolves. Today, I expect to encoun- I wanted to tell Letterman about the ter wolves on every visit. Meanwhile, the adventures I had had working for The climate-change debate has managed to Nature Conservancy. Maybe he would unite more nations around one issue—an ask me about catching sharks by hand or environmental issue—than perhaps any about finding new species in the Solomon other since the call to end apartheid. Islands. I have the best job in conservation, I tell Letterman, sure, I wish we had and I was excited to share my world with started all this twenty years ago when the millions of viewers. On his desk I could climate science became evident, but that see some of these ideas, printed by the doesn’t mean we should delay now. And I show’s producers in bold letters on a blue say that if the wager is between humans cue card. But Letterman barely glanced solving or ignoring the crisis, I bet on down. Instead, he pummeled me with humans solving it. Otherwise, there won’t grim, pointed questions about the fate of be anyone around to collect on the bet. the planet, which he predicted was on the That gets a rousing applause. verge of “turning into a smoking cinder.” But Letterman remains skeptical. I could feel beads of sweat starting to When the scientist is more optimistic than form. the comedian, I know we have blown our In hindsight, Letterman’s bleak out- messaging about the state of the planet. look should not have been unexpected. He We put a man on the moon in less than had heard the environmentalists’ message. a decade, Letterman tells me, because we We in the conservation movement have If we are to create a movement that thought the Russians were going to do it done a spectacular job of demoralizing inspires people to action, we must pres- first. “Fear is a great motivator,” he asserts. and depressing people. The rhetoric that ent a better way forward. And despite all Perhaps, but when I think about our

AYAN helped kick-start the modern movement I have seen, I still believe in the power of message, it’s not fear that comes to mind— J in the late ’70s and early ’80s was useful humans, in our inventive spirit. We, for it’s resigned depression. And that never SAN . A for getting people’s attention but terrible example, have reversed the fortunes of got anyone out of bed. M. for harnessing it to do something positive. endangered species like wolves, some- ESY

T Web Extra:

R And now, what Letterman was really say- thing unthinkable a few decades ago. I

OU To watch Sanjayan’s interview with David

C ing to me was simple: You have convinced remember the first time I camped in Yel- ; me, a comedian, that the world is doomed. lowstone National Park. It was 1989, and Letterman, visit OregonQuarterly.com CBS ©

14 OREGON QUARTERLY | SPRING 2010 BOOKSHELF

Selected new books written by UO faculty members and alumni and received at the Excerpted Oregon Quarterly office. Quoted remarks in this issue are from publishers’ notes or reviews. Flatland (Broadview Editions, 2010) by Edwin Abbott, edited by Lila The American Far West in the Twentieth Marz Harper. Century (Yale University Press, 2008) by Earl Davis Country: H. L. Davis’s Pomeroy (1915–2005), professor emeritus of Northwest (OSU Press, 2009) history. “His final book is nothing short of the edited by Brian Booth and Glen Love. definitive source on the modern West.” Gringa: A Contradictory Girlhood (Seal Press, 2009) by Melissa Hart, adjunct instructor of journalism and communication. “Hart’s coming-of-age memoir is a moving account of her struggle with the dichotomies of class, culture, and sexuality.” The Witch’s Season (BookSurge Publishing, 2009) by Terry Frei ’67. “Set amid campus and national unrest, the novel takes place on the fictional [and very Eugene-like] Cascade Uni- versity campus during the late 1960s,” football team members encounter triumph, controversy, and disappointment on and off the field. Inheriting the Trade: A Northern Family Confronts Its Legacy as the Largest Slave- Reach Deep Trading Dynasty in U.S. History (Beacon Press, 2008) by Thomas Norman DeWolf ’78. Move Forward DeWolf’s memoir recounts the journey he and family members take in coming to terms with their ancestors’ shadows. Looking Back: The Land at Eden’s Gate (Pediment Publishing, 2008) by Mick Scott ’64. “A hardbound coffee table–style book about the pioneering settlements of the upper Wil- lamette Valley, the ‘Eden’ at the end of the Oregon Trail.” Oregon Fossils, Second Edition (Oregon State University Press, 2009) by Elizabeth L. Orr, collections manager of the Condon Collec- Jon Voegele, Class of ‘08, Regional VP of Agencies–Illinois Region, Country Financial tion at the UO Museum of Natural and Cultural For 25 years, the Oregon Executive MBA program has been bringing History, and William N. Orr, professor emeritus of geology and director of the Condon Collec- together outstanding faculty from the three ﬂ agship Oregon universities and tion. “An excellent reference for classroom and outstanding students, who are professional leaders of the Northwest. The library use, for researchers, and for private col- tradition continues with over 850 alumni. Join us. lectors and hobbyists.” Find out about our program at oemba.uoregon.edu The Indian Who Bombed Berlin and Other Now Accepting Applications. Call (503) 276-3622 or toll-free (866) 996-3622 Stories (Michigan State University Press, 2009) by longtime UO creative writing professor Ralph Salisbury. “Salisbury’s stories are engaging and unique. He has a distinctive approach to assembling the elements of a narrative . . . like pieces of a dream.” A University of Oregon degree in partnership For more Bookshelf entries, visit with Oregon State University and Portland State University. OregonQuarterly.com CELEBRATING TWENTY-FIVE YEARS

THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON 15 News, Notables, Innovations

E c o n o m i c s Rock Star Economist He keeps his finger on the pulse of Oregon’s economy.

t was late 2007 and the u.s. Duy says. “How to tie them all together into ers in their field,” he says, but many of his economy was roaring. The Dow one story, that is what I work the hardest colleagues also “don’t have the time for this Jones Industrial Average stood at at. It is like a huge mess of jigsaw puzzle kind of effort, or the disposition, or are in almost 14,000, just a fraction below its pieces. The index puts them together into areas where it isn’t likely to happen.” For Iall-time high, having rocketed from under a coherent picture.” him it is a good fit all around, and work 8,000 in 2003. On Monday, December 10, Under the auspices of the UO’s Oregon he’s eager to do. the Dow had tacked on yet another 100 Economic Forum (which he directs), Duy Part of that work is public outreach— points, but on Tuesday The Oregonian sends his monthly picture to six or seven people want to see him face to face, hear ran a startling, nearly half-page headline hundred people—among them analysts, him talk, ask him questions. This makes graphic topping its business section: “the business owners and managers, policy Duy a popular speaker with business and uo index of economic indicators wonks, and journalists. Those journalists civic groups. “I try to limit my trips out of has fallen 2.8 percent in the past produce stories for major media outlets town to one drive a week, which amounts six months: a decline of more than 2 statewide and greatly extend the reach of to around 800 miles a month,” he says. percent in a six-month period signals the index. “I usually have five or so inter- He recently drove from Eugene to Bend that a recession is likely imminent.” views the day it goes out,” he says. (During to speak at a meeting of the City Club of The man behind the index, issued the interview for this story, online stock Central Oregon. He stayed the night and monthly, was and is University of Oregon market information and analysis service headed to Portland in the morning to adjunct assistant professor of economics Seeking Alpha called Duy for expert com- address the West Side Economic Alliance. Tim Duy (dew-ee), M.S. ’98, Ph.D. ’98. ment.) Medford and Salem are also regular desti- The story accompanying the headline The index that generates all this atten- nations. And with the addition in the last said, “Duy’s outlook for the state struck tion comes from one tiny and nondescript few years of three region-specific business some experts as alarmist” while others office in Prince Lucien Campbell Hall filled indexes (Portland Metro, Lane County, and suspected that he “was the first person to with not much more than a desk, some Central Oregon) he’s more in demand than voice the truth. . . A year from now, Duy . . . books, a telephone and computer, family ever. will be seen as a genius—or Chicken Little.” photos, and his kid’s artwork. Equally unas- What do these audiences want to Mensa 1, KFC 0. suming is Duy himself, a wearer of cowboy know? “I need to be prepared for insight- Duy created the index in 2004. It hats and boots, a lover of “both kinds of ful questions on a wide range of macroeco- combines data from seven sources, each music—country and western.” He gets a nomic issues. It’s very difficult to ‘wing it,’” reflecting some measure of the economy, kick out of having been described in vari- he says. With the recession, however, he together forming a sensitive gauge. Con- ous media as a liberal, a conservative, and often finds himself taking questions from nect the index month to month and a a maverick—all in one month. people whose jobs have been taken away or trend line emerges. The indicators are U.S. Though he sometimes finds it “a bit are at least threatened by economic forces consumer confidence figures and manu- awkward” getting so much limelight while beyond their control. “It does not give me facturing orders, interest rate spreads, and, many economists around him toil in rela- a warm feeling, to say the least. The only specific to Oregon, stats for payrolls, initial tive obscurity, he believes public outreach consolation is that people are sophisticated. unemployment claims, residential building and service are vitally important for the I am usually just confirming what they permits, and truck-shipped goods. University. “Everybody [in the depart- already know.” “Some indicators go up, some down,” ment] is doing great work, many are lead- Many encounters are far less weighty;

16 OREGON QUARTERLY | SPRING 2010 Upfront | News, Notables, Innovations

He gets a kick out of having been described in various media as a liberal, a conservative, and a maverick—all in one month.

and treasury department bigwigs. In walked Larry Summers, then about to be named secretary of the treasury for Presi- dent Clinton (and currently director of the Obama administration’s National Eco- nomic Council). When Summers turned his attention to Duy’s work, there was what seemed like an eternity before the esteemed economist declared the paper to be a terrific bit of research and analysis. Not long later, Duy scored a half-hour meeting with top Clinton economic adviser Robert Rubin—another feather in the cap of the young economist rapidly making a name for himself. He knew he eventually wanted to return to the Northwest—“and it was clear that path would lead through the private sector,” Duy says. So he took a position with the G7 Group, a political and economic consultancy for clients in the financial UO economist Tim Duy industry. There, he monitored the activities of the Federal Reserve and currency mar- he often hears, “Oh, you’re that guy.” And After growing up in Chicago (“a typi- kets. He added to his list of contacts and the nearly inevitable follow-up question: cal Midwest upbringing”) with moves gained more experience. Burnished résumé will stock X go up or down? “Happens all in his teen years to Dallas and Denver, in hand, he got back to the Northwest, tak- the time,” he says with a shake of the head he came west to attend the University of ing a position at the UO in 2002. and a good-humored smile on his lips Puget Sound, earning a B.A. in economics “The many people I met and the many (which stay zipped when asked for tips). in 1991. He also met Portlander, and future connections I made in D.C. and later at G7 Duy’s focus extends far beyond Ore- wife, Heather Walloch, J.D. ’96. Both avid laid the foundation for my current work. gon. He is an active and respected blog- backpackers, they hiked “probably every Those connections helped establish my ger about the actions and policies of the major trail and lots of minor ones” in the credibility in a world where it’s hard to gain Federal Reserve. He writes the Fed Watch Olympic National Forest. credibility.” blog that appears on fellow UO economist Following graduate school at Oregon, His background and regular appear- Mark Thoma’s Economist’s View blog. An he took a job in Washington, D.C., for the ances in the mass media are also useful in article titled “A Readers Guide to Econo- U.S. Department of the Treasury as an establishing credibility with his students, blogs,” published this summer in The Wall economist in the International Affairs divi- he says, especially those in his economic Street Journal, called Economist’s View “a sion. His work involved tracking monthly forecasting course. “They see I’m a working must-read” and “one-stop shopping for the U.S. trade data and Japanese monetary practitioner, applying exactly the kinds of most interesting economic news of the day.” policy as well as forecasting the U.S. trade things I’m teaching them, practicing what ott m The Journal described Duy’s Fed Watch as deficit. I preach.” “smart” and said it provides “an inside look Duy drafted a paper that was to be dis- And keeping close watch on Oregon’s at what the Fed is actually up to and what cussed at a very large and, for him, very economy. it means to everyone else.” memorable meeting of Federal Reserve —Ross West, M.F.A. ’84 Michael McDer

THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON 17 Upfront | News, Notables, Innovations

C a m p u s J o u r n a l i s m Beware the Underdog Edgy and irreverent, conservative and sometimes sodden, the Oregon Commentator celebrates a quarter century of publication.

“ If the content of the Oregon Commentator offends you, you’re not alone . . . [but], if we do not permit offensive ideas to be given a forum, then we, not the Commentator, are the enemies of diversity.” —Oregon Daily Emerald editorial

“ Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel.” —Mark Twain

The O.C.’s cheerful and n the opening chapter of the funloving mascot, new book By the Barrel: 25 Years of Sudsy O’Sullivan. the Oregon Commentator, publisher Timothy Dane Carbaugh writes, “The ver- nacularI of the original Commentator was ‘college intellectual,’” a tone that soon inten- sified to “pissed-off college intellectual.” “Pissed off enough to care,” says Ossie times expletive-laden, boozed-up prose of MEChA were subject to public deconstruc- Bladine ’08, OC’s 2007–8 editor in chief, the magazine might confuse it for a col- tion by the Commentator, [which] made no and “intelligent enough to know where the lege humor magazine (definitely parody, bones about who they thought were waste- lines of moderation are,” and, in trademark satire, spoofs, and lampooning aplenty), a ful, unnecessary, hypocritical, or downright OC fashion, “to test those limits at every sober ideological intensity undergirds the stupid.” chance.” OC, reflected in this line from its 400-word When an issue featuring a cover story Here in the U.S.A., of course, such mission statement: “We believe that the critical of MEChA mysteriously disap- testing is protected as free speech by the University is an important battleground in peared from distribution boxes in early Constitution and Supreme Court decisions the ‘war of ideas’ and that the outcome of 1994, Brennan republished the article in that allow publications, as one OC writer political battles of the future are, to a large the next issue, under the headline “Read gleefully put it, to “get away with damn degree, being determined on campuses the Article They Don’t Want You to Read.” near anything.” today.” He also quadrupled the number of copies From the very first issue (October That war of ideas sometimes gets ugly. printed—“one for every student”—to stop 24, 1983) the OC delivered its relentless, In the summer of 1997, the OC office was any further efforts to silence the OC’s voice. bare-knuckle treatment to such targets as burgled and trashed, their computer sto- Earlier that same year Arnold Ismach, the ASUO and OSPIRG—seemingly most len; a short time later the office door was then dean of the School of Journalism and galled by perceived ASUO misappropria- defaced with swastikas. Communication, had written to congratu- tion of student incidental fees, charged to The OC struck back—with words not late Brennan and the OC: “The Commenta- each enrolled student and used to support cudgels—in a piece titled “Thievery and tor this year stands out as the best written, all manner of student groups and activities Douchebaggery.” best edited, and certainly most thought- (including the OC). Typical OC story: “The The publication may have been in full- provoking journal at Oregon.” Incidental Fee Committee, Corruption, est flower a few years before the break-in, According to Senior Editor Scott and You.” Between 1993 and 1995, no less under the leadership of Owen Brennan ’95. Camp ’94, Brennan was the Commenta- than thirty-five stories addressed incidental The staff and contributors (in lean years tor’s “unquestioned visionary.” Testimony fees, each screaming bloody murder. dwindling to a mere handful of true believ- to his enduring influence comes from “What we lacked in professionalism ers) swelled to thirty-four. 1999–2001 editor William Beutler ’02: “I

entator we made up for with old-fashioned fight- “Nobody was safe from Brennan and produced approximately twenty issues of mm ing spirit. . . .We were on the front lines . . . his staff,” writes Carbaugh, “[the Inciden- the Damned Thing, about two or three of o C we called bullshit,” says Bladine. tal Fee Committee] chairs, the Black Stu- them stone classics, at least one utter gar- While a reader skimming the some- dent Union, The Student Insurgent . . . and bage, and the rest somewhere in between. regon O

18 OREGON QUARTERLY | SPRING 2010 Upfront | News, Notables, Innovations

This is what happens when an all-volunteer the last thing anyone would call the OC. staff is led by a twenty-year-old whose cra- No-holds-barred humor helps keep read- ziest notions are held in check only by the ers turning pages. An example: a piece The Jordan Schnitzer thought ‘Would Owen Brennan have done called “Student Government Drinking this?’” Indeed, WWOBD? Game”—printed soon after an ASUO vice Museum of Art A low point for the OC came in 1989 president had been caught stealing mer- Thanks University of when editor Paul Coughlin ’89 penned a chandise from the student bookstore. The vitriolic editorial on the “homosexual life- game’s rules called for two drinks “for a Oregon Alumni for style.” (By the Barrel stresses, “the offend- VP caught shoplifting. A keg if that indi- their Gifts of Art! ing article was not in line with the typically vidual is run out of office. Two kegs if the libertarian-leaning editorial direction of individual claims their ‘resignation’ is due the publication.”) As a result of the story, to racism, mean folks, and/or the military the ASUO attempted to cut funding for the industrial complex.” OC, but “people started coming out of the Ah yes, drinking—the magazine woodwork to support us,” said Coughlin staff has a legendary love for the booze in a Register-Guard article on what had (“Our original plans to cover the Olym- quickly morphed into a First Amendment pic Trials here in Eugene were thwarted test case. “Even people who hated our guts.” by the jackbooted organizers,” wrote one This brouhaha, however, was nothing disappointed OC correspondent. “Appar- compared to “Bonergate.” Remember the ently you have to have ‘credentials’ and political cartoons depicting the prophet ‘not be visibly intoxicated’ to get a press Mohammad published by a Dutch news- pass.”). One day in 2001, after imbibing at paper in 2005—and the deadly riots they campus-area pub Rennie’s Landing (“the ignited? The OC reprinted the controver- [OC] office away from the office”), staffers sial images . . . and got zilch response. Or conceived OC mascot Sudsy O’Sullivan. nearly zilch; soon thereafter, the UO’s radi- (“Sudsy says: ‘Being the first to throw up cal leftist newspaper, The Student Insurgent at the party is like crossing the finish line (once razzed by the OC as “still bitter over first. And drunk.’”) Sudsy’s life has been humankind’s continuing hegemony over filled with scandalous exploits and much the adorable forest creatures”) published Sturm und Drang, leading most notably its own incendiary cartoons of Jesus in, to his untimely death in May 2004 (from ahem, some extremely objectionable depic- causes related to trying to make himself tions—hence Bonergate. The OC posted into a gigantic boilermaker), and, most Robert Longo, American, b. 1953. Joseph, the Insurgent’s little-noticed cartoons on remarkably, six months later, when he rose 2000. Lithograph (edition of 50), 70” x 40”. the Internet. Soon conservative cable TV from the dead. Gift of Jordan D. Schnitzer (’73). 2004:8.2, commentator Bill O’Reilly saw the car- An OC editor once quipped there © Robert Longo toons—and went ballistic. should be something offensive to every By this time Owen Brennan was a pro- reader’s sensibilities in every issue. By this Did you know that the Jordan ducer for The O’Reilly Factor program. measure, the publication is most certainly Schnitzer Museum of Art Unable to find a spokesperson from the a thundering success. n Is a nationally accredited Insurgent willing to defend the cartoons, “Maybe one day this magazine, this museum? Brennan lined up OC editor Tyler Graf ’07. carbuncle on the ass of the University, n Supports the academic “I was only there to stand up for the will fold,” editor emeritus C. J. Ciaramella curriculum? rights of the assholes who printed the recently reflected on the publication’s n Organizes and presents exciting images,” Graf says. “There had been so quarter-century legacy. “But ladies and and insightful exhibitions? many attempts to drive the OC into the gentlemen and transsexuals, today is not n Has outstanding collections ground over the years, based on our con- that day . . . As for the next twenty-five of art from Asia and America? tent, that I had to stick by my guns.” years, who can say? But if there’s one thing In the broadcast, O’Reilly fumes about you should know by now, it’s this: Beware n Depends on the generosity “the old ‘freedom of speech’ dodge” and the the underdog!” of alumni? undergraduate Graf holds his own against —Ross West, M.F.A. ’84 the famously combative interviewer (“Well, jsma.uoregon.edu I think that’s an absurd thing to say, Bill.”). [By the Barrel is available at the campus (541) 346-3027 “My point was simple,” Graf recounts. Duck Store and on the OC website, www EO/AA/ADA institution committed “Speech, no matter how odious, should not .oregoncommentator.com] to cultural diversity be silenced.” But all high-minded theorizing and Web Extra: Read Dave Frohnmayer on the no play makes for a very dull magazine, Oregon Commentator at OregonQuarterly.com.

THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON 19 Upfront | News, Notables, Innovations

J o u r n a l i s m When the Shirt Hit the Fans Fame and fortune (and a whole lot of fun) come to students behind the “I Love My Ducks” phenomenon.

few years back, two young guys came from North Bend to the UO to get an education, and beyond that, well . . . their plans were a Awee bit fuzzy in the out years. As freshmen in the Carson Hall dormitory, they met the third musketeer; all shared a love for word- play, fun, music, fun, and heavy doses of Duck sports. Recently, the three rocketed into the surreal hyperspace of fame, over- night sensations riding on a thudding rap beat and a heartfelt tag line that might stick around for a long, long time. Senior journalism majors Michael Bishop, Brian McAndrew, and Jamie Slade were involved with DuckU, “the University of Oregon’s only student-produced TV show,” for which they created a number of goofy and playful music videos under the Supwitchugirl performing at Rose Bowl tailgater in Pasadena group name Supwitchugirl (a contraction of the phrase “What’s up with you, girl?”). men’s heartfelt effort being squashed. heavies and Supwitchugirl as the steam- But then something happened: the Duck But controlling material on the Inter- rolled? Slade laughs, “The controversy football team crushed Arizona State on net isn’t easy; several copies of the video was a blessing in disguise—it got us a lot November 14, setting up the ultimate high- appeared and streamed around the world, of attention.” stakes Civil War game with Oregon State— were linked to, recopied, reposted, and Part of that attention came by way of for the first time in history, whichever team viewed ten, thirty, sixty thousand times. In Supwitchugirl’s Facebook page, which was won would play in the Rose Bowl. Intoxi- the past a record might go gold or plati- drawing fans by the thousands. One thing cated by the scent of roses, Supwitchugirl num; “I Love My Ducks” went viral. At last the fans kept asking for was an “I Love My wrote, shot, and edited “I Love My Ducks,” count, the video, again on YouTube, has Ducks” T-shirt. a deliriously catchy rap video capturing fan had almost 700,000 views. Supwitchugirl met with Jim Williams excitement about the year’s stunningly suc- “Voice of the Ducks” Jerry Allen played ’68, general manager of the Duck Store, and cessful football team and exploding with the song on his radio show, bubbling, “This talked about going into the T-shirt busi- Oregon pride. video is great!” UO football coach Chip ness. A signed contract soon gave the Duck “Brian edited it on Sunday,” recalls Kelly played it over and over to inspire the Store an exclusive deal on the shirts—to Slade, “and we posted it on YouTube Mon- team and invited the young men who cre- be priced at $12—and Supwitchugirl two day night. By Tuesday morning we had ated it to his office to tell them how much bucks per sale. Less than forty-eight hours thousands and thousands of hits.” he liked their work. Big league sports later, the first shirts arrived at the campus Then came a phone call from the UO reporter Dan Patrick (mentioned in the Duck Store—kelly green with blocky letter- athletics department. There was a prob- rap’s lyrics) talked about it on his website. ing, designed by senior digital arts major lem. In all their unbridled enthusiasm, Walking around on campus together, the Tav Scott. The timing was perfect to take Supwitchugirl had enlisted the help of the three began hearing shouts of “Hey, you’re advantage of the intense excitement rap- huge, cuddly, and much-loved Oregon the ‘I Love My Ducks’ guys.” idly building for the Civil War game. “The Ducks mascot (or at least of one of the “In a week we went from regular col- response was overwhelming,” Williams students who dress in the Duck costume), lege students to a viral video sensation,” says. “It was impossible to keep up with who shimmies, shakes, and waddles promi- Slade says. demand.” nently in the video. Contractual details But the group has no advice for others The shirts sold out immediately. More with Disney, however, make unauthorized who might want to emulate their success. shirts were ordered and more after that, all use of the Duck a big fat no-no. “You don’t plan on making a viral video, it from longtime Duck Store supplier Iden- “So we yanked it from YouTube,” Slade just happens,” Slade says. “It blows up. No tity by Sew On in Springfield. The shop says. The decision was unpopular but nec- explanation.” scrambled to keep up, adding extra staff essary—the media gave voice to the seem- And as far as all the media coverage members, and extra shifts, working eigh- iu L ing injustice many felt at the creative young that cast the athletics department as the teen hours a day, seven days a week. Jack

20 OREGON QUARTERLY | SPRING 2010 Upfront | News, Notables, Innovations

Fueled by social media buzz and tra- With T-shirt sales (and now sweat- a whole lot of learning. ditional media stories now focused on shirts, hoodies, women’s-cut tops and even “One other thing,” he adds with unmis- the wild demand for the shirts, crowds of tiny toddler shirts) nearing 40,000, Sup- takable pride. “People e-mail us from all shirt-hunters swelled at the Duck Store. witchugirl is looking at significant profits. over and say, ‘Now we’re Duck fans,’ and “I’ve never seen anything like it,” Williams Each member has travel in his plans; one ‘We wish we had people like you at our uni- recalls. “In all my thirty-eight years here, says he will use the windfall to retire his versity.’ That feels really good.” there has never been anything near this. It student loans. —Ross West, M.F.A. ’84 was my first experience of seeing firsthand The benefits of their unlikely and the power of social media.” meteoric rise extend beyond the financial. Web Extra: View “I Love My Ducks” The “I Love My Ducks” video (a version “It was a crash course in communications and other Supwitchugirl videos at sans the Duck) thundered through the Aut- law,” Slade says. “There was no grade, but OregonQuarterly.com. zen Stadium sound system and appeared on the jumbo screen at the December 3 Civil War game, driving fans nearly deliri- ous. Following the UO victory (and with only twenty-some shopping days until THE OREGON M.B.A. Christmas), shirt sales skyrocketed. Orders poured in from around the country to the Duck Store’s mail-order operation, peaking at 1,000 T-shirts of all kinds per day, with ILMD by far the most popular. The unprecedented demand quickly blew through all local stock of green shirts, and soon that of all West Coast suppliers. A run of black shirts filled in the gap until rush-ordered green shirts arrived from warehouses as far away as the East Coast. In the weeks between the Civil War and Rose Bowl the suddenly white-hot group received numerous offers to make videos and commercials and invitations to perform. They made what was for two members (Bishop and McAndrew) a tri- umphant return to North Bend for a middle school performance. “It was our Beatles moment. They were the rowdiest crowd we ever played for,” Slade laughs. “A girl in the front row was crying. We signed autographs for every kid in that school till our hands were sore.” When the ILMD phenomenon first took off, an Oregonian story reported the group hoped to use their profits to pay for a trip to the Rose Bowl. But things had changed by late December. The UO The Oregon M.B.A. combines a These centers embody what Oregon Alumni Association now hired the group solid foundation of core business is all about: hands-on, collegial, to perform at both the pep rally on Santa courses with targeted electives enterprising, welcoming, and socially Monica pier and the pregame tailgate and myriad applied learning and environmentally responsible. opportunities focused on our four party in Pasadena—with thousands of We call it the Oregon Advantage. Duck-crazed fans shouting out the chorus signature centers in to what had become the team’s unofficial • Securities Analysis FocuSEd. ExPErIEntIAl. PErSonAl. anthem. The group met quarterback Jer- • Innovation and Entrepreneurship emiah Masoli (whose name is rhymed in the rap with ravioli) and other UO players. • Sustainable Business Practices ESPN sportscaster Neil Everett ’84 sought • Sports Business out and congratulated the trio. “We weren’t just watching, we were part of everything,” www.oregonmba.info Slade beams. “It was so fun!.”

THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON 21 Upfront | News, Notables, Innovations

I N B R I E F

Art in the Heart of Campus Anyone taking a tour of public art on the UO campus now has a new stop. Path/WEG II by sculptor Susi Rosenberg of Munich, Germany, is located in the quad near Straub Hall and the Student Recreation Center. The sculpture’s indented square columns capture Eugene’s ample rainfall. Rosenberg created the piece a decade ago while participating in an artist-in-residence program at the UO and later donated the piece to the University.

and University Presidents Climate Commitment, a Rupp Wins ‘Track- pledge to improve environmental sustainability. and-Field Heisman’ Turning a commitment into reality requires a plan; Following a stellar senior year (winning five NCAA the UO’s Climate Action Plan is available for review indoor and outdoor titles), UO runner Galen Rupp and comment. Visit sustainability.uoregon.edu. ’09 was the inaugural winner of the Bowerman Award, bestowed on the top U.S. collegiate male Research Funds and female track-and-field athletes. Set Record Each poster is eleven inches by UO research funding in the first quarter of the seventeen inches printed and suitable How Oregon 2009–10 fiscal year hit $69.4 million—a 60 per- for framing. Posters are $35 each, or Helps Oregon cent increase over the record-setting first quarter $30 each if ordering two or more. Price of $43.4 million a year ago. The UO research fund- A new website provides a one-stop overview of includes shipping and handling charges. ing record for an entire fiscal year is $115.3 million, how the UO is reaching out to the residents and Make checks (no credit cards accepted) set in 2007–8. communities of Oregon—from small business payable to: clinics and high-tech collaboration to addressing Faculty Spotlight OREGON QUARTERLY/RB POSTER issues of violence and exposing grade school 5228 University of Oregon kids to science. Visit AcademicOutreach.uoregon Three University of Oregon scientists—physicist Eugene OR 97403-5228 .edu/index.php. and Philip H. Knight Professor of Science James E. Brau and chemistry professors Victoria J. DeRose These o cial 2010 Rose Bowl com- Creative Writing and David R. Tyler—have been chosen as fellows memorative posters were created for Ranked in Top Ten of the American Association for the Advancement the University of Oregon by Paul A. of Science. G. Z. Brown, Philip H. Knight Profes- Lanquist (“PAL”), a Northwest artist The UO’s M.F.A. program in creative writing was sor of Architecture and Allied Arts, has earned ranked tenth in the nation by Poets & Writers who currently lives near Mt. St. Helens, a lifetime achievement award from the Oregon magazine, in an analysis of the top fifty programs Washington with his wife and family. chapter of the Association of Professional Energy in the United States. The UO program also rated Managers. Bulk orders or questions? Email us: fifth in the magazine’s postgraduate placement [email protected] category, which ranks schools based on fellow- Enrollment Up ships and awards. UO enrollment increased 4.1 percent this fall to an all-time record of 22,386. Total Oregon resi- Going Greener dent enrollment, including undergraduates and The UO, along with some 650 other institutions graduates, increased to 14,644 this fall compared enberg s

o of higher education, signed the American College to 13,881 in 2008. R i s Su

22 OREGON QUARTERLY | SPRING 2010 THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON 23 Upfront | News, Notables, Innovations

PROFile Michael Dreiling Associate Professor of Sociology

that require specific behavior are all things that we created—classrooms, dog parks, or black tie functions. “Excellent thinking,” Dreiling replies. “What might this mean for us?” As students respond, they begin to understand that the answer is only part of a larger question.

Dreiling compares sociology with a jigsaw

tune in puzzle. One can identify individual patterns, or pieces, but until they are fused with others, they are just pieces. When they’re examined with and fitted into a box of other pieces, they create a larger image.

“The observations that the students make are essential,” Dreiling says. They learn to look beyond themselves and understand how individual actions can affect the big picture—society as a whole.

Their newfound critical awareness, Dreiling believes, will serve them in any area of life. “The thing I always hope for,” he says, “is that students walk away with an expanded field of perception.” Unlike many classrooms, where the air is stiff with silent listening and note taking, sociologist Name: Michael Dreiling Michael Dreiling’s classroom is often filled with Education: B.A. ’90, University of California, conversation. In fact, his students are expected Irvine; M.A. ’93 and Ph.D. ’97 University of Michi- to speak up in class. gan life’s on... life’s To get them talking, Dreiling asks tough ques- Teaching Experience: Graduate student tions. In his American Society course, for exam- instructor, teaching assistant, and lecturer at ple, he asks: “How are you both a product and a the University of Michigan, 1989–95. He joined producer in this moment?” At first, the students the UO Department of Sociology as assistant avert their eyes, extraordinarily interested in professor in 1996. An associate professor since something written in their notebooks, so Dreil- 2002, he was the sociology graduate program ing invites them to begin by simply looking director 2003–8. around at each other and observe. “What do you see?” he asks. A few moments pass before Awards: Thomas F. Herman Faculty Achieve- a hand raises. Then two more. Then another. ment Award for Distinguished Teaching in 2009; One student observes: Most of us are wearing two-time winner of the Rippey Innovative Teach- jeans; could that make us products of fashion? ing Award in 2005 and 2008. What about the way we behave in various situ- Off-Campus: Dreiling spends as much time as ations? another student suggests. We’re prod- possible outdoors with his three kids. He enjoys ucts of a specific social code. “Good,” Dreiling gardening, trail running, and water sports. encourages. “What else? How are you creating this reality?” Well, a student suggests, we pur- Last Word: “There are many layers to social chase the clothes and adhere to trends, so we reality. Things are not always as they seem.” both create and perpetuate the fashion cycle. y Michael Dreiling s Another student speaks up: The social situations —Melissa Hoffman ourte C

24 OREGON QUARTERLY | SPRING 2010 Life is measured in moments... Make every moment count.

Whether it was raising our family, pursuing careers or giving back to the community, we’ve done our best to make every moment of our lives count. The same is true now. That’s why we chose a Brookdale® Senior Living community where there are endless opportunities to do the things that matter most to us, like travel, fitness, hobbies and enjoying the company of friends and family.

Come see how our communities can help you make the most of your life. It’ll only take a moment.

CALL TODAY FOR OREGON ALUMNI DISCOUNTS.*

CLARE BRIDGE BEAVERTON CLARE BRIDGE TROUTDALE WYNWOOD FOREST GROVE Alzheimer’s and Dementia Care Alzheimer’s and Dementia Care Personal Care Community Daily Moments of SuccessSM Daily Moments of SuccessSM 3110 19th Ave., Forest Grove, OR 97116 16655 NW Walker Rd., Beaverton, OR 97006 1201 SW Cherry Park Rd., (503) 357-3288 (503) 439-1653 Troutdale, OR 97060 (503) 465-8104 WYNWOOD McMINNVILLE CLARE BRIDGE BEND PERSONALized Assisted Living Alzheimer’s and Dementia Care VILLAS ALBANY Respect for Individual PreferencesSM Daily Moments of SuccessSM Independent Living Alzheimer’s and Dementia Care 1099 NE Watt Way, Bend, OR 97701 Exceptional Experiences Every DaySM Daily Moments of SuccessSM (541) 385-4717 1560 Davidson St. SE, 721 NE 27th St., McMinnville, OR 97128 Albany, OR 97322 (503) 435-0100 CLARE BRIDGE SALEM (541) 926-6800 Alzheimer’s and Dementia Care WYNWOOD MT. HOOD Daily Moments of SuccessSM VILLAS COURTYARD Personal Care Community 1355 Boone Rd., SE Salem, OR 97306 Independent Living 25200 SE Stark St., Gresham, OR 97030 (503) 365-7500 Exceptional Experiences Every DaySM (503) 665-4300 1929 Grand Prairie Rd. SE Albany, OR 97322 (541) 928-9536 WYNWOOD ROGUE VALLEY Personal Care Community VILLAS McMINNVILLE 3033 Barnett Rd. Independent Living Medford, OR 97504 Exceptional Experiences Every DaySM (541) 776-7600 Personal Care Community 775 NE 27th St. McMinnville, OR 97128 (503) 472-3130

WYNWOOD ALBANY PERSONALized Assisted Living www.brookdaleliving.com Respect for Individual PreferencesSM Exceptional Experiences Every Day, Respect for Individual 2445 Geary St. SE, Albany, OR 97322 Preferences and Daily Moments of Success are Service Marks of Brookdale Senior Living Inc., Nashville, TN, USA. ORTM-ROP01-0309 (541) 926-8200 ®Reg. U.S, Patent and TM Office

BROOKDALE SENIOR LIVINGHASOVER 500 COMMUNITIESIN 35 STATES. CALLORVISITOURWEBSITEATWWW.BROOKDALELIVING.COM *GeographicTHE MAGAZINE restrictions OF THE UNIVERSITY apply. CallOF OREGON for specific details. 25 Upfront || News,, Notables,Notables, InnovationsInnovations

Michael Posner Honored with National Medal of Science

University of Oregon emeritus professor of psychology Michael Posner was Posner, who joined the UO faculty in 1965, is “a seminal figure in the among nine recipients of the 2009 National Medal of Science, the highest whole field of cognitive neuroscience,” says Lou Moses, head of the UO honor given by the U.S. government to scientists, engineers, and inventors. psychology department. His research contributions have been widely rec- “It is a great honor for me, the areas of research in which I have been ognized; his work—his name appears on more than 200 academic journal working, and the many students and collaborators who have been involved articles—is among the most cited in the field. “Many of his publications have and are involved in these studies,” Posner says. become citation classics,” Moses says. In addition to the papers, Posner also ation d The medal’s accompanying citation reads, “For his innovative application coauthored the influential book Images of Mind (Scientific American Library, oun F

of technology to the understanding of brain function, his incisive and accu- 1994). s al rate modeling of functional tasks, and his development of methodological “Posner’s contributions to science transcend his own discoveries. He has d and conceptual tools to help understand the mind and the development of had profound influence,” says Rich Linton, UO vice president for research brain networks of attention.” and graduate studies. “Mike’s visionary leadership has been instrumental in How did it feel to be honored by the president at the White House cer- launching countless scholars and programs into fruitful pursuit of the rela-

echnology Me emony, receiving the award alongside such scientific luminaries as human- tionship between mind and brain.” T

d genome mapper J. Craig Ventner? For his achievements, Posner has won many major awards and honors, “It really brought home to me how important the vast sweep of scientific including a Guggenheim Fellowship and election to the National Academy areas are to each other and to the future of our country,” Posner says. “I was of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American most appreciative that the president recognized that in his comments.” Association for the Advancement of Science. He was named Oregon Scientist At the October 7 East Room event, President Obama said the recipients of the Year in 1995. ational Science an embody “the very best of American ingenuity and inspir[e] a new generation The National Medal of Science was created by statute in 1959 and is N of thinkers and innovators. Their extraordinary achievements strengthen our administered for the White House by the National Science Foundation. nation every day—not just intellectually and technologically but also eco- nomically, by helping create new industries and opportunities that others Web Extra: See the White House ceremony on video, y Schaeffer/ d before them could never have imagined.” visit OregonQuarterly.com San

26 OREGON QUARTERLY | SPRING 2010 Faculty Excellence

Accounting professor Steve Matsunaga makes a difference every day: • Inspiring undergraduates by making complex concepts accessible • Publishing research in the top three academic journals in the past two years alone • Mentoring Ph.D. students and advancing the research culture of the accounting department • Garnering media coverage of his ideas in The Wall Street Journal, CFO magazine, and more.

In recognition, the University of Oregon Lundquist College of Business named Matsunaga the 2010 Thomas C. Stewart Distinguished Professor.

By empowering our faculty members as both world-class scholars and top-notch teachers, Tom Stewart ’72 is helping to perpetuate and expand our tradition of academic excellence.

You, too, can make a difference by supporting our Faculty Excellence Fund.

www.lcb.uoregon.edu/invest

Lundquist College of Business Office of External Programs 1208 University of Oregon Eugene OR 97403-1208 541-346-3370

THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON 27 Above right: Saul Zaik in the living room of the home he designed for his family; top left: an addition to Timberline Lodge Zaik designed in 1968; middle left: the Feldman residence in Portland, designed by Zaik in the 1950s; lower left: Bigley residence, designed in 1962; immediate right: Zidell residence in Portland’s west hills built on a three-foot-thick steel ship’s mast in 1970 (exterior and interior); second from right: interior of the Inskeep residence, also in the west hills; far right: interior of Zaik residence.

28 OREGON QUARTERLY | SPRING 2010 the arc of the architect In a career that spans fifty-eight years and counting, architect Saul Zaik ’52 has become a very visible invisible man.

By Todd Schwartz | Portr aits by Tim L ABARGE

Firmitatis, utilitatis, venustatis. minates high points of human history. So the stakes are high, and in the last century or These are what the architecture textbook identifies so, America has produced one true popular icon of as the three defining principles of a good build- architecture, the one name (or actually three) that al- ing. This particular textbook happens to have been most anyone in the country can pull to mind: Frank written by the Roman architect Vitruvius early in Lloyd Wright. There are others in the pantheon, of the first centuryc.e. , but not that much has really course: Philip Johnson, Frank Gehry, Richard Meier, changed. A good building should (still) be durable, Michael Graves, I. M. Pei, Walter Gropius, Ludwig function in a manner suited to the people who will Mies van der Rohe, Eero Saarinen, Pietro Belluschi, use it, and be delightful to the eye while uplifting to Alvar Aalto—to name a plausible few. the spirit. Two out of three doesn’t cut it—witness The state of Oregon can claim one of the names your average strip mall, gas station, or tract house. on that rarified list, if more by an accident of geog- It is the architect (from a combination of the raphy than anything else. Pietro Belluschi was born early Greek words for “leader” and “builder”) who in Italy and educated at Cornell. He came west in the must create the balance. And it is a position of some mid-1920s to work as a mining engineer in Idaho, responsibility: entire cultures, entire peoples, entire where he soon heard about a job as a draftsman ages are remembered by their buildings. From the in the office of the famous Portland architect A.E. distance of forty centuries, the ancient Egyptians Doyle. Within a few years of Doyle’s death in 1928, didn’t merely build the pyramids, the ancient Egyp- Belluschi took over the firm and by the end of World tians are the pyramids. Ditto Rome’s Coliseum, the War II had designed the landmark Equitable Build- Alhambra, Angkor Wat, Chichen Itza—the list illu- ing (now known as the Commonwealth Building) ik a ul z a l photos courtesy of s a Architectur

THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON 29

in Portland. It was one of the very arrived the famous architect had de- sea, just about the time the war end- first “glass box” office towers, and parted to be dean of the architecture ed, and Zaik spent a rather pleasant the first to use double-pane glass, school at MIT. A Portland native and eighteen months on what was called aluminum cladding, and to be to- recent graduate of the University of the “Magic Carpet”—a transport tally sealed and air-conditioned. The Oregon School of Architecture and ship ferrying troops between excit- building made Belluschi an icon of Allied Arts, Saul Zaik would soon ing San Francisco and beautiful Ha- modernist architecture and the hero begin making quite a reputation of waii. It wasn’t exactly the Love Boat, for an exceptional group of North- his own. As Louis Sullivan, the late- but tougher tours have been served. west architects, who would begin to nineteenth-century architect of the Discharged in 1946, Zaik was come into their own at the halfway early skyscrapers, famously said: eager to get back to the Northwest. point of the twentieth century. “Form forever follows function.” The His plan was to attend Oregon State One of those young guys worked arc had begun. University and become an electrical briefly in the office of Belluschi, engineer—but the Fates, or the elec- Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill Utilitatis trons, or at least the campus housing (BSOM), although by the time he department, had other ideas. Some architects know their true call- “There were so many vets going from a very early age. Buildings ing back to school at that time,“ speak to them; they hear music in Zaik says, “that I didn’t find a very structure and space. That was not welcoming situation at OSU. There Saul Zaik. was just no housing available. So I Born in 1926 in northwest Port- tried the University of Oregon, and land, just a few blocks from where it was more friendly—they had just his office stands today, Zaik grew finished a new dorm for vets and I up without much idea of what he could move right in.” wanted to do. He liked to draw, Zaik soon found himself drawn usually cars, and he enjoyed taking to the School of Architecture and things apart to see how they were Allied Arts, and, as Oregon archi- put together. tecture writers Brian Libby and Bob When Zaik was around twelve Zaikoski note, “Zaik’s friends includ- years old, an uncle took him aside ed not only the fellow young archi- and said, “Saul, the future is going to tecture students who would become be in something called ‘television,’ so his colleagues, but also artists like you want to take math and science painters Carl Morris and Tom Hardy and then go to Benson Polytechnic [’42, M.F.A. ’52], glass sculptor Fred and learn about electricity.” Heidl, and potter Jim Bartell [’48].” So Zaik did as prompted, attend- For Zaik, it was a freeing envi- ing the city’s lone vocational high ronment. “It was a different world in school. He took math and science; those days,” he says. “The architec- he learned about electricity. Televi- ture school was less structured, less sion, however, eluded him. formal. There were no grades, and it “I never could understand,” Zaik was a noncompetitive environment.” says today, “how you could send an He particularly remembers the late electron through the air and get a architecture professor Bob Ferens TV picture. I still don’t, really.” and the late architectural history When he graduated from high professor Marion Dean Ross. school in 1944, the U.S. Navy called. It was a different world in many Based on his education, Zaik went to ways. Zaik’s tuition under the G.I. what the military called radio school, Bill was $37 a term. Most of his fel- but was actually training in the early low architecture students were, like

Top: Administration building at Crater Lake; electronics of the time. Again, too Zaik, in their mid-twenties. And middle: interior of Hege residence in Mount many electrons. imagine some kids in the Class of Tabor area of Portland; Naito residence in Salishan, designed in 1969. “I didn’t care much for it,” he 2013 pulling this off: Zaik and two remembers, “so I sort of just let it of his fellow students got a G.I. loan, flow by.” then designed and built a house The Navy eventually sent him to while they were still in school. It was

30 OREGON QUARTERLY | SPRING 2010

Some architects know of glass used by the mid-century Corps base, where he designed ev- modernists with the warmth and erything from the officers’ quarters their true calling from a solidity of local materials, primarily to the cold storage building to the wood and stone, and pays particular runway lights. All along he was very early age. Buildings attention to the demands and beauty moonlighting, doing small houses speak to them; they of the site. for the aforementioned friends and Once asked if Northwest Re- acquaintances. Zaik married in hear music in structure gional is valid in the context of 1955, and by the following year, as and space. That was not more widely known architectural he reached his thirtieth birthday, he styles—the International Style of had enough work lined up to leave Saul Zaik. Le Corbusier and van der Rohe, for the big firm. Thus, in 1956, in a little example—Zaik answered without Victorian rental house on the margin hesitation: “It is absolutely valid. It of downtown Portland, the so-called out in what was then a brand new is site-oriented in terms of sun and Fourteenth Street Gang was born. neighborhood, at 28th and Alder. weather. It respects the vegetation of The amazing group of young UO Zaik laughs when he says that he the site. . . . I think it has to do with a architecture alums included Zaik, keeps meaning to get down to Eu- Northwest lifestyle. Our clients were William Fletcher ’50, Donald Blair gene and see if the house still stands outdoor people who appreciated the ’51, John Reese ’49, Frank Blachly today. landscape and wanted to be con- ’51, Alex Pierce ’54, and designer A snow skier since high school, nected to it and to preserve it.” George Schwarz ’55. They shared Zaik also raced on the UO alpine ski In what writers Libby and Zai- space, ideas, laughs, and the oc- team coached by none other than koski call “the golden age of houses,” casional adult beverage. Sometimes 10th Mountain Division veteran Bill from the mid-1950s to the early they worked together on projects, Bowerman ’34, M.Ed. ’53. Zaik re- 1970s, lifelong outdoorsman Zaik but they all had individual practices. members that many team practices would become perhaps the most It was during this period that involved running along far behind “Oregon” of all the Northwest Re- Zaik designed the house that put the track guys. gional architects. him firmly on the map. Philip Feld- Zaik graduated in 1952—his A 1973 article in the magazine man, heir to a large soap company, thesis was the plan and drawings Symposia declared, “When one came to Zaik wanting a house on for an imagined ski resort lodge at thinks of Oregon architecture, one his property in the southwest hills Diamond Peak in the Cascades—and immediately envisions weathered of Portland. What emerged was a returned to Portland in an energetic wood structures resembling Wil- clean, sophisticated structure with era full of growth and promise. An lamette Valley farm buildings. The floor-to-ceiling windows, vertical era when Zaik’s friends, even barely Oregon architect of the current cedar siding, and a low-slung gable out of college, could pull together generation most sympathetic and roof with broad, sheltering eaves. $300 or $400 to pay him to design skilled with this vernacular is Saul “It is extremely modern in using their first house, which they would Zaik of Portland. His residences, very flush surfaces and wide panes build for less than $10,000. condominiums, and apartments are of glass,” Portland architect Don “That sure doesn’t happen today,” to be found throughout Oregon, and Rouzie, one of Zaik’s longtime col- Zaik says with a shake of his head. like his predecessors [Wade] Pipes, laborators, told Libby and Zaikoski. Brookman, Yeon, and Belluschi, a “It is very simple. It doesn’t jump out Venustatis Zaik home is easily identifiable. The at you as being this terrific thing. But shapes of his structures are some- you get in there, and it’s just awe- There is a homegrown architectural times complex, but always the roof some. You realize what Northwest style variously called Northwest lines are simple, and the resulting Regional means.” Regional or Northwest Modern. building is an easily understood After its completion in 1957, the Depending on the interpretation, statement of its use and its site.” Feldman house received numerous it began some seventy years ago But all of that was still to come architectural design awards and with architects including Belluschi, when the Zaik arc began, first with achieved a fair amount of renown for John Yeon, and others, and probably a short stint in Portland, then a Zaik. More than half a century later, reached its zenith in the heyday of brief move to The Dalles to work the house was chosen as the audi- talents like John Storrs, Van Evera with architect Boyd Jossey design- ence favorite after being featured on Bailey, Herman Brookman and, of ing school buildings. He returned to a tour of Portland’s most interesting course, Saul Zaik. The style incor- Portland and the job with BSOM, mid-century and present-day con- porates the clean lines and expanses his first project being an Army Air temporary homes. It seems people

THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON 31 (still) found it delightful to the eye the world leader, decided to try and uplifting to the spirit. his hand at developing resort and In 1959, Zaik created a house residential properties in what was for a very demanding client: Saul then a radical way—with respect for Zaik and family. He has lived in it the natural environment. He was at with his wife for half a century now, work on Salishan, his Oregon Coast and his kids grew up there. He still development, when he discovered thinks it is some of the best work Zaik. Gray asked him to design the he’s ever done. Longhouse Condominiums on the “It’s kind of falling apart now,” beach. Zaik says, laughing. “It was re- “John was always very quiet,” ally just an idea I had about living, Zaik remembers. “He would hire which was that each person needs us to do a project, then go away about 500 square feet in which to and let us do our work. That kind live comfortably. I look at my family of developer has gone away, I think! today and wonder if we shaped the John Storrs was designing the main house, or the house shaped us.” lodge, and he was very friendly, in Zaik’s home is another decep- a sarcastic kind of way. Whenever tively simple design, separate pa- he looked at our drawings he would vilions working perfectly with the say something like, ‘Why are you wooded site to make light and space using floor-to-ceiling windows? Lit- come alive inside. tle kids will crash through them!’” “Zaik’s work is truly timeless, Happily, no youngsters plum- and rooted in every site he built meted through the glazing, and upon,” according to UO architecture over the years the work with Gray alum Corey Martin ’06, a principal led to some of Zaik’s signature with Portland’s Path Architecture creations, designing the Ranch and one of Zaik’s fans. “Fifty years Cabins and the Meadow Houses at after it was built, his personal Sunriver in central Oregon, as well residence is better than most new as the Bluff Condominiums back at work. It is so simple yet dynamic, Salishan. He also designed several sophisticated, and humane.” homes in the two resorts, including In 1960, Blair and Zaik left the residences for Phil Knight and Bill Fourteenth Street Gang to form Naito. Blair Zaik Architects, and the arc In 1970, Arnold Zidell, a wealthy of Zaik’s rise pitched up. While and slightly eccentric shipyard he continued to design a string of owner, offered Zaik an intriguing outstanding houses that remain as challenge. Zidell had a near-vertical Northwest Regional icons today, piece of property overlooking all Zaik also began a long string of suc- of Portland and a 100-foot-long, cessful commercial projects. 3-foot-thick steel ship’s mast he had “Two things really got us go- salvaged from a decommissioned ing back then,” Zaik says—and vessel. He wanted Zaik to design whenever Zaik speaks of one of his a round, rotating house on top of projects he virtually always uses the the mast, sort of a miniature Seattle first person plural, ever willing to Space Needle. Zaik looked at Zidell acknowledge the collaborative side for a minute, then said, “Sure. That Top: Saul Zaik in his home, built in 1959; middle: entry to Zaik residence; bottom: Zaik of architectural design. “U.S. Bank sounds like a lot of fun.” living room. began to hire a few young Turks to “Arnie was a far-out guy,” Zaik design branch buildings, and we adds today, “but that really wasn’t got some awards and publicity for the oddest request I’ve ever had as those. And then John Gray called.” an architect! It was pretty simple, In the early 1960s, Gray, who actually.” had taken a small Oregon saw As a skier, Zaik had seen chain company and turned it into enough chairlift towers to know

32 OREGON QUARTERLY | SPRING 2010 Zaik has designed and hints of a more modern form with sign. Even budget issues don’t deter larger windows and extended roof his drive. built so much in this planes. Zaik also oversaw restora- “I’ve always loved the challenge,” state that the odds are tions at Crater Lake Lodge and the he explains, “whether it’s the site or Vista House at Crown Point in the the client or the budget. From the very high that you have Columbia River Gorge. beginning, if somebody came in and seen—or even stayed in From residences and vaca- said ‘I want to build a house for a tion homes to apartments and hundred bucks,’ I’d say, ‘Let’s go!’ But or worked in—one of his condos, from medical and com- today the hardest thing is dealing buildings. mercial buildings to Oregon State with the city and all the codes. That University’s first computer center really bothers me. They set such and several schools, Zaik’s work rigid standards for design, unrelated stands throughout Oregon. He has to the individual project. To me, the how to use the mast—just sink a designed and built so much in this site always came first: how can I use big concrete foundation to bedrock state that the odds are very high it, how can I enhance it? It’s much and bolt the mast onto it. Then that you have seen—or even stayed tougher today to do interesting hang the weight of the house from in or worked in—one of his build- things with houses, but it can still the top of the mast, cut to sixty ings. How then, can he be an invis- be done.” feet, with a structure of steel truss- ible man? He follows everything that’s goes. As for rotating, the structural ing on with new young architects engineer counseled that it would be Firmitatis and green technologies, particularly “imprudent.” What emerged was an cheering on the sustainably de- octagonal two-story house with a At eighty-three, Zaik still goes to signed urban infill projects that are ground floor nearly fifty feet in the the office each day. He’s happy the latest trend. But Zaik worries air. The now-famous house likely to discuss the good old days, but about what the economic future would had earned Zaik several whenever the phone rings, he’ll just holds for the graduates coming out awards—had the publicity-averse about leap to get it. of architecture schools. Zidell ever allowed him to submit “Could be a new client,” he says, “We never made a whole lot of it. and you can tell that, just as he still money,” he says, “but we managed Zaik begins to laugh as he de- loves hiking and skiing, he still has to always find work and survive scribes the Zidell house. “It would the same fire for a new project, a comfortably as a small firm. I don’t be just impossible to do that today,” new design challenge. He’s working see that happening so much in the he says, imagining the apoplectic on a few projects, but there’s always future. It’s very hard these days reaction that would paralyze the room for more—a rare opportunity to start up with no cash like I did! city planning office should someone for someone shopping for an archi- What happens to all these kids we’re propose building a house on a ship’s tect: one of the legends of North- turning out? I always used to tell mast in 2010. “There are so many west Modern architecture is still young architects that the way to get codes these days, that thing would very much a going concern. established was to do a great build- be held up with a hundred steel But Zaik confesses to feeling a ing that gets noticed. Where do they cables and who knows what else— bit like an invisible man now com- get the opportunity to do that now?” full-time helicopters maybe—of pared to the high profile he used It may have been easier back course, they’d throw you out if you to hold in Northwest architecture. when Northwest Modernism’s most even suggested the idea!” He mentions it in passing and with visible invisible architect began Zaik wasn’t just a Northwest good humor, but it’s clear that Zaik his arc, but if the hundreds of Saul Modernist—he also had a deep af- has little interest in fading away to Zaik-designed buildings that grace finity for the workmanship and style join the pantheon—he’d rather book our state prove anything, it’s that of circa-1930s National Park Service some gigs. whatever and whenever, talent will buildings, so he was thrilled to take “Some of my best friends over rise. on the expansion and renovation the years have come out of doing of Mount Hood’s landmark Tim- houses,” he says, then laughs, “That’s Todd Schwartz ’75 is a Portland berline Lodge, built in 1938 by the mainly what’s keeping me going writer who once had thoughts of be- Works Progress Administration. His these days . . . repeat business!” coming an architect—until a some- 1968 addition to the lodge blends It isn’t the money he’s after; he’s what disastrous high school career perfectly with the building’s original driven instead by endless energy day at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. aesthetic, but a closer look reveals and an undimmed passion for de- But that’s another story.

THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON 33 A daughter’s exploration Civil Rights Movement. She knew into her father’s past in that couldn’t be her brother. It had the civil rights movement to be her father, also Joe Spagna, who raises personal and died tragically while out jogging when historical questions. she was young. So she ordered the book. She’d heard the story about his A Foot By Ana Maria Spagna involvement in the civil rights movement before, but she didn’t believe it. Like a lot of good stories, this one But there it was, in two paragraphs started with wasting time. Ana Ma- and a long footnote: he’d been ar- Soldier’s ria Spagna ’89 was Googling her rested for riding a bus in Tallahas- brother, Joe Spagna, and came upon see, Florida, in 1957 and his case a blurb from a book called Inside had gone all the way to the Supreme Bus Ride Agitators: White Southerners in the Court. Little beyond that was known.

Leonard Speed, Johnny Herndon, and Joe Spagna outside a Tallahassee courtroom in January 1957

after they had been arrested for riding in mixed racial groups during the Tallahassee bus boycott. hoto P

P A

34 OREGON QUARTERLY | SPRING 2010 So, Spagna set out to uncover her fa- in the fold-out on the “honor roll” of ther’s story. The resulting book, Test those who made the boycott a success. History, it seems, is Ride on the Sunnyland Bus: A Daugh- The problem is that, once you start changeable. But some ter’s Civil Rights Journey, chronicles her explaining exactly what my dad and his pursuit of that story and all it meant for friends tried to do, you come close to characters are utterly her and her family. The book won the suggesting that, well, maybe the boy- predictable. 2009 River Teeth Literary Nonfiction cott wasn’t such a success. Prize and will be published this spring The fold-out section states in small by the University of Nebraska Press print that Ordinance 741, the bogus ‘Well, I think that I can serve as one of (nebraskapress.unl.edu). The excerpt save-segregation law they tried to the persons and help solicit somebody.’” presented here takes place when Spagna prove unconstitutional by sitting to- “Joe Spagner (sic)?” asks the inter- went to Tallahassee for the fiftieth an- gether on the Sunnyland bus in 1957, viewer. niversary celebration of the bus boycott was never actually repealed. It stayed “Yeah, that’s the guy. He said he during which her father was arrested. on the books in Tallahassee until 1973, could assist in doing it and I said I can when the city took over bus service help get somebody to work with the from the private company. Of course, blacks and of course this is how that re- n the morning, I go running I know that lousy ordinances stay on ally got moving.” and sweat-soak my shirt in two the books everywhere. Every so often “They just got on it and sat down in Florida minutes. someone puts out a list of ridiculous front?” Back at the motel, I open a laws (no parachuting for women on “Oh, yes. It was understood. They special fold-out section from Sunday in Florida) and obsolete laws knew what we wanted and they per- theI previous Sunday’s Tallahassee (no washing a mule on the sidewalk in formed in that respect.” Democrat dedicated to the boycott. Virginia). But those laws weren’t chal- “And of course they were arrested. I The biggest news is that the publishers lenged all the way to the U.S. Supreme mean the bus driver called the police?” of the Democrat are apologizing, now Court. People didn’t risk their lives to “They made pretty good rounds at in 2006, for having supported segrega- challenge them. The fact that Ordi- first, and they had enough money to tion in 1956 and beyond. This is yet nance 741 was never repealed feels to keep riding and I think they got tired of another small gesture, one that cynics me, personally, like a slap. The fact that . . . (lost transcription).” could easily dismiss as too little, too I can walk a mile south across the rail- The interview stops cold, the photo- late—fifty years too late!—but celebra- road tracks right now, in 2006, and see copied text trailing off into oblivion. . . . tion organizers last night were nearly segregation thrive feels like something This is beginning to seem suspicious. ecstatic. If it’s worth remembering who worse than that. Were they hiding the truth from the took risks, it’s worth remembering who I remind myself that I haven’t come Johns Committee, trying to keep the failed to do so. to Tallahassee this time to worry over bus driver’s behavior off the record, I sip my coffee and page through such things. I’m not here to figure any- protecting my dad for some reason, now-familiar photos and sagas. I stop thing out. But I have a few hours on my or protecting all of them? Or was Dan to study a timeline of the boycott and hands before a scheduled luncheon, so Speed’s voice simply difficult for the feel familiar discomfort. Here’s the like an addict backsliding, I head to the transcriber to hear on the recording? problem: the timeline shows that the library archives at FSU [Florida State More to the point: Did the boys ride boycott began when [Wilhelmina] University] to read more interview one bus or two or more? Were there Jakes and [Carrie] Patterson [sat next transcripts. three riders or six? I’ll never know for to a white woman on a Tallahassee bus The first I find is with Dan Speed, sure. and were arrested] in May 1956 and the grocery owner and boycott leader, As the week goes on, mention of ended with victory when the Supreme who discusses, among other topics, the Dan Speed, the architect of the carpool Court ordered Montgomery [Alabama] test ride. The interviewer asks him if and treasurer of the ICC [Inter-Civic to integrate city buses in December he had encouraged his son, Leonard, to Council], the bailer-out of jailed protes- 1956. That makes Dad’s role a little dif- take the test ride. tors, will be rare and grudging at best. ficult to explain, since he rode the bus “No, I’ll tell you what happened History, it seems, is changeable. But in January 1957, after the Montgomery along that line,” says Speed. “We had a some characters are utterly predictable. order, because the boycott was flail- meeting, and in that meeting we came The next interview I find is with ing after the supposed victory. The to a decision that we needed (lost tran- none other than Judge John Rudd, the problem isn’t that my dad’s role gets scription). . . . We didn’t have anyone in municipal judge who tried my dad, ignored. His name is listed alongside our group who was willing to go and, of who tried the Tallahassee Nine, who Johnny Herndon’s and Leonard Speed’s course, one of the boys from FSU said, tried Patricia Stephens Due, who never

THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON 35 failed to lecture the defendants with thinly veiled disdain. The same bitter- ness permeates his comments twenty years after the fact, in 1978, once the civil rights movement was, for the most part, a done deal. He does not mince words. About activists: “These people, they grab a little placard and bound up and down public streets. What are they ac- complishing?” About blacks: “I haven’t done a damn thing to them except support them. And they haven’t been victimized by me and my generation worth a damn. I don’t owe them anything.” The interviewer begins to lose pa- tience and steps in. “Of course you know that the blacks come from slavery, and after the Civil War for 200 years, they were second class citizens.” At this point Judge Rudd, as [my Morris Thomas showed up on the wrong day to participate in a mass integrated father’s friend] Jon Folsom would say, bus ride during the 1956–57 Tallahassee protests. When he sat in the front, the driver comes completely unglued. turned off the engine and left, but this image came to symbolize the boycott. “Well, now, I’m sick and tired of that theory and philosophy and that’s just a be right there.” community college. new approach to get further sympathy Through double glass doors, I can This luncheon honors Carrie Pat- and something for nothing.” see three men in suits walking fast, terson and Wilhelmina Jakes, who sat I can live with the fact that change is three abreast, across a wide nonde- on the bus in 1956 to start the boycott, slow. But the intentional slowing of it, script lawn toward me, so I hang up though neither is in attendance. Jakes, the purposeful and wrongful manipula- and scurry out so they can get me a retired schoolteacher, could not make tion of justice, can still enrage me. where I belong. the long journey. Patterson is dead, “How are you this morning, Sister strangled to death in 1969 at the age of * * * Spagna?” thirty-three, likely in a domestic dis- ’m late for lunch. And so it begins. For the rest of the pute. No one mentions that fact or the I’d found the community week I will be Sister Spagna, which fact that no one was ever convicted of college campus and parked the sounds somewhere between a nun, a the crime. rental car before I realized that radical lesbian feminist, and an honor- On the dais sit ten prestigious black I didn’t know where, exactly, ary black woman. The name sounds women including Patricia Stephens onI campus the event was to be held, so silly enough that I nearly giggle, but it Due, the activist leader, the first to say: I call [anniversary organizer] Cynthia rolls from their tongues easily and is jail no bail. They are here to honor, in Williams’s cell phone from a pay phone effused with warmth. They don’t mind addition to Jakes and Patterson, women in the student union. that I’m late. They’re glad that I’m here. throughout Tallahassee who supported “Where are you?” she cries. They whisk me into a large conference the boycott, many of whom are in the Turns out they’re holding festivities room where I shake hands and make room, all of whom were brave and self- awaiting my arrival. This I did not ex- apologies—so sorry, thank you, glad to less and steadfast. pect. I wanted to be a spectator, not an be here. I can see immediately that I am One of the women, a college profes- honored guest. I had gotten the distinct underdressed yet again, and that I’m sor, steps forward. impression the night before that was one of perhaps three white people in a “God is good,” she says. exactly what I would be. room of a hundred or more. “Yes, he is,” the crowd responds. “In the student union,” I say. “I’m “This is Sister Spagna,” Reverend By the time the next speaker stands erlin wearing a pink shirt.” Foutz says and seats me at a table up to say “God is good” I won’t miss a beat. K “OK,” she says. “Reverend Foutz will front with administrators from the “Yes, he is,” I will say. hoto/Jim P

P A

36 OREGON QUARTERLY | SPRING 2010 “It was too dangerous,” I say, “for for having me. I am honored to be here.” I can live with the fact him to stay.” Yolanda pauses beside me, and that change is slow. But The reporter scribbles fast. reaches over in a one-arm hug, and I tell him how the family didn’t pulls my collar straight. She pats my the intentional slowing know, how I came in January, how I ad- shoulder and smiles as if to say: you’re of it, the purposeful and mire Jakes and Patterson, how I am here doing just fine. to learn and not to be honored. Like a wrongful manipulation ballplayer after the big game, I try to say * * * of justice, can still the right things. But I fail. atricia Stephens Due signs The administrators file back to their a copy of her book for enrage me. seats with plates of food. me: “To the daughter of “So, you’ve come all the way from a foot soldier from FSU. I’ll never get to the point where I yell Seattle?” Remember, the struggle “Amen.” But Barbara DeVane does. She “Yes.” Pcontinues.” Laura Dixie, a woman is white as can be, and she yells it louder “And your father got arrested during who was spurred to action by bus than anyone in the room. She sports the boycott?” discrimination in the late 1940s and had dangly bracelets and bright red lipstick, “Yes.” been an activist ever since, approaches. and she’s the first on her feet for every “Then he went to Washington?” “I never knew your father, but I cer- ovation, the loudest in every response. “No . . .” I start to explain that he tainly knew of him. We appreciate what She is utterly unselfconscious and ap- went to California and then to South he did for us. Thank you for coming.” parently effective. Later, I’ll Google her America. “But he jumped bail, right?” “It’s an honor to be here.” name to find her involved in every cause “Right.” Just as I’m preparing to leave, Rever- there is in Florida: women’s rights, civil I try to explain that he had gradu- end Foutz puts a hand on my shoulder, rights, workers’ rights. When I crane ated, that he was encouraged to leave to lead me toward the head table to my neck to see her, she smiles, winks, by his attorney. I list the same bogus meet C. K. Steele’s sons and, with them, and waves, her forefingers flapping -to excuses I’ve found inexcusable myself Carrie Patterson’s son, up for the day ward me playfully, and I relax. for months now. from Tampa. After several speakers, Patricia Ste- “He could’ve gotten killed in jail,” I Derald Patterson reaches out for my phens Due stands last to address the say finally. “It was just too dangerous.” hand with both of his. importance of remembering history. The conversation, already chilly, “Your mother must’ve been a very The room grows still. She is a formida- freezes hard. The woman’s chin jerks brave woman,” I say. ble presence with the dark glasses she’s upward slightly, defiantly, one eyebrow He smiles, head bowed, so two gold had to wear continuously for forty-five lifts over eyeglasses. molars show, and shifts his neck to the years, ever since her eyes were damaged “Now you know. That’s what it was side, adjusting the collar of his suit coat. by tear gas during a 1961 protest right like for my people every day,” she says. “I didn’t know her well,” he says. “She here in Tallahassee. Her voice is low and She slows to enunciate: “Every. Single. died when I was so young.” He gestures slow and unyielding. And her favorite Day.” toward the podium where her portrait phrase is “foot soldiers,” meaning those “Yes,” I say too fast and eager, staring is displayed front and center, right be- who actually hit the street back in the down at my unused napkin shredded in side Jakes’. “I’m only now beginning to day, those who did something. my lap. “You’re right. You’re absolutely understand.” “Stories live forever,” she says. “But right.” “I know what you mean,” I say. storytellers don’t. Listen to the foot sol- From what I can tell, maybe a third diers while you can.” of this room was alive during the boy- Ana Maria Spagna is a 1989 graduate She could be speaking to me. cott—they might remember it—and the of the UO’s Clark Honors College, and “If you don’t tell your story, someone rest, I’m guessing, don’t need a special she will be on campus to read from will tell it for you, and they will get it occasion to remember discrimination. Test Ride on the Sunnyland Bus as wrong.” I stand, last in line, to fill my plate part of the college’s fiftieth anniversary After she finishes, a reporter ap- with baked chicken. celebration May 6–7. She is the author proaches and asks me to tell my dad’s Reverend Foutz’s young daughter, of the essay collection Now Go Home: story. The administrators politely stand Yolanda, passes me as I make small talk Wilderness, Belonging, and the to get in the food line, scooting behind with another woman, balancing my Crosscut Saw and was the winner of my chair to pass, as I tell the story as plate on one hand, to shake with the the 2002 Oregon Quarterly Northwest honestly as I can: my father did his part, other. Perspectives Essay Contest. Spagna lives then skipped town. “Yes, I came from Seattle. Thank you in Stehekin, Washington.

THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON 37 At The ZOO By Robert Leo Heilman Photography by Michael James Lessner

38 OREGON QUARTERLY | SPRING 2010 Smeared windows and tea parties evoke thoughts of gorillas and our karmic footprint.

Just recently, here in my own home learning on to succeeding generations, much as we do. So, county, someone splattered a front window of the local Dem- what keeps them from writing bad poetry and charging each ocratic Party headquarters with a bucket-full of feces. Behind other interest on loans? In short, why are they (so nearly iden- the glass was a life-sized cardboard cutout picture of Presi- tical to us genetically) chimps and why are we human? Many dent Barack Obama, who is an unpopular man in this neck scientists now believe that the answer lies not so much in our of the Northwest woods for many reasons. It is impossible to differing brains as in our adrenal glands. Chimps have high know what motivated the unknown poop-flinger without a levels of adrenalin, the “fight or flight” hormone. It is our confession or claim of responsibility of some sort, but three human ability to remain comparatively calm in each other’s likely possibilities come to mind: vandalism, political discon- presence that allows us to create civilizations and their apish tent, and racism. inability to do so that condemns them to short, brutish lives Like any downtown section of any city, Roseburg has ongo- in the brush. Call it love, call it trust, either way it seems, it is ing problems with vandalism. These, however, have always in fact we humans, the meekest of apes, who have inherited been the sort of things one might expect from teenage hoo- the earth. It is only the trusting and loving who are humane. ligans or drunken stew-bums. There has also been, over the To trust no one is, perhaps, worse than insanity—it may be years, some prankish vandalism at both the Republican and atavistic, apish, less than fully human. Democratic Party offices—Krazy Glue in the door locks and the like—but nothing before this has ever made such a splash. The window-splashing incident would not trouble me nearly as much as it does if I only knew When I picked up the newspaper and whether there was a reason for it or not. I hope that it was an saw the front-page color photograph of that dreck-drenched irrational act, the result of some ill-considered (and perhaps window, I recalled vividly a morose gorilla who lived at the drunken) momentary rage, or a simple matter of some unfor- old Griffith Park zoo in Los Angeles fifty-something years tunate’s coprophilia. In fact, I’d guess that there’s about a 50 ago. He was a large, old silverback whose unhappy fate was percent chance that it amounted to no more than a passing to sit all day in a small gazebo being gawked at by people. freakish event. Or, then again, it could have just as easily been The people encircled his small round steel cage com- a hate crime, premeditated and meant to instill fear. We do, pletely and there was always a crowd. Since there is both after all, have a fairly recent history of local residents making proverbially and actually “always one in every crowd,” there politically motivated death threats and committing acts of was usually a yahoo, or two or more, trying to provoke a reac- vandalism aimed at driving their neighbors out of our county. tion from the sullen beast by waving their arms, shouting, and flicking cigarette butts at him. The gorilla, understandably, was discontented with his lot and expressed his malcontent “Highly conservative” is the usual with sad sour looks and by flinging feces against the glass description of the voters of Douglas County, and it is true that barriers that surrounded his enclosure. we Umpquans generally vote at a rate of 2–1 for Republican The ape, of course, had it in his nature to act as he did. Party candidates and at the same rate against nearly every Some fear-driven instinctual reaction to his unnaturally tax increase, no matter how laudable its purpose may be. But stressful life caused him to seek relief in the form which goril- it has been an unusually anger-filled year here in Douglas las (and other great apes and monkeys) do. Since (most of the County and in the nation itself as well. There were bitter “Tea time anyway) humans don’t fling excrement at each other, Party” protests here in the spring and, this summer, so-called this—how we deal with our fear—is a difference between us, congressional “town hall” meetings that turned downright the humans and our near genetic relations, the apes. ugly and hateful at times. We humans are blessed with two great advantages in Some of my friends and neighbors ask me, “Who are the form of superior intelligence and superior culture when these people? Why are they so rude and so angry?” Much compared to the apes. For most of my life I believed that the too distressingly often, they put it to me as, “How could they apes, at best, had a very limited intelligence and, therefore, be so stupid?” without realizing just how arrogant and igno- no culture at all. Nowadays it is known that chimpanzees rant that question is. Others of my friends and neighbors are and gorillas are at least as smart as an average four-year-old among the very people being asked about, and they are on human—smart enough to develop culture. the whole neither less nor more intelligent than the others. Chimps, it turns out, do have a sort of culture. They learn I suppose that by stupid those people mean the all-too- things, invent, and teach others within their groups and pass human willingness to believe outrageous lies and specious

THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON 39 theories. I think perhaps naiveté might better (and more tribe, which had been missing in action since Biblical times, kindly) describe this tendency of people to believe in dubi- had left the Promised Land to wander into Europe and left ous (but comforting) half-truths and fictions—yet this word, their name scattered across the face of the continent that too, comes up short. Brain power has nothing to with it and they populated. The list of Lost Hebrew Tribe of Dan place- neither does education. I have known many highly intelli- names, he explained, included any name in any language that gent people who have this very same affliction and it is one featured a “d” and an “n” separated by any vowel: Danzig, that is present in every economic class and every nation and Denmark, Scandinavia, London, Sardinia, the rivers Danube, all races and both sexes, taking root in the uneducated and Don, D’neister, and D’nieper had all been allegedly visited by the highly educated alike. Intolerance, I think, is not really these ancient Jewish name-leavers. so much a matter of opinion as it is a symptom of under- It seemed to me a peculiar misunderstanding of both lying psychological problems—an indication of character European history and of the way languages work. But he was flaws that are tied to unresolved anger, a generalized lack so clearly pleased with his display of erudition that I didn’t of trust, and an inability to remain calm when facing life’s have the heart to tell him just how absurd what he was saying ambiguities. There is an inevitable percentage of humanity actually was. Besides, the conversation had taken place in the that is distrustful, easily excitable, and emotionally unstable. religious books section of the store and clearly these bizarre notions were somehow tied into his spiritual beliefs. Since it is one of the oddities of human nature that irrational beliefs I have known a great many people over are perversely reinforced by factual challenges to their validity the years—nice people, decent people—who cling to harmful I gave him up as an interesting nut-case. and repugnant beliefs that are racist, homophobic, xenopho- Later, a quick Internet search for the term “Tribe of Dan” bic, misogynistic, or politically intolerant. What they all have brought the matter into a more disturbing light. To begin had in common is their high levels of frustration and fear. with, I found that there actually is a contemporary Tribe Each has felt insecure and cheated somehow, denied their of Dan but that no one suspects them of having been lost fair share of power, ignored and disrespected. Many (though Hebrews since they are all black folks who live in West Africa. not all) have been economic losers, bitter about their failure What I did discover is that his rap is a popular one with to succeed. Some have been emotional cripples, unable to an anti-Semitic White Power religious sect known as Identity sustain loving relationships and unable to tolerate ambigu- Christians. Adherents to this movement believe that Jeho- ity. Many have had their lives fall apart due to compulsive vah, having cursed the Jews of the Holy Land, allowed his boozing or drug abuse or gambling. Others have simply been Chosen People designation to fall entirely upon the descen- crushed repeatedly by an indifferent and impersonal system dants of the Jewish Tribe of Dan, who were the ancestors of of things that exploits them because it is profitable to do so. modern Christian Europeans, particularly the fairer-skinned Some are people who blame themselves for having suffered inhabitants of the northern nations. Oregon, it seems, is cur- terrible blows that came for no good reason at all. All became, rently home to two congregations of this odd persuasion, one in one way or another, shell-shocked veterans of life itself. located in Woodburn and the other in Eugene. What is there to cling to when, by your own doing or by others or by cold fate, you have lost everything? Stripped of dignity, mired in failure, caged in by tough circumstances and That there are malcontented people in uncontrollable forces, what is left to people but to embrace our society is not surprising. Things being as they are—the- comforting nonsense and to rage against perceived injustice? oretically egalitarian but factually equal only in our shared vulnerability to chance personal disaster—it is inevitable that some of us will have happier lives than others and that the A while back I ran across a fellow who discontented will resent the happiness of the contented and wanted to know where Pomerania was located. We were in will view them with envy and distrust. This is sufficient evil in a local bookstore at the time and when a woman entered itself and creates, on its own, a good deal of trouble. the store carrying a small, mostly white lap dog, he inquired There are those in our society, though, who, seeing discon- loudly, “Where is Pomerania anyway?” tent and the fear behind it, want to use that fear and resent- I explained to him that “Pomerania” was the name of ment to further their own ends. Just as the sight of the gorilla a region located along the Baltic Sea coast in what is now moping in his cage brought some people to pity the unhappy northwestern Poland but which used to be northeastern Ger- beast, some to scorn it, and others to taunt it for their own many. “G’dansk is the biggest city there. It used to be called amusement, so seeing the fears of the downtrodden brings Danzig,” I added. some to compassion and others to contemptuous exploitation. At the mention of the old port city at the mouth of the Vistula his eyes lit up. “Danzig,” he confidently informed me, “was named for the Tribe of Dan—one of the Lost Tribes of A few years ago I ran into an old high Israel.” He went on to describe how this particular Hebrew school buddy of mine while I was down in Los Angeles work-

40 OREGON QUARTERLY | SPRING 2010 n Auer Stripped of dignity, mired in failure, a ri B caged in by tough circumstances and ph by a uncontrollable forces, what is left hotogr P to people but to embrace comforting nonsense and to rage against ommons C tive

a perceived injustice? re C

ing the tradeshow circuit. The town, I’d noticed, had changed the domestic tranquility of this nation than the majority of in the decades since I’d left, not just physically, but culturally common criminals. A thief, a burglar, or a robber only harms as well. Racism had, once again, become nearly mainstream a few victims, but those who spread anger-inducing lies may thinking among an alarming portion of the white citizenry. harm millions—and their harm often outlives them and per- There was much grousing about the increasing numbers of haps circulates for centuries. Armenians, Asians, and Hispanics living in the over-crowded “It is the first duty of the humanist and the fundamental county, a strong demographic fear of being overwhelmed by task of intelligence to ensure knowledge and understanding swarthy foreigners whose obscenely large families were alleg- among men,” according to Pablo Neruda, a man who certainly edly bankrupting governmental resources. But it was a plea- knew about such things. Of the demagogues, professional sure to see my school chum again, who, it turned out, was gasbags, spin doctors, and liars-for-hire who prey upon the working as a city parks and recreation gardener at the new vulnerable, I would ask, “If the old poet was right, then what Griffith Park zoo. He invited me to visit him at his work for a is it to ensure ignorance and misunderstanding among people private early-morning behind-the-scenes tour. but to be working against humanity?” The new zoo is a much nicer place than the old one. The animals on display have more room to move about and their enclosures are designed to mimic natural conditions. Looking back on it, it was an odd We have come a long way, I saw, in learning how to reduce return to the zoo, a place I hadn’t been since childhood. It stress levels in captive wild animals. My old pal, however, seems strange to me now that I returned, after fifty years, to seemed to have changed for the worse. Once an openhearted find that the animals are calmer and the people more resent- and unafraid artist, he too, I found, had taken to seeing him- ful, frustrated, and angry. What would have happened, I won- self as an oppressed member of an endangered, soon-to-be der, if we’d spent our time and money coming up with ways to minority of white people. It disturbed me to hear him talk so reduce our human worries instead of coming up with ways to vehemently about his anger and frustration over the political increase our anxiety? We have, since Neolithic times, made and social concerns of the moment. I wondered at it, at the tremendous advances intellectually and technologically but time, and later learned that he habitually listened to talk-radio we have not advanced psychologically at all. We are still going programming while raking leaves and planting flower beds. about the world with our frightened caveman hearts that are I’m not sure why so many people whom I’ve met over the increasingly ill-adapted to worrisome distractions and stimuli past decade or so get such a kick out of listening to a steady that would have been unimaginable just 100 years ago. stream of bad news and outrageous commentary. I suppose, We seem, as a society, to have a great deal of trouble in once again, it may come back to the adrenal glands. I think of learning to forgive each other. We suffer the ill effects of a sort the thrill-seeking of my youth and the exciting rush that rose of karmic footprint, rather like a carbon footprint. It is said within me with the risk of physical harm. Anger, too, brings that it takes 100 years for a pound of carbon dioxide to dissi- on much the same hormonal waves. I’ve heard the term “poli- pate from the atmosphere. How long does it take for a hatred tics junkie” used to describe my friend’s habit and suspect to no longer circulate? In some cases it can take a lifetime— that it may be more of a reality than merely a metaphor. for some cases, generations. My ancestors often used to say, “Forgiveness is the best revenge.” I have returned to that saying many times over the years and always found it to be true. It saddens me to see my neighbors It tells me that by reacting to injury with anger or violence I deceived. I don’t blame them much though. Lying to people for am damaging myself more than I am my enemy. It really is profit has become a multibillion-dollar international industry. better to forgive and forget and to leave the fear and anger I condemn instead those have deceived them, the professional and frustration to the harmful to bear than to carry those liars and, even more so, those who employ the liars. festering wounds within. This is what the best of humanity’s Those who profit from the subversion of reason, who teachers have taught since ancient times. inflame smoldering anger for personal or ideological gain, who appeal to the worst in human nature—to our anger, dis- Robert Leo Heilman is the author of Overstory Zero: Real Life trust, resentment, and greed—are much more dangerous to in Timber Country. He lives in Myrtle Creek.

THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON 41 Rose Bowl! Rose Bowl! Photos by Jack Liu

42 OREGON QUARTERLY | SPRING 2010 Thousands of Duck fans gathered in Pasadena, California, to cheer on the UO football team at the ninety-sixth Rose Bowl—including University president Richard Lariviere and his wife Jan (left, center) and Frances Bronet, dean of the School of Architecture and Allied Arts (bottom left), shown at the UO Alumni Association tailgate party before the game. The Pac-10 champion Ducks took a 17–16 lead early in the third quarter but ultimately lost to Ohio State University, 26–17.

THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON 43 Despite the New Year’s Day loss, players like Kenjon Barner (lower right, page 43), Jeremiah Masoli and Eddie Pleasant (center, right), and Spencer Paysinger (bottom center, with coach Don Pellum) led the Ducks to a thrilling 10–3 season, one of only four ten-win seasons in Oregon history. The UO ended the year ranked eleventh in the country—and most of the players will return next season. Congratulations to Coach Chip Kelly and the entire team.

44 OREGON QUARTERLY | SPRING 2010 Construction began in February on the Ford Alumni Center (right of arena), scheduled for completion in March 2011

The Cheryl Ramberg Ford and Allyn Ford Alumni Center will soon become the dynamic new point of entry to the University of Oregon campus—a beautiful new front door to one of the ﬁ nest public universities in the U.S. Where Ducks Connect

Sited at the new gateway to the university—along with the Matthew Knight Arena and John E. Jaqua Academic Center for Student Athletes—the Ford Alumni Center will warmly welcome all visitors and immerse them in the pioneering spirit of the University of Oregon, providing equal parts inspiration and information. The 60,000-square-foot center will provide ﬁ rst-class event and gathering space for alumni, campus activities and the community. This modern facility will provide every advantage to foster the important connections between the university and its many friends and supporters.

Be a Part of It! Funding for the Ford Alumni Center is nearly complete, but there’s still time for you to take part. Visit THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON 45 uoalumnicenter.com News of UO Alumni

Brewing Up Big Buzz Eugene beer makers aiming for total domination.

alk about a beer buzz. “What we do best is get in on the grass- Ninkasi-sponsored bands. In barely four years of exis- roots level, build brand awareness on the Working with Book is Gibbs, Ninka- tence, Ninkasi Brewing Com- underground, and use that as leverage si’s viral marketing specialist, who has a pany of Eugene has grown into Oregon’s to bring product to people’s attention,” degree from the UO School of Journalism Tseventh-largest brewery—no paltry feat Floyd says. This brand-building approach and Communication with an emphasis in in a state where icons such as Widmer, involves extensive use of social media sites creative advertising. Deschutes, and Full Sail cap a roster of such as Twitter and guerrilla tactics that “Not that many breweries have a some eighty beer producers. include using a Batman-style light projec- computer geek on staff specifically for What’s more, the upstart brewery’s tor to cast a towering Ninkasi logo onto social networking,” says Floyd, who used Total Domination IPA is the top-selling prominent buildings. MySpace in the brewery’s early days to twenty-two-ounce bottled beer in the state. All the touting, twitting, and bat-lighting connect with pubs, music venues, bands, And in the Eugene-Springfield area, have helped propel Ninkasi’s production and fans. Ninkasi products are available on draft or growth from 2,200 barrels in 2007 to 7,800 Today Gibbs continuously nurtures in bottles at almost 90 percent of the busi- barrels in 2008, then to 17,000 barrels in Ninkasi’s expanding online neighborhood, nesses where beer is sold, according to the 2009. Floyd expects output to reach 30,000 whether at his office computer or on the brewery. barrels in 2010, and the company is build- road with his iPhone. “I use Facebook as “One of my goals was what I call the ing a facility with 90,000-barrel capacity. my base platform, and I have it set up to ‘Chico-fication’ of Eugene,” says co-owner Brian Butenschoen, executive director post back to Twitter,” Gibbs says. He also Jamie Floyd ’94, who studied sociology at of the Oregon Brewers Guild, describes receives alerts when anyone writes about the UO. “You go to Chico [California], and Ninkasi’s ascent as “phenomenal . . . A Ninkasi on those sites or elsewhere on the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company is part number of other breweries have opened web. “Some people don’t even know we of the identity of the people. If Bend and up in the last ten years, but none that has have a Twitter feed, and I can go directly Hood River and Newport are all going to grown like Ninkasi.” to them, answer their question, and get have these big regional breweries, too, it’s As a result, “we’re seeing sales and mar- them in the loop.” cool that we can provide that for Eugene.” keting teams at other breweries trying to Almost 6,000 people are fans of But the hoppy hubbub that radiates copy us,” Floyd claims. “That’s the biggest Ninkasi on Facebook (www.facebook.com/ from the Whiteaker-neighborhood brew- compliment we can get at our young age, ninkasibrewing) and some 1,600 follow it house also has spawned burgeoning beer that the big dogs are afraid of us.” on Twitter (twitter.com/ninkasi). They sales across Oregon, Washington, Idaho, In a small office next to a new tasting receive updates regarding new beers, tast- and Alaska. Along with Total Domination, room, James Book and Winter Gibbs ’09 ing events, concerts by sponsored bands, Ninkasi’s Believer Double Red Ale and spend their days brewing buzz via Face- and more. Tricerahops Double IPA are among the top book, Twitter, and rock ’n’ roll. Sometimes Ninkasi mobilizes its fifteen in the nation in the category of new Book, Ninkasi’s marketing director, followers to wield influence in the real bottled craft beers, according to supermar- tasted the rock-star life as bass player in world—say, to ask en masse for its beers ket scan data. his former band, The Flys, which scored a at a certain bar—and in cyberspace. Last Floyd and partner Nikos Ridge have top-five hit in 1998 with “Got You (Where November, fans helped convince blogger bucked the odds in an industry saturated I Want You).” Today he owns topsecret, a Jay Brooks (brookstonbeerbulletin.com) in competition for tap handles and shelf record label and production company. At that Ninkasi belonged on his list of the past space, but on their side is a buzz-marketing a studio in the brewery’s new offices, Book decade’s top ten new breweries. machine that pumps out swells of growth. also will record, produce, and promote Social networking yields tangible mar-

46 OREGON QUARTERLY | SPRING 2 0 1 0 Old Oregon | News of UO Alumni

Ninkasi co-owners Nikos Ridge and Jamie Floyd at the Skinner Butte basalt columns illuminated with Ninkasi logo spotlight

keting advantages for the brewery, too, Sheehan and O’Leary also urge busi- such as the detailed fan demographics “We started our ness owners to take certain marketing risks in Facebook’s weekly “Insights” report. business right to ferment positive word of mouth for their “When we enter a new marketplace, we can brands. track the relative consciousness and vibe,” around the rise of Floyd and his agents of buzz face and use that to decide when to invest in some risk as they slink around darkened print advertising or sponsorships, Floyd social networking cityscapes, fire up a portable generator, and explains. use their spotlight to turn night to Ninkasi. “We started our business right around . . . and there’s an “We’re not invading anybody’s space, but the rise of social networking . . . and there’s there’s a certain amount of ‘could we get an argument that there’s no way we could argument that thrown in jail for this?’ We’re gonna darn have broken the 15,000-barrel barrier in well find out,” Floyd says, laughing. “We’re under four years without this sort of tool.” there’s no way we going to stay as creative as possible in our Kim Sheehan, professor of advertising could have broken marketing techniques.” in the School of Journalism and Commu- Inspired and persistent marketing tac- nication, coauthored a 2008 book, Build- the 15,000-barrel tics, write Sheehan and O’Leary, are like ing Buzz to Beat the Big Boys, with Steve “bonfires that you build to light the way to O’Leary ’69. In it, they advise small busi- barrier in under four your store.” ness owners how to harness the power of Soon, a giant “N” might slice through word of mouth. years without this the night and land on the side of San Fran- Consumers today want more informa- cisco’s Transamerica Pyramid, lighting the tion, control, and choice, and businesses sort of tool.” way to Ninkasi for a new Northern Califor- can serve these needs with an online com- nia customer base. And anyone passing by munity that fosters dialogue, the authors from the honesty of it, and people feel like with an iPhone will be able to tap the buzz note. they have played a part in our growth. The with the latest in mobile Ninkasi-fication— Engaging customers in this way has beer is good, but we’re involved in their the official Ninkasi app, new for 2010. boosted Ninkasi, Floyd says. “We benefit lives.” —Joel Gorthy ’98 Michael Kevin Daly

THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON 47 Old Oregon | News of UO Alumni

Student Alumni Association Launched, Gaining Momentum Students getting involved, learning, giving back

arissa Surace knows how a bad paint job can bring out her true colors. Upon seeing the Skinner Butte “O” smothered in orange Con the eve of the 2009 Civil War football clash—likely the handiwork of some merry pranksters from Corvallis—the UO junior led a small but determined flock of Ducks up the hill with a few gallons of yellow paint to set things right. This wasn’t just a case of Beaver pest control though. (The UO football squad took care of that on the gridiron, thank you very much.) It was the UO Student Alumni Association (SAA) at work, keeping Eugene yellow and green. If you ever ventured into the campus Duck Store during the week of a home football game last season, you might have seen people swarming a makeshift stand to pick up “Beat T-shirts” (as in “Beat USC,” and so on). Those in the crowd, too, were members of the SAA, at once snagging a perk of membership and showing their school colors. Promoting school spirit, however, is only part of SAA’s mission. Regan Middleton- Moreland ’05, assistant director for student and alumni relations, says SAA was formed to unite current students with the UO Alumni Association and also to teach them the importance of private donations to the funding of a university education. Student Alumni Association member Carissa Surace, roller in hand, braves chilly Although less than a year old, the orga- December weather to restore the “O” atop Skinner Butte to its rightful color. nization already boasts 900 dues-paying members and has made a mark on campus Amy Lodholz ’05 spoke on a Duck about it. Ever since then, I’ve thought about by taking on key roles in some established panel about her experiences as the vol- Habitat for Humanity more and more.” programs. unteer coordinator for the Newberg Area SAA will soon offer its members an For example, SAA recruits speakers for Habitat for Humanity. “I was happy I had even more direct way to connect with UO a Career Center–sponsored panel series come,” she recalls. “A number of young graduates, called Duck-to-Duck mentor- called “So You Want My Job.” These “Duck girls—and my profession is primarily ing. Students will be able to e-mail alums panels” bring UO alums back to campus women—came up to me with big, glowing for career advice, schedule an informa- to talk about their careers—and the often- eyes, who wanted to do what I did.” tional interview about their profession, or ssociation A

ni unforeseen directions their career paths Carissa Surace attended the panel and even shadow them at work to experience m

lu have taken. “We ask panelists to truly share was infected by Lodholz’s enthusiasm for a “day on the job.” UO grads are already A their stories and give students practical public service. “What I took away [from the lining up to participate. “There are thirty ent d indications of what they’ll find in the real panel] is that you really have to love what mentors in [our] database,” Middleton- tu S world,” says Colleen Lewis, events coordi- you do,” Surace says. “Amy was very pas- Moreland says. nator for the Career Center. sionate, you could tell by the way she talked SAA membership is open to all UO stu- ourtesy C

48 OREGON QUARTERLY | SPRING 2 0 1 0 Old Oregon | News of UO Alumni

dents for a one-time dues payment. When recruiting members, Middleton-Moreland pitches a fact that’s central to the other part of SAA’s mission: private donations cover a You manage large and increasing percentage of the cost of a student’s UO education. To this end, information. SAA’s next big act will be challenging the student alumni group at Oregon State to a AIM helps you fundraising civil war, through the use of an Internet search engine called GoodSearch. master it. Like a philanthropic cousin of Google, GoodSearch allows computer users to The University of Oregon designate a school or nonprofit organiza- Applied Information Man- tion to receive a portion of its advertising agement Master’s Degree revenue. In other words, UO students (and blends flexible scheduling alumni, see sidebar) can raise money for the UO by doing what they already do any- with a practical, applied way, surfing the Internet. approach to managing GoodSearch claims that “500 people information. Fully online. searching four times a day will earn around $7,300 in a year.” If that’s true, then 900 http://aim.uoregon.edu SAA members can raise a tidy sum for the UO. And if they can encourage all 23,000 UO students to do the same? Well, SAA doesn’t reach that far yet, but you get the idea. They’re thinking big. In the meantime, count on the Skin- EO/AA/ADA institution committed to cultural diversity. © 2010 University of Oregon ner Butte “O” to be in good hands. As Middleton-Moreland says, “It’s up to SAA to keep it yellow.” All the orange paint in Corvallis says they can do it. —Dana Magliari, M.A. ’98

How to Get Involved

Inspire Interested in being on a Duck panel and sharing your wisdom and advice with UO students? The Career Declare your Center would like to hear from you. Con- tact Colleen Lewis at [email protected] devotion to the or call 541-346-6016. Ducks while you Mentor To learn details about becoming a mentor to a UO student, fund academic scholarships. contact Regan Middleton-Moreland at [email protected] or visit: www (Warning: May induce nostalgia, chest-thumping pride .uoalumni.com/saa/mentoring. and constant whistling of the fight song.) Give (at no cost to you!) Help SAA beat the Beavers by making GoodSearch your Internet search engine. Visit www Who are you rooting for this season? .goodsearch.com and enter University of Oregon as your beneficiary. One hun- Visit us at uoalumni.com for details. dred and fifty thousand UO alumni can License plate illustrated for promotional purposes only. Vanity plates not available. raise $1 million per year.

THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON 49 Old Oregon | News of UO Alumni

Dentist Alfresco The Boy Scout slogan—“Do a good turn daily”—inspires a Eugene dentist to assist Cascade Medical Team with health care in rural Guatemala.

illions of young people enjoy Scouting activities every year, but many leave the organization and its do-good reputation behindM as they become adults. Others, like Dr. Tom Macready ’69, take the Boy Scout oath to heart and incorporate that helping philosophy into a lifetime of volunteer activities. Each spring since 2005, Macready has packed his dental tools and trekked to tiny villages in Guatemala with the Cascade Medical Team. Setting up where space is available, Macready offers his healing skills to the poverty-stricken Mayan people who live in the area. Sometimes there’s a school room or patio available for Macready’s use. Other times, a lawn is the best space available. “My first day working down there, my assistant kept laughing at me,” he says. “I kept reaching up, trying to adjust my light . . . but it was the sun! I saw fifty-four people that day, and probably pulled 125 to 150 teeth.” Living in one of the poorest Latin American nations, Guatemala’s citizens have endured decades of military occupation and civil war, which contributed to the unavailability of medical and dental care. “Imagine an area the size of Eugene- Springfield with only four or five doctors to support the entire population,” says Macready. “That might be an equivalent. And, poor? Extended families, twelve or thirteen people, living in a dirt-floor, one- Despite primitive conditions, difficult travel, and armed guerrillas, volunteers room shack made of cornstalks and a few such as Dr. Tom Macready take their medical skills to needy rural people. bricks. Just a little piece of ground to grow a few crops. They’re just barely surviving.” of volunteers bunk and work in a former services. “There are still guerrilla gangs in Affiliated with the international non- military base—think cement-block build- some areas,” says Macready, “so we have profit organization Helps International, ings and bare concrete floors. Dormitories armed guards to escort us.” Cascade Medical Team (CMT) was formed house the volunteers, and a gymnasium Due to lack of infrastructure, water in 2002 to provide all-volunteer medi- provides room for cooking, meetings, and contamination is rampant in rural Gua- cal and community development assis- meals. Operating rooms, clinic areas, and temala. In some areas, Macready says, tance to Guatemala’s rural population. pharmacy are all equipped with materials bottled water may be more expensive than Hauling mountains of duffel bags stuffed donated by suppliers or purchased with the soda pop purchased in two-liter bottles. with medical equipment, CMT volun- proceeds from CMT’s fundraising events. “You’ll see little kids walking around with teers depart from airports throughout the Clad in brightly colored, traditional a plastic bag full of pop with a straw stuck y d United States to meet in Guatemala City. A hand-woven clothing, the hundreds of in it. The amount of advanced dental decay convoy of buses ferries the team and provi- patients travel miles on rutted roads, arriv- we see is staggering. We see children with Macrea

m sions eighty-five miles over winding moun- ing at Solola on foot or by bus. And for the huge holes in baby teeth. We see young o T tain roads to a location outside the town many patients who can’t travel, Macready adults missing many of their permanent of Solola, headquarters for CMT’s five-day and other medical professionals are guided teeth.” Macready and the other dentists mission. There, the hundred-plus crew to tiny, isolated villages to provide their provide toothbrushes and basic dental ourtesy Dr. C

50 OREGON QUARTERLY | SPRING 2 0 1 0 Old Oregon | News of UO Alumni

UO Alumni Calendar water purifier systems to ease the clean- Go to uoalumni.com/events “ The amount of water shortage. for detailed information Macready says he receives from the advanced dental Guatemalans a simple and sincere grati- tude. Mayan customs are quite conserva- March 20 decay we see is tive—Americans are even asked to avoid Northern California Chapter staggering. We see wearing shorts and showing affection in public. “But sometimes I’ll finish a proce- Day at the Races children with huge dure, and the patient will turn and give me Golden Gate Fields a big hug; I know that’s hard for them. They Berkeley, California holes in baby teeth. sometimes return later with a small gift, a April 27 We see young adults woven purse or necklace they have made.” Bend Music Fest Seeing that gracious generosity in Bend the midst of debilitating poverty is what missing many of their keeps Macready on the Cascade Medical May 11 permanent teeth.” Team’s roster of returning professionals. Medford Music Fest “I tell people, ‘sure, I have never worked Medford so hard in my life, but really, I think I’m May 14–15 hygiene education, “. . . and it’s amazing, still trying to be an Eagle Scout,’” he says. Class of 1955 Reunion since the first couple of years we did that, “I’ve also been a [volunteer] scoutmaster Celebration we’ve seen a marked improvement in these for thirty-five years, and ‘Do a good turn Eugene people already. They don’t want to hurt; daily’ is the Scout slogan. That’s a lifelong they just didn’t know how to prevent it.” commitment. I followed the Scout oath and He says that providing clean water also law today, but I have to do it tomorrow, too. makes a big difference: CMT now sends So, I’m still trying . . . .” volunteers who are trained to install simple —Katherine Gries ’05, M.A. ’09

THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON 51 Old Oregon | News of UO Alumni

Oregon’s First Track-and-Field Superstar Dan Kelly dashed his way into the book of world records.

n June 23, 1906, running under the colors of the Mult- nomah Athletic Club of Port- land (as UO runners did in those days), ODan Kelly ’08 broke world records in both the 100-yard and 220-yard dashes at the same track meet in Spokane, Washington. And in between the two events he won the broad jump. Then, at the 1908 Olympics in London, England, Kelly won a silver medal in the broad jump as a member of the United States track-and-field team. Overseeing these victories was famed track coach Bill Hayward, namesake of the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field. Daniel James Kelly was born September 1, 1883, in Pueblo, Colorado, and moved with his Irish Catholic family to Baker City. Kelly grew up working in his father’s black- 1907 University of Oregon track-and-field team. Dan Kelly is at the right smith and wagon-making shop. After he end of the middle row. Coach Bill Hayward is in the middle of back row. became famous as the king of the 100-yard dash, newspaper articles made much of his (Hayward had become the UO’s head track tion record, and then went without cooling small-town roots, including his blacksmith and basketball coach in 1904, and coached off right out on the track and equaled the and horseshoeing experience. at Oregon for forty-four years.) American amateur record in the 220-yard By the time Kelly graduated from Baker At the May 18, 1906, track meet be- dash, doing the distance in 21 1/5.” High School in 1904, he had no doubt set tween the UO and Oregon Agricultural What the reporter didn’t know at the BHS track records for the 100-, 220-, and College (OSU), Kelly accounted for 18 time was that Kelly had broken the world 440-yard distances, plus high jump and points in the UO’s 76–46 victory. The record in the 100-yard dash. It wasn’t until broad jump. News articles described Kelly sports editor of The Oregonian called Kel- November 1906 that the Amateur Ath- as “red-headed” and “freckled-faced,” five ly’s performance “little short of wonderful.” letic Union (AAU) certified Kelly’s time as feet ten-and-one-half inches tall, and Kelly tied the world 100‑yard dash record a world-record-breaking 9 3/5 seconds. In weighing 150 pounds. A New York Times in 9 4/5 seconds, ran the 220-yard dash in those days, runners competed in primitive reporter wrote, “He is rather stockily built 22 4/5 seconds, and jumped 24 feet 2 1/4 running shoes on tracks of grass or cinders, and hardly impresses the casual observer inches, making him one of only three and without the help of starting blocks. as a sprinter, but second glance shows the American broad jumpers to exceed 24 feet, Coach Hayward correctly predicted rchives A wonderful development of his legs, which and tied for first place in the high jump at that Kelly’s new record would stand for a furnishes him with his great speed.” 5 feet 2 inches. The reporter predicted, long time: no one broke it until Eddie Tolan niversity

U Kelly spent his first post–high school “Kelly should develop into a world-beater.” clocked 9 1/2 seconds twenty-three years d year at Columbia University, a Catholic When Bill Hayward started coaching later. institution, today’s University of Portland. Kelly, his star as a track coach had yet to Kelly never again ran a 9.6-second 100. During his year there, Kelly played football ascend. That changed on June 23, 1906, at a In the summer of 1907, he was the favorite

ollections an but made his lasting mark in track by set- track meet in Spokane. “Dan Kelly, the phe- to win the 100 at the AAU national cham- C ting school records in the 50-, 100-, and nomenal boy athlete from the University of pionships in Jamestown, Virginia. The sul- pecial

S 220-yard dashes, plus competing in the Oregon, was the hero of the day,” wrote a try heat took its toll on Kelly, who, under shot put and hammer throw. One reporter sports reporter. “This husky, freckle‑faced Hayward’s watchful eye, finished in fifth described him as “almost the whole team.” youth, who hails from Baker City, Oregon, place in the 100 and failed to finish the 220. ibraries – L In the fall of 1905, Kelly transferred to breasted the tape in the 100-yard dash in But he didn’t come away empty-handed. Eugene to study law at the University of regon 9 3/5 seconds . . . beating the American He won the broad jump with a leap of 23 O Oregon, where he was a halfback on the amateur record. He won the broad jump feet 11 inches, the best jump by an AAU football team and a standout sprinter and with an astounding leap of 23 feet 9 1/2 athlete in 1907, making Kelly Oregon’s first broad jumper under Hayward’s tutelage. inches, breaking the Northwest Associa- national champion. niversity of U

52 OREGON QUARTERLY | SPRING 2 0 1 0 Old Oregon | News of UO Alumni

What the reporter the United States, Oregonian reporter W. which led to blows and the biting by Hol- J. Petrain accompanied Kelly, Gilbert, and lister, who fled from the police and is still didn’t know at the Smithson from New York City to Oregon missing.” via train sending dispatches about their The next, much sadder news story time was that Kelly welcome along the way as national heroes. about Kelly appeared in the Baker City President Theodore Roosevelt shook their Evening Herald April 9, 1920. The head- had broken the world hands. line read, “Dan Kelly, Renowned Athlete, In June 1909, a headline proclaimed, Well Known Baker Boy is Dead.” Around record in the 100- “Kelly’s Career is Ended.” Hayward 1918 Kelly had set off to work as a logger in announced that Kelly was laid up with a the woods near Fernie, British Columbia. It yard dash. badly sprained ankle. A news story about was from Fernie that his parents received a “the famous red-haired sprinter” lamented, telegram with news that their son Dan had In June 1908, Kelly telegraphed his par- “The news of Kelly’s injury comes as a blow died April 8 of pneumonia. His body was ents from New York: “Chosen for Olym- to the sporting fraternity of the Northwest.” returned to Baker for burial. pic team. Sail for England June 25.” Coach Out of the sports limelight and back in The University of Oregon has Hayward accompanied Kelly and two other Baker City, Kelly returned to work in his enshrined Kelly’s name in its Athletic Oregon athletes to London. Their events: father’s blacksmith and farm implements Hall of Fame: “In 1907, Dan Kelly became Kelly, broad jump; Albert C. Gilbert, 110- shop. Six years later, in March, 1914, he Oregon’s first NCAA (then called Amateur meter hurdles; and Forrest C. Smithson, again made headlines in The Oregonian: Athletic Union) All-American in the long pole vault. The trio of Oregonians fared “Dan Kelly Fights, Is Bitten. Fast Sprinter jump. Since then, more than 300 Oregon well. Kelly received a silver medal with Loses End of Finger in Saloon Brawl track-and-field stars have followed in his a running jump of 23 feet 3 1/4 inches; at Baker.” Kelly, still dressed as an Irish footsteps.” In 1980, Kelly was in the first Gilbert won gold with a vault of 12 feet comedian after having participated in a group of nine track-and-field athletes 2 inches; and Smithson also earned gold Saint Patrick’s Day theatrical, and Hollis- inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of and set a world record running the 110- ter Bulger, who had both been drinking, Fame and Museum, located in Portland. meter hurdles in 15 seconds flat. Back in “quarreled as to Kelly’s ability as an actor, —Gary Dielman

Why Membership Matters • Whether you’re interested in • If you’re looking for money saving • Membership matters. Your involvement networking, hearing lectures from benefits, the cost of your membership helps the UOAA continue to support UO professors, athletics, staying can easily be paid for by taking legislative advocacy for higher connected with a monthly enewsletter, advantage of Duck Deals. Save at education, put on engaging events, travel, volunteering or the arts, there’s places you shop, including Costco, connect alumni, recruit new students something for every Duck. T-Mobile, Hertz Car Rental, hotels, to the UO, and offer mentoring restaurants and much more. opportunities to current students. • The UOAA has chapters and events all over the world, including Lane County, • And what’s even better is that your • Show your support for the University of Portland, Puget Sound, California and UOAA membership is 80% tax Oregon and be a part of the UOAA. beyond. As a member, you can be a part deductible! of the UO no matter where you live!

THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON 53 University of Oregon Alumni

n INDICATES UOAA MEMBER

1940s Jacqueline (Burdick) Duffy ’44 wrote in to answer our call for 1940s grads. She is still alive and well in paradise, she writes, living in sunny Sarasota, Florida. Donald Shaffer ’48, a member of Sigma Nu fraternity, married a Chi Omega, Elaine Taylor ’47, sixty-one years ago. Congratulations! 1950s Frank K. Walsh ’51, M. Ed. ’65, is a member of an advisory team working to reestablish the Sawmill Tribal Trail, a historic trail between North Bend and the Empire district of Coos Bay, which was originally used by Coos Indians and then workers at the Asa Simpson Sawmill and Shipyard in North Bend. Oregon Coast Council for the Arts named John H. Baker ’56, M.F.A. ’66, the 2009 Community Legend. Baker, a member of Delta Tau Delta fraternity, and his wife, Carol, raised three children, Gordon, Larry, and Ellen Franklin ’07 in Lincoln City. n Alan C. Brunk ’59, a painter, and his wife Jane, a quilter, own the Twosome Art Studio in Toutle, Washington, a stop on the ARTrails of Southwest Washington tour. 1960s Martin Scheffer ’61, M.S. ’63, has published In Post-Commu- nist Worlds: Living and Teaching in Estonia, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan (iUniverse 2009) about his four-year, four- CLASS NOTABLE country experience as a visiting professor in the former Soviet Union. Scheffer and his wife, Judy, enjoy an active Happy 105th Birthday! In November, Flavia Marie (Ritter) Sherwood ’27 celebrated her retirement split between travel, gardening, and grandchil- 105th birthday. A music major in the days of the lindy hop, she still loves music, dancing, dren at their home in Nampa, Idaho. NASCAR racing, and reading OQ. Alaby Blivet ’63 and wife Sara Lee Cake ’45 recently traveled to Ukiah, California, to compete in the eighth annual ukiaHaiku festival. “ukiaHaiku?” said Blivet. “Weird, spell it backwards . . . it’s still . . . ,” he paused, meditatively stroking Holistic health pioneer Mahima R. Kundu, M. Ed. ’66, Ph. D. his wispy beard, “ukiaHaiku.” ’67, retired to a career as a consultant and lecturer in yoga science, holistic heath, and life management. Kundu is a 1970s “Sisters Rodeo,” a painting by n Joe M. Fischer, M.F.A. ’63, frequent guest lecturer on cruise ships. James Kelley ’70, M.Ed. ’71, wrote Cyclotron Factor (Blue- was acquired by John Laevitt, past president of the Sisters water Press, 2009), a preteen novel about Buddy Alexander, n Rodeo Association. Margie McBride Lehrman ’66, a member of Kappa who visits a government-run particle accelerator where he Alpha Theta sorority, won an Emmy as part of the NBC gains the capacity to travel backward and forward in time, Terry Melton, M.F.A. ’64, reports that, unlike Joe M. Fischer, news team selected for its 2008 election-night coverage. leading to many crazy adventures as he learns to use and M.F.A. ’63, he has sold nary a painting this quarter. After thirty years at NBC, Lehrman retired in June. misuse this ability.

54 OREGON QUARTERLY | Sp r i ng 2 0 1 0 ClassNotes | UO Alumni

The Gaian Odes (Evening Street Press, 2009), the fourth a fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architecture. Lila Marz Harper, Ph.D. ’96, edited a Broadway edition of book of poems by Howard W. Robertson ’70, M.A. ’78, Edwin Abbott’s mathematical fantasy, Flatland: A Romance won the Sinclair Prize for Poetry. Annette Gurdjian ’84 won the Mayor’s Choice Award in of Many Dimensions, originally published in 1884. (See the 2009 Mayor’s Art Show in Eugene for “Pioneer Couple,” Upfront section.) Philip (“Mike”) Reilly ’71, a former Bowerman runner, a composition of oil and photographs on paper. writes in to report that his son, Mike, directed the dramatic Portland lawyer Diane Schwartz Sykes ’97 is the new film Road to Victory, which deals with concussions and David J. Tangvald ’89, a member of Sigma Chi fraternity, leader of the Oregon Department of Justice civil rights the allegations of steroid abuse in college football. is the president of the Portland Metropolitan Association program. of Realtors and a branch manager for Prudential Northwest Marel (Pander-Lynch) Kalyn ’72, M.F.A. ’79, taught paper- Properties. Heather Moye Schader ’98 works in public relations and making and book arts for twenty-five years before undertak- marketing with the Tempe, Arizona-based Pat Tillman Foun- ing her latest adventure as a certified activities facilitator dation, which was founded in memory of Tillman, a former with older adults. Her two sons, artists Jacob and Arnold NFL player with the Arizona Cardinals who enlisted in the Pander, shot a feature film, Selfless, in Portland. The film 1990s aftermath of 9/11 and was killed while serving the U.S. Army has received several awards, and will be shown on Michael Jordan ’90 is a senior vice president with the pro- in Afghanistan. Schader has been working in marketing for Comcast On-Demand in 2010. fessional services firm Jones Lang LaSalle, where he heads almost a decade. n John (“Jack”) Minan, J.D. ’72, professor of law at the Uni- the corporate energy and sustainability services business. versity of San Diego, has coauthored The Little White Book Jordan and his wife Kim are raising their four sons in West of Baseball Law (ABA, 2009), which examines the rules Linn. 2000s of the game as well as actual cases involving issues Henry A. Ebarb, J.D. ’92, earned a Ph.D. in sustainability such as player free agency, fan misbehavior, new sta- Inspired by a business class project at the UO, Matt education from Prescott College at the age of sixty-nine. dium construction, and ticket scalping. Thomas ’02 started Townshends Tea, a tea company based in Portland. Brian Kelly ’92 has been editor of the South Whidbey Record David A. Sonnenfeld ’73 coedited his third book, The Eco- newspaper of Whidbey Island, Washington, for five years. logical Modernization Reader: Environmental Reform in Cassandra Manuelito-Kerkuliet, Ph.D. ’05, is president of The paper won fifteen state awards from the Washington Theory and Practice (Routledge, 2009), a volume aimed Seattle’s Antioch University. Newspaper Association in October. at classroom, scholarly, and policymaking audiences. n Jessica (Gilbert) Ryder ’06, a kindergarten teacher, Sonnenfeld is a professor and chair of the environmen- Marcy Jean Everest, Ph.D. ’94, cowrote Commonsense married Bradley Ryder, a California Highway Patrol officer, tal studies department at the State University of New Guide to Current Affairs (Pickwick Publications, 2009) with in June 2009 at Black Butte Ranch in Sisters. The couple is York College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Vincent Frank Bedgone. Everest and her family live in cen- making their home in San Jose, California. Syracuse. tral Florida. Sally-Shannon Scales ’07 is the television adviser for the Ruth Tiger ’75 wrote The Away Place (Eloquent Books, Edward Sean Foxley ’94 received his Ph.D. in medical phys- United States Senate office of Republican leader Senator 2009), a poignant story of a special bond between a ics from the University of Chicago in 2008. Mitch McConnell. man with Down syndrome and an idealistic doctoral student. Tiger lives with her husband, children, and grandchildren in Tacoma, Washington. Lynne M. Webb ’75, Ph.D. ’80, a member of Delta Delta Delta sorority, is spending the spring semester 2010 as visiting professor in communication at Hong Kong Baptist University. After careers in banking and with the Lane County government, Susan Huff ’77 has spent the past nine years mer- chandising with Prologix in Sacramento, California. John Harrison, M.A. ’78, a public information officer for the Northwest Power and Conservation Council in Port- land, wrote A Woman Alone: Mona Bell, Sam Hill, and the Mansion on Bonneville Rock (Frank Amato Publications, 2009). Harrison and his wife, Dawn Ohrling Harrison’74, an elder-law attorney in Vancouver, raised two sons, John and Andrew. Denyse McGriff, M.S. ’78, M.U.P. ’79, has been elected to the Board of Advisors of the National Trust for Historic Preserva- tion. McGriff, who lives in Oregon City, will serve as advisor to the national nonprofit preservation organization for an initial three-year term. Rosanna Bowles, M.A. ’79, has published Coming Home: A Seasonal Guide to Celebrating Family Traditions (Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 2010), which former UO president Dave Frohnmayer called “an immensely practical book with a wonderfully poetic feel.” n Rob Closs ’79 is vice president of investments with Wells Fargo Advisors in Portland. He also provides color commentary during televised Oregon Sports Network coverage of UO men’s and women’s basketball games. 1980s Landscape architect James Peter “JP” Shadley ’83 of Shadley Associates in Lexington, Massachusetts, became

EEQUALQUAL HOUSING HOUSING OPPOROPPORTUNITYTUNITY

T H E M A G A Z I NE OF THE UN I VERS I TY OF OREGON 55 ClassNotes | UO Alumni

n Alisha Wimberly ’09 is the owner, manager, and nutri- and later served as the executive officer on the USS Pinola Cornelia Fogle ’58, formerly of Springfield, died at home tionist at KORU Health Center in Eugene. during the Korean War. Anderson moved to Olympia, Wash- in Ashland at the age of seventy-three due to Lou Gehrig’s ington, where he began a successful career in real estate. disease. While attending the University, Fogle worked as Later, he started Charles Anderson and Associates, a real the features editor at the Oregon Daily Emerald. For almost In Memoriam estate appraisal company. Nicknamed “Skipper,” he enjoyed thirty-five years, Fogle worked with Lane Publishing Com- Kenneth W. Cole ’38, a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon frater- sharing his passion for boating and his intimate knowledge pany and Sunset magazine in Menlo Park, California. Since nity, died at the age of ninety-three. After serving in the U.S. of the local waters, gained over a lifetime of cruising from retiring in 1995, Fogle immersed herself in her passions: Army as a first lieutenant during World War II, Cole worked Puget Sound to Alaska. gardening, cooking, and travel. as both a certified public accountant and a member of the Eugene native Roy Lincoln Smith ’50 died recently from Patricia A. Rogers, M.A. ’63, former associate director for Oregon State Bar. heart disease. After serving in the U.S. Army Signal corps the Department of Physical Education, Athletics, and Rec- Barbara Lois (Ketchum) Proebstel ’38, a member of Alpha during World War II, he married Louise Rickabaugh ’45 reation at the State University of New York, Albany, died in Omicron Pi sorority, died at age ninety-two. Ketchum mar- and had a twenty-five-year career with Gerber Products August. ried Richard D. Proebstel and later became an active Cub Company in Eugene. Smith was a member of Toastmasters Bruce H. Clark ’67 died at age sixty-three due to prostate Scout den mother with their son John’s group. After her International and Trinity United Methodist Church. He was a cancer. Clark was a real estate investor and a lover of the husband died in 1960, Ketchum Proebstel worked for nearly devoted member of the Emerald Empire Gun Club and held arts. In 1979, he set up an endowment fund for the Eugene a decade as an elementary school librarian. She enjoyed a national record in cast-bullet shooting. Symphony that has grown to more than $2 million today. spending time with her family as well as playing bridge. Edward Ragozzino ’53, M.A. ’57, died January 30 of can- Charles “Chuck” Anderson ’47, a member of Kappa Sigma, Poet and Boise State University professor Anthony Thomas cer at age seventy-nine. A Navy veteran who served in the Trusky ’67 died at age sixty-five. Trusky’s four decades of died from postpolio syndrome at the age of eighty-five. Korean War, Ragozzino taught theater at South Eugene Anderson served in World War II on a submarine chaser service at BSU included founding and editing cold-drill mag- High School for twelve years. A national television and radio azine, the university’s award-winning literary publication, voice-over talent, he was the founder and head of the per- from 1974 until 1995 and directing the Idaho Film Collection In Memoriam Policy forming arts department at Lane Community College for and the Idaho Center for the Book. One of his many lasting All “In Memoriam” submissions must be nearly two decades and founder, director, and producer of legacies was initiating the BSU master’s program in creative accompanied by a copy of a newspaper the Eugene Festival of Musical Theater. writing in 1998. Students and colleagues alike remember obituary or funeral home notice. Editors Albert A. Cohen ’56, a member of Phi Kappa Psi, died at Trusky for the outstanding energy and creativity that he reserve the right to edit for space and the age of seventy-four. He worked for Alaskan Copper and exuded and inspired in others. clarity. Send to Oregon Quarterly, In Brass in Seattle for more than twenty years, selling stain- Memoriam, 5228 University of Oregon, Isabelle C. Littman, Ph.D. ’71, child and educational psy- less steel pipe and fittings until retirement in 2000. He is Eugene OR 97403-5228. E-mail to quarterly chologist, died at the age of eighty-nine in November. survived by his wife, Judy (Johnson) Cohen ’59, a member @uoregon.edu. of Delta Gamma, a son, and two grandsons. Continued on page 58

56 OREGON QUARTERLY | Sp r i ng 2 0 1 0 The ultimate recognition of achievement.

Introducing the official University of Oregon Chronometer.

Until now, a class ring or uninspired quartz watch were the only jewelry items available for someone wishing to make a statement about the pride they feel in the University of Oregon. Created by an Oregon alumnus, To order your University of Oregon timepiece, visit: this serious, limited-edition timepiece is totally unique, and made in www.duckwristwatch.com Europe from the finest materials available to last a lifetime. It makes an or call eloquent birthday or graduation gift, or a significant reward for your own 1.800.858.6037 accomplishments. One that can be enjoyed every day.

T H E M A G A Z I NE OF THE UN I VERS I TY OF OREGON 57

duck_oquarterly_ad_full_r1_2.indd 1 2/17/10 1:39 PM ClassNotes | UO Alumni

CLASS NOTES Continued

Littman worked at Eugene’s Pearl Buck Center, where she established and ran a preschool program for children with special needs. She was active in political, professional, and community groups devoted to improving the lives of young How Class Notes happen . . . people, inside and outside of educational institutions. Patricia Mulder ’72, M.A. ’74, former executive director of and how YOU can participate the Corvallis Chamber of Commerce, died at age sixty-two. She was active with the First Presbyterian Church in Corval- Class Notes are an easy way to lis, where she was the administrator in charge of building and finances. ClassNotes | UO Alumni let your UO friends (long lost and Oranje-Nassau for his contribution to Dutch society in the Jeff Dow ’88, M.S. ’91, head women’s basketball coach at endeavor on behalf of his staff at Heath Korvola Photo- fields of business, arts, and landscaping. The mayor of the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, coached his team to graphic. The project supports a selected nonprofit organi- municipality of Aa en Hunze awarded the honorRonald on behalf their third consecutive Meade conference championship. ’76, Dow’s zationM.S. with powerful ’77,visual media. This died year’s recipient, the in March 2009 of colon otherwise) know what you’re up of the Queen at a ceremony in Sythoff’s home in Anloo, The team was ranked nineteenth in the Women’s Basketball Network of Young People Affected by War (NYPAW), works Netherlands. Sythoff says UO “professors Stuart Rich, Gerry Coaches Association’s top twenty-five poll. to help children whose lives have been derailed by the Albaum, Norman Smith, and James Reinmuth contributed horrors of warfare. Korvola and a producer, assistant, and greatly to my career and I am very thankful forcancer their wise at the age of cinematographerfifty-four. will spend a week working Meade with NYPAW worked in the finan- lessons in business administration.” to put a new face on the image of child-soldiers and the young people affected by war. to, where you’ve ended up, or who University of Oregon Alumni 1990s cial industryRachel Wallins Guberman ’91 wasin promoted Portland, to director Molly (Winter) Ringlewhere ’96, a member of Delta he Delta Delta, lived with his partner of 1970s of global human resources at Ketchum Public Relations in has written The Ghost Downstairs (The Wild Rose Press, Manhattan, New York. Guberman lives with her husband 2009), a novel that takes place in a haunted former sorority n INDICATES UOAA MEMBER Judy Nedry ’70 has published An Unholy Alliance (iUniverse and daughter outside of New York City. house, which Ringle says was inspired by her experiences you’ve blossomed into. New job? 2009), a mystery novel set in Oregon’s Newberg-Dundee living in the former Tri Delta house while at the UO. area about an accidental sleuth who finds herselfeighteen involved years. Professor Laurence Musgrove, M.A. ’89, Ph.D. ’92, is head n Janice (Nakata) Modin ’62 has retired after forty-five significant growth in the Oregon Department of Justice, in a wine country murder. of the English department at Angelo State University in San years as a flight attendant and instructor for Northwest placing special emphasis on consumer protection and Angelo, Texas. Gary W. Studebaker, D.Ed. ’74, has published a new book 1930s (now Delta) Airlines. Modin lives in Berkeley, California. crime victim services and rights. Retired? Married? Had a child? of poetry titled Piercing Truths (PublishAmerica, 2009), a n The UO Department of Planning, Public Policy and Man- 2000s n Karl S. Landstrom ’30, M.A. ’32, reports his disappoint- Alaby Blivet ’63 traveled to Hangzhou in eastern China n Gary B. Rhodes ’64, senior fellow emeritus with the Cen- series of confrontations with morality and personal chal- agement and its advisory council have honored former “Regatta,” a song by composer and pianist Rebecca ment with the lack of Class Notes sent in by fellow members to view the July 22 total eclipse of the sun. While sitting ter for Creative Leadership and senior partner of Leading lenges. Studebaker’s previous book, Choice Words (Pub- UO student body vice president Karmen Fore ’93 as this Oswald, M.Mus. ’01, was nominated for a 2009 Just Plain of the 1930s decade. Landstrom, who lives in Arlington, Vir- at a bar just after the “mind-blowing” celestial event, he Edge Solutions, coauthored Transforming Your Leadership lishAmerica, 2008), addresses relationships and values. year’s distinguished young alumna. As district director for Folks Song Award in the solo piano category. The ceremony ginia, urges his classmates to speak up! encountered two high-ranking North Korean diplomats, Culture (Jossey-Bass, 2009) with John McGuire. Congressman Peter DeFazio, Fore has extensive campaign will be held on August 29 in Nashville, Tennessee. Good luck! Won an award? Written a book? Accomplished jazz pianist, composer, and producer Dan experience. with whom he shared innumerable bottles of “a devilishly Jacqueline Taylor Basker, M.A. ’66, a professor of art at the Siegel ’76 has released a new album, Sphere. After the potent local brew that tasted faintly of goat.” Blivet turned n Jon Carras ’02 won a 2009 James Beard Award for pro- New York Institute of Technology’s Middle East campus in album, which is Siegel’s nineteenth recording, was released the discussion to Pyongyang’s recent A-bomb detonations, Lane DeNicola ’94 completed a Ph.D. in science and tech- ducing a story called “In a Pinch: The History of Salt” with Amman, Jordan, has been named department chair of the in Japan earlier this year, it remained in the top ten for ten 1940s ballistic missile tests, bellicose rhetoric, “and the resulting nology studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2007 correspondent Martha Teichner for CBS Sunday Morning. fine arts and computer graphics department. weeks. Siegel says he is planning both a EuropeanFaculty and an and has accepted a permanent lectureship in digital anthro- Carras and hisand wife, Lauren, live in Jersey City, New Jersey. Staff international political poostorm” in an ad hoc effort to Hobbies? Volunteer work? Your Yoo-hoo, 1940s grads. Anybody out there? African release of Sphere, as well as a worldwide tour, before pology at University College in London. secure peace on the tension-laden peninsula. “No progress Psychologist Arthur L. Mattocks, Ph.D. ’68, has published the end of the year. Michael D’Ambrosia ’03, an architect in San Diego, Califor- on the nukes,” reports Blivet, “but I came away with Kim How to Create and Maintain an Alien: An Insider’s Look at Photographer and philanthropist Heath Korvola ’96 cre- nia, received the Calvin Family Traveling Fellowship, which Jong Il’s personal recipe for kim chee.” Criminals and Their Culture (Vantage Press, 2008), about his n Mike Ryan ’77, a member of Theta Chi and a principal ated Project Help 2009, which he hopes will be a yearly enables him to spend the summer traveling to Japan and career working with inmates in the California correctional with commercial real estate consulting company Colliers 1950s The UO Department of Planning, Public Policy and Manage- system. Tingey International in Fresno, California, cowrote two UO friends want to know. ment and its advisory council have honored Hardy Myers songs on singer-guitarist Trey Tosh’s latest album, Aiming Harry M. Short ’55 organized the “Vets and Pets Clothing ’64, former Oregon attorney general, for outstanding ser- Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands bestowed Jan ten for the Sun. Donations Drive” to benefit the veterans home in Yount- vice to Oregon. As attorney general, Myers presided over Sythoff ’69, M.B.A ’70, the title of knight in the Order of ville, California, and the Vacaville chapter of the Society for In Memoriam the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA). Short, who is Luckiamut Cathedral, a river painting by artist Dale Draeger semiretired, volunteers at the Leisure Town Homeowners ’78, was selected for the twelfth annual International Soci- Association in Vacaville. ety of Acrylic Painters exhibition in Santa Cruz, California. Where do OQ Class Notes come Sally H. Cohn ’56, a member of Delta Zeta, has started Eva Balderree, M.Ed. ’54, D.Ed. ’70, a member of Alpha Chi a memoir blog, which can be viewed at whistlingsal .blogspot.com. 1980s Vanessa Kokesh Gallant ’82 received the GeorginaOmega Mac- sorority, died in Medford last May. Balderree was Dougall Davis Founders Award from the Seattle chapter of from? We don’t have the staff to 1960s the Association for Women in Communications. The award Declare your is given annually to recipients consistently exhibiting the An acrylic painting entitled “Blue Windows,” created by highest ethics, professional excellence, and personala clinicalcom- psychologistdevotion for Eugene to the public schools and later artist Joe M. Fischer ’60, M.F.A. ’63, is now on display in mitment. the permanent collection of the Longview Public Library scour newspapers, magazines, in Longview, Washington. The UO Department of Planning, Public Policy and Manage- Ducks while you ment and its advisory council have honored Rachel Bristol Patricia Treece ’60 won third place in the biography cat- ’82 as a distinguished alumna. Bristol has workedworked to counter as a professor of special education at the UO. She egory of the 2009 Catholic Press Awards for her book Meet both statewide and national hunger for more than twenty- fund academic scholarships. John XXIII: Joyful Pope and Father to All (Servant Books, 2008). five years. As acting executive director in 1988, Bristol and the Internet to keep up on played a key role in the formation of the Oregon Food Bank, n Since retiring as chairperson of the Environmental Horti- which, under her leadership, was named the mostloved admired to travel(Warning: May and induce nostalgia, took chest-thumping several pride trips around the world. She culture and Forestry Department at City College of San Fran- Oregon nonprofit organization in a statewide survey. cisco six years ago, landscape architect Sidney M. Lewin ’61 Ducks Afiel D and constant whistling of the fight song.) continues to run his landscape architecture and property Oregon green in the Irish Sea Motivational speaker Tyson Wooters ’03 (left) and travel videographer Fire ecologist Michael Medler ’85, M.S. ’90, associate pro- Oregon grads, so we rely on you, management business in San Rafael, California. Lewin and Justin Weiler ’06—former members of the Duck mascot squad—at Peel Castle on St. Patrick’s Isle fessor at Huxley College of the Environmentespecially at Western liked visiting Jagodnaja Poljana, Russia—the wife Barbara are celebrating fifty years of marriage with a off the Isle of Man. Washington University, was awarded a faculty outstand- trip to Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia. ing achievement award. Who are you rooting for this season? In Ducks Afield OQ publishes photos of graduates with UO regalia (hats, T-shirts, flags, and such) Larry L. Lynch ’61, a retired writer in Paso Robles, Cali- in the most distant or unlikely or exotic or lovely places imaginable. We can’t use blurry shots and Cheryl (Bayne) Landis ’86 was nominated andhome selected as of Visither us at ancestors.uoalumni.com for details. our readers, to give us the material fornia, maintains a blog dedicated to the Ontario Argus an associate fellow with the Society for Technical Communi- only high-resolution digital files, prints, or slides will reproduce well in our pages. Send your photo Observer, which his parents operated in the 1950s. cation, an honor celebrating his more than fifteen years of License plate illustrated for promotional purposes only. Vanity plates not available. Check out the website at www.rememberingtheargus along with details and your class year and degree to [email protected]. experience in technical communication. Landis is the owner that we can pass along to recipi- .blogspot.com. of Seattle-based Tabby Cat Communications. Vernon Barkhurst ’49, M.A. ’51, former director of admis- ents of the roughly 100,000 maga- 50 OREGON QUARTERLY | A UTU m N 2 0 0 9 sionsT H E mandAGAZINE OF THEassociate UNIVERSITY OF OREGON dean of students,51 died at age eighty- zines we publish each quarter as seven. After serving in the South Pacific during World War II, Barkhurst was awarded the Purple Heart. He was active well as to viewers of our website. Many Ducks go online and fill out our easy-to- in the UO and local community—among his many connec- use form (from OregonQuarterly.com click on Class Notes) or send an e-mail tions he served as a lane judge for the Oregon Track Club for to [email protected]. Others mail in the form that appears on page 60 more than thirty years and was a docent at the Museum of of this issue, or send newspaper clippings directly to our office: Natural and Cultural History. Jane Marie DeGidio, M.S. ’74, Ph.D. ’80, a longtime UO fac- Class Notes—Oregon Quarterly ulty member, died at age sixty-three due to complications 5228 University of Oregon from breast cancer. DeGidio began her tenure at the UO as a Eugene OR 97403-5228 counselor and later held positions that included dean of students, director of the office of student retention programs, and associate vice president for student academic affairs. We edit Class Notes submissions for style, clarity, length, and appropriateness. Former philosophy department chair Frank B. Ebersole

58 OREGON QUARTERLY | Sp r i ng 2 0 1 0 ClassNotes | UO Alumni

died at age ninety. His philosophical views were unique and continue to provoke interest today. In addition to publishing three collections of philosophical essays, Ebersole was a poet, photographer, and bird expert. Thomas R. Hart, UO professor emeritus of Romance languages, died in January after a short illness. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Navy. Hart had a productive academic career of more than fifty-five years, beginning his work at the UO in 1964 and retiring in 1990. In a long association with the journal Comparative Literature, he served as assistant editor, editor (1972–1995), and editor emeritus. Longtime business professor Catherine M. Jones ’45 died at age ninety-five. She was a passionate Ducks fan, an avid hiker, and a lifelong traveler. Jones was active in the Eugene community for many years, delivering for Meals on Wheels and working at the Fish food cupboard. In addition to her involvement with the First United Methodist Church of Eugene, Jones was also a member of the Obsidians hiking club and the Mount Pisgah Arboretum. DUCKS AFIELD Emeritus professor of journalism and communications Roy Paul Nelson ’47, M.S. ’55, died in January at his home Fans Across the Water Kurt Saito ’93 (second from right) and Tei Gordon ’92 (fourth from in Durham at age eighty-six. He worked as an advertising left) join Duck-crazy friends in the Roppongi district of Tokyo to celebrate Oregon’s football win copywriter, a reporter for United Press, and the assistant over USC. Partially obscured by wires is Japan’s tallest structure, the 1,091-foot Tokyo Tower. editorial director and district manager for American Forest aito S Products Industries before returning to the UO to earn a In Ducks Afield OQ publishes photos of graduates with UO regalia (hats, T-shirts, flags, and master’s degree. He was one of the nation’s leading authori- such) in the most distant or unlikely or exotic or lovely places imaginable. We can’t use blurry ties on design, layout, and magazines, having published shots and only high-resolution digital files, prints, or slides will reproduce well in our pages. more than twenty books and written a monthly column on design for Communication World magazine for twenty- Send your photo along with details and your class year and degree to [email protected]. five years. Photo courtesy Kurt

“One of the world’s Oregon leading music festivals” Humanities —WALL STREET JOURNAL Center

Frances Moore Lappé Y E A R O F “Getting a Grip—Gaining Clarity, Creativity and Courage for the World We Really Want,” THE BOOK April 5, 2010 2 0 0 9 - 1 0

A year-long series of interdisciplinary events featuring the history and Chorus, orchestra, and masterworks featuring future of the book • Thomas Quasthoff • Bobby McFerrin Peter Kornbluh, Director, National Security Archive’s Chile and • Cuba Documentation Projects Jamie Bernstein May 5, 2010

• And artistic director Helmuth Rilling Kwame Anthony Appiah Professor of Philosophy, Princeton, and President, PEN American Center May 26, 2010—Eugene oregonbachfestival.com May 27, 2010—Portland BE A FAN! Facebook.com/oregonbachfestival Visit our website to see past lectures and learn about upcoming events. ohc.uoregon.edu • (541) 346-3934

T H E M A G A Z I NE OF THE UN I VERS I TY OF OREGON 59 Duck Sites | Websites of Interest to OQ Readers Let Me Help You Find Your Dream Home in 2010! Tell us “ A Portland native and proven top sales producer over the years, Bob has what’s 23 years of valuable experience and knowledge in the Portland Metropolitan real estate market. Call him and let him happening! show you the great neighborhoods!”

Bob Atkinson, Principal Broker | The Hasson Company Realtors—Portland West Branch Send us news of yourself, your relatives, office direct 503-802-6435 | cell 503-314-3431 | email [email protected] your friends—anyone who ever attended web bobatkinson.hasson.com the University. Please include current addresses as well. Attention Parents: Are you receiving your children’s copies of Oregon Quarterly? If they now have a permanent address, please notify us. Thanks. Class Notes–Oregon QUARTERLY 5228 University of Oregon Get Connected. Eugene OR 97403-5228 E-Mail: [email protected] Get the latest UO news Class NOTES Fax: (541) 346-5571 delivered to your inbox. Name, Class year To update your email address,

visit uoalumni.com/update Address

City

State, ZIP

Occupation

BECAUSE THERE IS ALWAYS MORE TO LEARN. Telephone

E-mail News Item: www.pdx.uoregon.edu 70 NW Couch St. Portland, OR 97209 (503) 412-3696 [email protected]

An equal-opportunity affirmative-action institution committed to cultural diversity and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Curiosity Never Retires Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Program sites in Eugene/Springfield, Central Oregon and Portland Sent by (name, class year): http://osher.uoregon.edu (800) 824-2714

EO/AA/ADA institution committed to cultural diversity.

60 OREGON QUARTERLY | Sp r i ng 2 0 1 0 T H E M A G A Z I NE OF THE UN I VERS I TY OF OREGON 61 ClassNotes | UO Alumni

DECADES

Reports from previous Spring issues of Old Oregon and Oregon Quarterly

A student studies amid the bicycles in front of Deady Hall sometime in the late 1970s.

1920 The Oregon-Harvard Rose Bowl game 1970 With Earth Day preparations in full draws every alumnus who is “fortunate enough to swing, ecology is the talk of campus, and the be living in California, or had suddenly been called consensus among activists and professors is that south on business,” according to Old Oregon. all problems—air and water pollution, depleted Among the cheering throng is Judge R. S. Bean ’78 agricultural soils, overcrowded cities—stem from of Portland, head of the Oregon Board of Regents a single cause: overpopulation. and member of the UO’s first graduating class. 1980 Repercussions continue even years after 1930 Geology department head Warren Smith the end of the Vietnam War as University Veterans is hard at work on a “geological motorlogue” high- members seek to raise consciousness about war, lighting the state’s roadside points of geological Agent Orange, the draft, and militarism; volunteer interest, to be printed in a magazine of Oregon for local social service activities; participate in automobile enthusiasts. therapeutic “rap sessions”; and host conferences. 1940 Tickets are available for five conference 1990 Eugene’s live music scene is hopping— basketball games to be played at Mac Court: gen- some bands that have recently played on or near eral admission, $0.55; reserved seats, $0.85. campus: Badass Daddies, The Blubinos, Chemak- ill, Crawdadz of Pure Love, Dogwater, The Falling ervices S 1950 The Oregon Alumni office is now one of Spikes, RawheadRex, Small and Strange, Sugar

iting the best equipped in the country with the recent Boom, and Sweaty Nipples. Ed

d addition of an automatic envelope feeding machine capable of addressing more than 300 envelopes per 2000 While we somehow dodged the hour. impending techno-apocalypse that was Y2K, not all fears have abated: according to Daniel Wojcik, 1960 Some campus fads seem to run in cycles; UO associate professor of English and folklore the latest fad is cycles, bicycles, that is—crowds of and author of The End of the World as We Know bicycles, rolling around campus, causing pedes- It: Faith, Fatalism, and Apocalypse in America, ommunication–Design an C trians to keep a wary eye out for what might be “About 20 percent of Americans really think the silently approaching. world will end in their lifetimes.” ffice of O

62 OREGON QUARTERLY | Sp r i ng 2 0 1 0

Double HeTedtm

Single HeTedtm

Call 541-688-7837 to ORDER your HeTed tm Chair Today! Or, visit our website at www.portablervfurniture.com PTF Sales, Inc. — Eugene, Oregon

T H E M A G A Z I NE OF THE UN I VERS I TY OF OREGON 63 D U C K T A L E S

Rockin’ the Bard Kim Cooper Findling ’93

Most of us hadn’t been to the Oregon scholarly inclinations may normally be Shakespeare Festival. By the middle- buried under the need to be hip, but 1980s, OSF was renowned by Shake- today we were all in the same cerebral speare lovers around the globe, but boat, so we might as well embrace it. It from my small Oregon hometown, was Shakespeare, dude. So retro he’d it might as well have been across reachieved cool. We got his groove. We the globe. Our parents were either were here to rock the Bard. working-class folks who spent what Our luck was like a shiny gold shil- little money they earned on cars or ling. If there was a perfect Shakespeare- low-earning professionals who had to live experience for teens, this was it. In be choosy about fancy cultural experi- 1988, the Shakespearean play on the ences. Angus Bowmer stage was Romeo and But our English teacher made Juliet. This story we knew, and not sure we not only knew of the most because we’d read the play. We lived respected festival in our home state Romeo and Juliet—if only metaphori- but also visited it before finishing high cally. I surely felt as if I was kept from a school. Short, round, bald, and a lover romantic partner by a tragic, unbridge- of words, Rick Wetherell would have able gulf. If that chasm was my own fit right in during the 1500s. He made nerdiness rather than a centuries-old us write sonnets, read contemporary family war, no matter. The emotions song lyrics like poetry, and memorize translated. a quote a day. Then he bought up a block of OSF tickets, figured out how we Such was the beauty of narrative, the art of story. Such was the brilliance could afford them, had the school cooks pack sack lunches, and herded us onto of Shakespeare. Even if we didn’t know what in the heck he was saying half of the bus, bellowing orders like a director on a stage. the time, we still found a place in his stories that felt like a mirror to our soul. I Still, there was no easy way to get from North Bend to Ashland. The first couldn’t wait to see this might-as-well-take-place-under-the-bleachers-back- 100 miles were the very definition of the path less traveled—unfamiliar and home story set to life before me. inhospitable, especially to a gigantic yellow school bus. Once we hit I-5, there As the actors took the stage, a ruffle of excitement fluttered through our were still ninety-five miles to go. That trip would take at least four-and-a-half little crowd. What was going on here? What was up with Juliet’s couture leather hours, especially if there was a barf stop. miniskirt? A quick squint at the program answered our question. “Romeo and We were used to this. We lived in the middle of nowhere. We had to travel Juliet is staged this year in modern dress.” at least 120 miles to partake in the most mundane high school rituals like a We would never have known this phrase referred to contemporary cloth- basketball game or speech team competition. We grumbled about this basic ing in an antique play, but we could figure it out. This wasn’t any kind of mod- geographical unfairness, but despite early wake-up calls, queasy tummies, ern dress we recognized, anyway. We wore Guess and Levi’s. We’d never heard and sleep deprivation, we loved road trips. The bus was where it was at. Close of Bloomingdale’s. The only way Juliet’s four-inch heels looked familiar was that proximity to one another, limited adult supervision, greasy snacks, and soda we’d seen them in Cosmopolitan. cans wrapped in tinfoil so they’d stay cold—for a sixteen-year-old, it didn’t To see Cosmo slam straight into Shakespeare in a little town in southern get much better than this. Oregon was something else. Romeo was hot in that three-piece suit. Even bet- After we indulged in major bus antics, we settled in and read through two ter was Mercutio in skin-tight denim and a gold chain. But the women were pages of field trip instructions. Information Wetherell deemed necessary about the real eye candy. Taffeta skirts, billowing. Hair done up Julia Roberts-style in Ashland included warning that the water from the fountains in the plaza tasted a million curls. We sat captivated, jacked up on hormones run amok by impetus funny because it came from a mineral spring, what time to absolutely be in line of Ralph Lauren and iambic pentameter. for the play, and this strange directive, hinting at dastardly deeds from years So it was really no surprise that after we came down from our Shake- past: “Feedeth not whole oranges to the Lithia Park swans.” speare-induced high, after the sun set and the bus filled with a steamy, dark tone

S From a twenty-first century hyperprotective viewpoint, it’s amazing that warmth, two souls entwined in the back seat of the bus. In their own minds, fifty teenagers were set loose in a strange city with little more than strict each was no longer a junior from provincial North Bend High School, but instructions to not gag swans with our fruit. But we were let off near the park, instead a love-struck teenager who knew no era. They shut out all others and where the bus had room to turn around, with a good two-hour window in seized the moment, for tomorrow—who knew?—they may be forbidden to which to do as we pleased. That was part of the fun. At Rare Earth we pored ever meet again. over bins of trinkets. In Lithia Park we explored wild crannies and the serene grove of sycamores. We tasted the above-mentioned water and agreed that Kim Cooper Findling is a writer living in Bend. A longer version of this essay will ommons Photo By Benjamin

C it tasted like medieval poison. But before long it was time to get in line. We appear in Chance of Sun, her book about growing up in Oregon, scheduled to be were here for intellectual stimulation, or at least intellectual simulation. Our published later this year by Nestucca Spit Press. reative C

64 OREGON QUARTERLY | Sp r i ng 2 0 1 0 “ People with a passion for art make this museum possible. We appreciate your contribution.” —Shenea Davis, UO freshman

Shenea Davis strikes a pose inspired by The Art of the Superhero, an exhibition supported by a bequest from the late William C. Mitchell, a UO professor emeritus of political science. Inspired giving

From her work-study post in Make a gift with lasting impact the UO’s Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Help sustain the areas that matter Art, Shenea Davis sees firsthand how most to you by including the University gifts enrich the student experience of Oregon in your will. Contact us to across disciplines. “The UO is the only learn more. university in the state with a museum of giftplan.uoregon.edu this caliber,” she says. Phone: 800-289-2354 541-346-1687 E-mail: [email protected]

The Office of Gift Planning does not render tax or legal advice to donors. We focus on providing information about the benefits of gift-planning vehicles and leave it to the donors and their advisers to determine the benefit to their estates. Non Profit Organization Oregon Quarterly Change Service Requested U.S. Postage PAID 5228 University of Oregon Portland OR Eugene OR 97403-5228 Permit No. 2160

WEAR YOUR SPIRIT ON YOUR SLEEVE.

EUGENE • PORTLAND • BEND

Serving the University of Oregon since 1920 UODuckStore.com