The Magazine of the University of Oregon Autumn 2013 State of Oregon v. Annette Buchanan Embracing Opal Whiteley • Speaking in Tolowa • Aspirational Architecture The Magazine of the University of Oregon Autumn 2013 • Volume 93 Number 1 26 A Principled Stand OregonQuarterly.com FEATURES DEPARTMENTS 26 2 EDITOR’S NOTE THE STAND SHE TOOK 4 LETTERS By Elisabeth Kramer ’12 8 UPFRONT | Excerpts, Exhibits, How an Emerald editor’s decision Explorations, Ephemera to protect her sources frustrated ‘Autumn Bouquets authorities, rallied journalists, and for Everybody’ Enigmatic Naturalist helped change the law. Edited by Vicki Halper and 32 Lawrence Fong ’72 Dark Response to Our 32 ‘Fecund Mental Derelicts’ CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER: By Diane Goeres-Gardner ’71, MA ’83 EMBRACING OPAL WHITELEY The Taste of College By Robert Leo Heilman Ron Abell, MS ’60; illustrated by The true story of Opal Whiteley may Jim Cloutier ’63, MFA ’69 never be fully known, but her puzzling Bookshelf life continues to arouse interest. 16 UPFRONT | News, Notables, Innovations Living the Language 38 38 44 Years, 17 Jobs, STRONG WORDS 1 Impressive Woman By Bonnie Henderson ’79, MA '85 World Leader in the House New Board to Govern the UO Tribal members revitalize the Tolowa language to save a culture from being The Best. .Walk on lost in translation. Game Day PROFile: Sara Hodges 42 In Brief 48 OLD OREGON FORM BEYOND FUNCTION A Medium for Their Message By Ann Wiens A World of Inspirations Goal-Oriented Architecture 42 A look inside the University of UO Alumni Calendar Oregon’s new football performance Family Practice COVER | Student-journalist Annette Buchanan center, the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex. leaves the courtroom during her 1966 trial for Writers Unblocked refusing to name her sources. Story, page 26. Class Notes Decades 64 DUCK TALES That Book by Nabokov By Michael Connolly ’97 FROM TOP: AP PHOTO; UO LIBRARIESSPECIAL COLLECTIONS AND UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES; JACK LIU; JEREMY BITTERMAN JEREMY LIU; COLLECTIONS UNIVERSITY LIBRARIESSPECIAL JACK AND UO ARCHIVES; PHOTO; AP TOP: FROM THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON 1 THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON AUTUMN 2013 • VOLUME 93 NUMBER 1 Civil Discourse EDITOR AND PUBLISHER Ann Wiens We receive scores of alumni magazines here at OQ each month. Many of them amount to [email protected] little more than 64-page marketing brochures, with rosy write-ups about happy students SENIOR MANAGING EDITOR Ross West and professors, wise administrators, successful alumni, and generous donors. Others are [email protected] thoughtful, ambitious journalistic endeavors, presenting a fuller picture of the institutions ART DIRECTOR Tim Jordan they represent—the highs and lows, struggles and successes, conflicts and ambiguities. SENIOR GRAPHIC DESIGNER They hold their own against the “real” magazines their audiences could be reading instead. JoDee Stringham Oregon Quarterly aspires to the latter category. ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Susan Thelen If we do our jobs well, each issue of Oregon Quarterly will include a story or two that [email protected] | 541-346-5046 touches you; that resonates with you as a Duck, yes, but that also goes a bit further and PUBLISHING ADMINISTRATOR Shelly Cooper connects the University of Oregon to the wider world. When we hit the mark, we pres- PORTLAND CONTRIBUTING EDITOR ent stories that make you think, or that give you pause, that amuse you, entertain you, Mindy Moreland or educate you. We offer stories that tell you something new, that, as an editor friend CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Jack Liu, John Bauguess describes it, make you say, “I’ll be damned!” PROOFREADERS In presenting such stories, of course, we run the risk of irritating some readers. Our John Crosiar, Scott Skelton INTERN readership spans generations, including UO graduates from the 1940s (or earlier) on, from Ben DeJarnette every field of study, all over the world. For every reader who wants “more philosophy, less EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Mark Blaine, Betsy Boyd, Kathi O’Neil Dordevic, David football!” we have another who demands “more football, less philosophy!” Funk, Kathleen Holt, Mark Johnson, Alexandra Lyons, Our Spring 2013 issue included two stories in particular that involved issues about Holly Simons, Mike Thoele, Barbara West which many people have strong, emotional, and differing opinions: the economy and WEBSITE OregonQuarterly.com gay rights. In “Clear Economics, Muddled Politics,” Robert Kuttner offered a version of a OFFICE ADDRESS lecture that he delivered to a standing-room-only audience last fall during his residency as 360 East 10th Avenue, Suite 202 Eugene OR 97403-5228 Wayne Morse Chair of Law and Politics. Our cover feature, “All That You Can Be,” offered Phone 541-346-5045 a look at the personal journey of Brigadier General Tammy Smith ’86 as she navigated a EDITORIAL 541-346-5048 military career under, and eventually beyond, the limitations of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Both ADVERTISING SALES stories prompted heartfelt reader response, some positive, some upset or disappointed. Susan Crow, SagaCity Media [email protected] | 971-200-7024 These letters prompted a second round of responses, several of which we’ve included in EMAIL this issue. Both articles are examples of stories that connect the UO with the wider world. [email protected] Austerity as economic policy and gay rights are both significant topics of national and OREGON QUARTERLY is published by the UO in March, June, August, and November and distributed free international discourse. Both are complex, both provoke strong opinions. We looked at to alumni. Printed in the USA on recycled paper. Copyright 2013 University of Oregon. All rights those topics through the lens of the UO, not as a declaration of university policy, but as reserved. Views expressed do not necessarily reflect an example of ways the university community contributes to the discourse. the views of the UO administration. CHANGE OF ADDRESS In this issue, we present a cover story that serves as a reminder of whose shoulders Alumni Records, 1204 University we stand on no matter what we cover or what we have to say about it. It's the story of UO of Oregon, Eugene OR 97403-1204 541-302-0336, [email protected] student-journalist Annette Buchanan, who, in 1966, reported for the Emerald on a hot- ADMINISTRATION button issue of her day—marijuana use on campus. The story led to her being charged President: Michael R. Gottfredson with contempt of court for refusing to reveal her sources, and her experience put a face Interim Senior Vice President and Provost: Scott Coltrane; Vice President for University Advancement: Michael on the issue of journalistic privilege at a time before “shield laws" were established, when Andreasen; Vice President for Enrollment Management: Roger Thompson; Vice President for Finance and journalists were advocating for greater protection from prosecution in the course of Administration: Jamie Moffitt; Vice President for doing their jobs. It’s hard to imagine this reaction today—a student-journalist going to Institutional Equity and Inclusion: Yvette Marie Alex- Assensoh; Vice President for Student Affairs: Robin trial for refusing to name a few students she interviewed who admitted to smoking pot. Holmes; Vice President for Research and Innovation: Kimberly Andrews Espy; Associate Vice President for As the magazine of the University of Oregon, Oregon Quarterly owes our readers— Alumni Affairs and Executive Director of the UO Alumni the majority of whom are alumni of this university—the respect and consideration of Association: Tim Clevenger presenting stories that address real issues, that raise real concerns, and that represent UO INFORMATION 541-346-1000 many aspects of the university. The university is a place where people hold and form strong opinions, which they develop and refine through, among other things, ongoing civil discourse. Students like Annette Buchanan deserve much of the credit for our ability to continue that conversation in our pages. 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 in accessible formats upon request: 541-346-5048. [email protected] 2 OREGON QUARTERLY | AUTUMN 2013 THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON 3 The Magazine of the University of Oregon Summer 2013 L. Lyon, MS ’38, was administrator of that to understand that there are a great many camp. The camp was founded in 1935 and conservative Oregon alumni who read your dissolved in 1943. When I was born in 1939, slanted publication, only because we are that camp was my first home. Oregon Ducks first and citizens second. In our home we have a wonderful wood Steven K. Angvick ’89 carving created by three of the young men in Burlington, Illinois the program, and several photos of my father with Eleanor Roosevelt, taken when she was I found Mary DeMocker’s “Sidewalk or at the camp on an inspection tour. There was Street?” a real eye-opener into the activists of one other large NYA camp, this one in Texas. today and the ongoing conflict between being The administrator of that camp was Lyndon an “activist mom” or a “soccer mom.” When Baines Johnson. I was at Oregon in the early 1970s, protests Coralynn (Corky) Lyon Huffsmith ’61 were always in the street and the police were Indio, California always directly in front and ordering us to disperse, which never happened. We usually Editor’s note: Kathleen Duxbury, a researcher then got fogged with tear gas. DeMocker who has studied the history of the CCC camps, seems to have always, in her words, “walked Logging Days • Jazz Studies • Powering Oregon’s Economy • Activist Mom provides this clarification: The key to the ques- on the edge.” tion is the date, 1935. As Coralynn Huffsmith The Quarterly has allowed this writer to points out, the NYA did not come into being wander aimlessly down every environmental Timber Memories until 1935.