PSU Magazine Fall 1996

ushing through the front door of Fred Meyer lnc.'s corporate headquarters in southeast Portland uncov– ers a lobby as vast as an airport terminal. On a slow day, dozens of people ricochet through-rumple– suited salespeople flickering strobe-light smiles, clipboard-carrying managers, pods of briefcase-toting executives. Easily keeping pace amid the New York hustle, Jim Aalberg '72, spouts Fred Meyer stats as he bounds up a back stairway to his no-frills office: $3.5 billion in annual sales; 136 stores in seven Western states; 26,000 employees-1,300 working in the corporate office, 240 employees in the financial division, and 60 under his jurisdiction. Aalberg is a vice president and treasurer for Fred Meyer-a giant leap from where he started. "I'm the first in my family to finish college," says Aalberg, a down-to-earth guy who is as low-key and unassuming with industry giants as he is with the business neophytes he mentors. "My father was a baker, my mother a clerk. No one ever talked about college. The only thing I wanted after high school was a job." After graduating from Portland's Franklin High School in 1967, Aalberg found that job, in the mailroom at the Bank of California. He figured he was set, but he hadn't counted on running into Steve Kravitz, head of the bank's mailroom. A gruff ex-seaman, Kravitz kept many of his co-workers at bay with his drill sergeant demeanor, but some– thing about the polite, hard-working high school grad tugged at his heart. After several months of persuasion, Kravitz convinced Aalberg to enroll in the bank's tuition reimbursement program. By working 3 7-1/2 hours a week at the bank, Aalberg was reim– bursed for classes he took relating to banking. Kravitz helped arrange a work schedule allowing Aalberg to take a full load of classes, mornings and evenings, first at Portland Community College, then at Portland State. PSU's proximity was key to Aalberg's abil ity to earn his degree. "I couldn't have done it without Portland State," he says. "I ate my lunch walking to the bank." 14 PSU MAGAZINE FALL 1996 You'll find him at After 28 years in banking, this alum joined the one-stop shop. Aalberg scarcely had time for lunch and had no time for campus social life, but PSU left its mark on him. "The professors were great," Aalberg recalls. "I took a night class from Steve Brenner– facing him at the end of a long day was something else. I remember making kind of a poor oral presentation in class one time, and he just took my argument apart. But I learned a lot from his class, and we still stay in touch." Two weeks after earning a Bachelor of Science degree in business adminis– tration: finance law, Aalberg married his sweetheart of four years, Janet Ruthruff, and began working his way up the corporate banking ladder. The course of his 28-year career coincided