PSU Magazine Spring 1998

Historically friendly F elings were mi xed, as Friends of History saw more than 400 people turned away for a lecture by controver– sial h istorian Howard Zinn this January. O n the one hand , attracting a crowd of 2,000 wa gratifying. But when your miss ion is encouraging communi ty interest in historical issues, turning away just one person feels like a fa ilure. Bigger lecture halls may be the answer for the newly re-energized Friends group, especially since this year's lecture schedule, with the theme Vengeance in History, has two more, potentially crowd-drawing lecturers to go. Much of the newfound zea l fo r the 14-year-old group can be cred ited to its current president, Stephen Hea rd '96. Hav ing been a student in the History Department, Heard wants to support faculty and student re earch, while promoting the importance of historical study. "What the Friends strive to do i encourage excellence in history through support for the department and for public events," says Heard. "History is not just dates, places, and people that have been long dead. What happened historically has relevance today with resources that should be used." Support for the nonprofit Friends of History comes so lely from membership dues and donations; event are always free. These contributions are. then used to fund faculty grants, student awards, and public lectures and debates. Heard hope that the Friends can provide money fo r grad uate student fellowships in the future. Many of the indi viduals who first ra llied to begin the Friends group, are still members and loyal supporters of its mi ion. They include Ann C larke MA '79, Anne Myers '94, adjunct history faculty member Caroline Stoel MA '73, and history professor Gordon Dodds and Dav id Johnson. On May 7, the Friends of Hi tory i bringing William Slany, historian fo r A scholarship fund in memory of James Nattinger (third from right) is well on its way to supporting the kind of students Nattinger spent his life inspiring. An applied linguistics faculty member from 1969 until his death in 1995, Nattinger was one of the University's most popular teachers. A recent $10,000 gift from Beatrice Oshika, former chair of the department, has provided seed money to launch the fund drive. The goal is to provide annual support for full scholarships in Nattinger's name. For more information, call the Applied Linguistics Department at (503) 725-4098. the U.S. Department of State, to PSU to discuss "Nazi Gold: The Long Delayed Accounting." Howard Lamar, a Yale University profe or emeritus, will discuss the American We ton May 20. For more info rmation about Friends of Hi tory, ca ll the PSU History Department at 725-39 17 fo r a brochure. New support for the arts Portland State can sing, act, paint, design a building, and play a musical instrument. We know it, but does Portland's cultural arts community? It soon will, as 17 new ambassadors fo r the School of Fine and Performing Arts spread the word . The e amba - sadors are members of the chool' new advisory board , a group of art, business, and government leaders helping to position the chool a a "vital contrib– utor to the arts fa bric of Portland ," says its new dean, Robert Sylvester. "It' grati fy ing to me to have so many influential leaders of ur community express this level of dedi– cation in helping po ition the schoo l to a prominent place in our prolific arts community," says Sylvester. Serving as chair of the adv isory board is Pat Ritz of Oregon Title. Board member are Robert Bailey, Portland Opera Association; Cheryl Chevi , Perkins Coie attorneys; Jim Dunning, Tangent Industrial Park; Car l Edelman, Edelman Associates archi– tects; Bill Failing, media consultant; Peter Gray, Bank of America; Elizabeth Huddle, Portland Center Stage; Gretchen Kafoury, Portland commis– sioner; Kathryn Kanj o, Portland Art Museum; Matthias Kemeny, Kemeny Inc., lndusrrial Design; Jack Loacker, attorney; Julie Mancini, Portland Arts and Lecture ; Dorothy Piancentini; Mary Ruble, U .S. Bancorp, Laura Ru so, Laura Russo Gallery; Roger Yost, Yost G rubbe Hall architects. 0 SPR ING 1998 PSU MAGAZINE 19