Larry Swann, V ~ n p o r t student We were allotted iust so much as veterans to go to college. The week after we received our checks, we were broke. So what we did is on payday, we would pool all our money and go down and buy groceries and thai is actually how the Bachelors (Club) got started. We started together to help each other. .We would just throw stews and canned corn, just throw it all in one pol and cook it most of the time. Some of it came Qut good; some came out bad. The price was right. o I have never seen (acuity and students get along better than Vanport. When we had a dance, they all came. Of course, when the Bachelors had a dance, everybody came. Dr. George Hoffmann Vanport and PSU professor People don't realize it but Vanport was a complete city. It had theatres, schools, recreation halls, nurseries, water towers, shopping centers, post office. The majority of the people lived around campus. Where could you register 10 go to college in 1946 and 1947 and get a place 10 live and a nursery to lake care of your children if you were married? Housing was very, very difficult In fact, my wife and I couldn't get married until we found an apartment. This was a godsend to anybody who wanted to go to college, plus the G.!. Bill of Rights gave us money for books and tuition, There was no w a ~ ' 1 could have gone without Vanport. · •• 1 think it's fair to say they (Vanport students) were one-uf-a-kind in terms of generations. And certain characteristics about them made you aware that they were unique. First, they were all in a hurry. This generation had lust anything from one to five years of their l i v e ~ in the military and they never expected to... So the .lftlfude - "we've got to gel on with our lives." · ..Then they were a ch€1l1enge to the tcachers. They would not tolerate any fogging or any winging it in class. They picked it up almost immediately if you tried it. And we all tried it. I tried it probably as much as anybody because I wflS usually one lecture behind. But if I went down a road thaI was Just pure iluflery, nothing substantial about ii, I h e ~ ' were not above standing III place and saying, "Mr. Hoffmann, let'o; get ~ ) d c k to the good stuff," and sometimes they were very polite about it and sometimes they .....ere very abrupt. But, in any case, they didn't want you to waste their time further. · ..And, if course, we could speak a little bit about the maturing process of four or five years in the Army or Navy or Marine Corps. They came as very definitely young men, not graduating teenagers. We all got along very well, I remember that. We had so much in common. Margaret Cass Gottlieb Vanport staff and instructor The money that was appropriated for Vanport Extension Center by the State Board - Ihe first check drawn on that money was my first paycheck. When I went to work for Steve (Epler) it was in May of 1946... I was his " Girl Friday," I guess. .•. 1 came down and did everythinganswered the phone, wrote his leiters. He said, after we get going, I want you to teach English. We just had an office, period. o Everything was a first. It was all pioneering in a sense. I fell that, and I think that everybody who knew Dr. Epler felt, that he was a rare man. I've often said that while people were figuring out I<>day's problems, he'd already solved them and was anticipating the next set. He made the school. If we hadn't had a man of his dynamism, it would have folded. It might have folded several times, especially after the flood. The feeling that the Board had at that time was, "Well, Portland certainly doesn't need a school. We've got Oregon. We've got Oregon Slate. Let's just drop it." But he kept it going... And, of course, we old Vanporters were delighted when it was made a permanent part of the state system. o I'm a graduate of the University of Oregon and I had some friends on the faculty who used to get me in the corner and say, "Now Margaret, w h a t ' ~ reafly going on up there?" Some people ~ u s t didn't understand that we were a legitimate Institution. o Some of my funniest memories of Vanport ar" about Bill lemman. I can remember Bill, he was a student coming into the office. There was one girl working there who he was p a r t i c u l a r l ~ ' attracted to, and he used to come in and sit on her desk and I'd have to say, "Bill, now go on to class." And to think now Ihat he's the vice chancellor! o Steve used to call me "The Midwife of Portland State." He was the father and I was the midwife. PSU Perspective, Winter '986 II»Be 5
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