Portland State Magazine Fall 2009

ELLEN LAW, Portland's first African American woman school principal, is honored along with scores of other women path breakers and ceiling busters at Portland's Walk of the Heroines, completed this summer in front of Hoffmann Hall. More than 650 women's names are engraved on stone walls-no woman is underfoot-and their biographies and photographs are featured on an on-site computer. Trees, flowers, benches, and a foun– tain are interspersed along the walls. All border a meandering stone walkway. One more wall and a stage honoring former .Gov. Barbara Roberts will be added in the near future. The honored women , living and deceased, were submitted by fam– ily, friends, colleagues, and organizations who made a donation in their name. Most are from Oregon, bur they come from all over the county and from all walks of life. Those honored include Josephine Cochrane, a Shelbyville, Illinois, housewife, who hated doing dishes and invented the automatic dishwasher in 1886. Heroine Matsu Ito raised eight children on a farm in Hood River enduring many hard– ships, including internment during World War II. Former students have honored Diane Edgington , a Clackamas High School speech and debate teacher. Portland State students have been involved in the Walk of the Heroines from the beginning, providing the first major gift of $200,000 from the Associated Students of PSU. Portland's Walk of the Heroines honors women from around the country in a park-like setting in front of Hoffmann Hall. Top photo by Edis Jurcys. Learn more about Portland's Walk of the Heroines and the women it honors at www.woh.pdx.edu. ---- --- ------------- FALL 2009 PORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE 3