— 3 — Bill knew that the railroad dike was unstable and trains were no longer permitted to cross it. “Our apartment was on the second floor, and we had a view of the dike. We were loading a few things into the car when I heard what I’d call a typical train rumble—just like a fast-moving train. Knowing that there shouldn’t be a train there, I ran to the window to see the train. “And that’s when I saw a section of the dike literally collapse. Water didn’t come over it—it just collapsed. There was a little switch station on the railroad dike that came tumbling down. I don’t know if there was anyone in it or not.” Cathy (Bostwick) Williams She started college at the Oregon Shipyard site, where the Vanport Extension Center had moved after the flood. In 1952, the institution moved to the former Lincoln High School building in the Park Blocks. “We used to have noise parades out in St. Johns, and the idea was to see how much noise each of the clubs could make. When we moved downtown, we brought the noise parade with us. So the first year we were down here, we came up Broadway, making noise. Every theater emptied, to look and see what was going on. Then we had a big bonfire in Duniway Park. That was the last noise parade we ever had.” RichardHalley He joined the Vanport faculty in fall 1946, and is one of two surviving members of the original faculty. He is a professor emeritus of economics. “We had about 1,800 veterans and about 20 other students. (Vanport) was a very different place from other colleges because these veterans acted differently. We had very serious ones and very lively ones. “I remember going with Dr. (Stephen) Epler (PSU’s founder) to watch a baseball game. And here was the team—at each base they had a jug of whiskey, wine, and so on. Dr. Epler was the son of a minister, and he was a very careful man with his opinions and language. But he said to them, ‘I won’t say anything about this, but pick up your bats, balls, and liquor, and head back (to campus).’ That was part of that Vanport group.” W. T. “Bill” Lemman A student at Vanport and later a Portland State administrator, he became vice chancellor and chancellor of the Oregon University System. “Steve (Epler) was a very warm and human person. Many of us came to know him very well, as we did our other professors. Steve was one of the folks who befriended students and called them by their first names. “Steve used hyperbole to congratulate people for everything he could think of. I know when I left I was given a little card that was cut out with a paper cutter. On it was ‘Vanport Alumni Association, No. 1,’ and it had my name on it. Well, I thought that was pretty nice—until I ran into Ray (Lokting, Vanport’s first student body president) the next year, and he had one just like it. There’s probably 40 or 50 people running around with that little card that said ‘Vanport Alum No. 1.’” Steve Brannan He is a professor emeritus of education and spearheads RAPS’ effort to encourage the preservation of the University’s history. “No systematic process is in operation today campus-wide for preserving and celebrating the University’s history, but we’re getting closer. Achieving this goal will not happen until we have, at the administrative level, a campus-wide policy guiding and directing faculty, staff, and others to preserve and celebrate history within their own units. But we have made progress toward this goal, as demonstrated by this event today.” WimWiewel The president of Portland State dedicated the wall display, Honoring PSU’s Heritage. “The history of how this institution struggled to survive, and the political alliances it had to create with the business community, labor community, government community here in town, in order to become the institution it is, is at the very heart of why we truly are an engaged urban institution. We never had the luxury of being an ivory tower, because we could only survive by showing the community around us that we mattered, that we were relevant, that we took their concerns seriously, that we were real about educating their sons and daughters, training their workforce, and doing research on the issues that matter to them.” History: ‘We survived by showing we mattered . . .’ continued from page 1
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