Retirement Association of Portland State Portland State University Post Office Box 751 Portland, OR 97207-0751 Koinonia House, second floor SW Montgomery at Broadway Campus mail: RAPS Web: www.raps.pdx.edu Office hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Officers Larry Sawyer President Clarence Hein President-elect / Program Chair Marge Terdal Past President / Membership Chair Robert Vogelsang Treasurer / Regional Retirement Association Ad Hoc Committee Chair Joan Shireman Secretary Doug Swanson Editor Board Members-at-Large Priscilla Blumel Charlene Levesque DawnWhite Committees Alumni Association Pat Squire Awards Committee Chair Robert Tufts History Preservation Committee Chair Steve Brannan Pictorial History Book Committee Chair Mary Brannan Social/Friendship Committee Co-Chairs Beryl and Vic Dahl Office Manager MiMi Bernal-Graves 503-725-3447 / raps@pdx.edu THE RAPSSHEET OCTOBER 2009 continued on page 4 Quiet moment, quiet place Yvonne Weber and her guest, Jean Streinz, enjoy tea during the RAPS tour of the Portland Classical Chinese Garden on Sept. 17. Completed in 2000 on the site of a former parking lot, the garden is the result of a collaboration between Portland and its Chinese sister city, Suzhou. Designers from Suzhou designed the garden in the style of Ming dynasty gardens, using traditional garden design principles, practices, and materials to ensure its authenticity. If you missed the RAPS tour, you can visit the garden on your own at 239 NW Everett St., Portland. Visit www.portlandchinesegarden.org. Campus construction, planning get the once-over at RAPS’ October program RAPS members will get an insider’s look at the future of the Portland State campus on Thursday, Oct. 15. Mark Gregory, associate vice president for Finance and Administration, will be the featured speaker at the second edition of RAPS’ 2009-2010 Program/Speaker Series. The event begins at 1 p.m. in Room 294 Smith Memorial Student Union, 1825 SW Broadway. Portland State has experienced a significant enrollment growth in the past decade, adding more than 10,000 students since the 1999-2000 academic year. The campus, which is 49 acres, has added more than a million square feet of building space during that time (very little of it for parking, however), and is planning for greater expansion to come. A brief tour around campus today will show that long-delayed maintenance and upgrading of parts of the physical plant finally are under way, along with some new construction. Gregory will share with us the status of current projects around camPhoto by Larry Sawyer
—2— President’s Message LARRY SAWYER In my last message I talked about the University’s pending financial shortfall and our need to economize on our expenses paid through the Provost’s Office. I have since learned that the AAUP has settled on a sliding scale salary reduction compensated by a one-day-a-month paid leave. This reduction will cover faculty in the AAUP bargaining unit and unclassified staff. Personnel earning around $50,000 per year will see a salary reduction in the 2.0 to 2.5 percent range, while those in higher brackets will see a larger salary reduction. I don’t know the classified staff bargaining unit settlement, but it can be assumed it is comparable. With those cuts in mind, it is entirely appropriate that the RAPS Executive Board has discussed the option of having members receiveThe RAPS Sheet and flyers by e-mail. Those of you whose e-mail we know will soon receive an e-mail requesting that you accept this option. If you don’t receive it sometime in October, we probably don’t know your e-mail or have a bad one. Related to the financial shortfall, Lindsay Desrochers, vice president for Finance and Administration, has announced the University will close to all non-essential personnel from Saturday, Dec. 19, through Monday, Dec. 28. Employees are encouraged to use their paid leave days for this five working-day closure. At the President’s Luncheon last spring, Bob Vogelsang announced plans to establish a RAPS scholarship fund focused on students studying for a profession in the gerontology field. The paperwork has been submitted to the Foundation, and we should soon have a Foundation account for this scholarship. Presently, we are not looking for endowment donations but for donations that can be awarded immediately. This means we will be requesting new donations every year. In the future, we will consider endowments. Retirement organizations smaller and less well off financially than RAPS have established scholarship funds. We really should be doing the same. You will receive contribution information from the RAPS office or inThe RAPS Sheet when we know the account number and donation options. I urge you to contribute. No amount is too small, and it is tax deductible. In memoriam: Morton Paglin, 1922-2009 Morton Paglin, professor emeritus of economics and urban studies and planning, died in Portland on Sept. 14. A memorial will be held Saturday, Oct. 31, from 2:00 to 4:30 p.m. at Sherman Clay Pianos, 131 NW 13th Ave. Prof. Paglin was born in New York City. He earned a B.A. degree in economics at the University of Miami in 1943 and completed a doctoral degree at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1956. After carrying out post-doctoral teaching and research at the UC campus, he took an appointment as an associate professor in the Division of Social Science’s Department of Economics in 1961. He retired in 1990 after a distinguished career. Prof. Paglin’s teaching and research experience contributed significantly to his department’s growth and development. His noteworthy career paralleled and supported the University’s growth that launched the Colleges of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Urban and Public Affairs. Throughout his career and during retirement, Prof. Paglin pursued scholarly endeavors that resulted in articles in numerous refereed publications, including the Journal of Economic Education andThe Yale Law Journal. He held a Ford Faculty Fellowship at the London School of Economics and visiting appointments at Stanford and Case Western Reserve Universities. Community outreach activities included founding the Willamette Heights Neighborhood Association. Literary interests prompted him to write five plays dealing with social and cultural issues. Survivors include Joan, his spouse of 60 years; daughters Catherine (Vern) Luce, of Portland, and Laura (Duane) Verh, of Cleveland; son, Mark, of Los Angeles; and granddaughters, Madeline and Celia Luce. To them, our organization extends its heartfelt condolences. We owe a debt of gratitude to Prof. Paglin for his services and contributions to our academic enterprise. Those of us who knew and worked with him found him to be a cooperative, stimulating colleague, and we shall miss him. —Victor C. Dahl, Professor Emeritus of History
—3— Book Club: ‘Wuthering Heights’ The RAPS Book Club will meet on Tuesday, Oct. 20, at 1:30 p.m. at the home of Dez Roberts, 2610 SW 84th Ave. Contact her at 503-292-6095 or at dezrob@ comcast.net to RSVP and for directions. We will discuss Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. Although many of us read it earlier in our lives, we were tempted to revisit Wuthering Heights after a character in Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society referred to it. If you want to read further ahead, we will be reading Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson for November. —Maxine Thomas Writers Group: Accepting new members A small number of RAPS members who like to write has met monthly for the past two years. If you are interested and would like to know more about the group, please leave your name with Mimi BernalGraves, RAPS office manager, at 503-725-3447, or e-mail her at raps@pdx.edu. BridgeGroup: Deals on Oct. 13 Our next meeting will be at 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 13, at Willamette View, 12705 SE River Road, Portland. If you have questions or need information about the group, please call me at 503-292-0838. —Colin Dunkeld Hikers: Short hike on the Wilson Our next hike will be on Friday, Oct. 23. Meet in front of the DMV office in the Cedar Hills Shopping center near Highways 217 and 26. From there we will carpool to the Tillamook State Forest Interpretive Center on the Wilson River in the Coast Range. We will spend time viewing the educational displays at the center and then take a short hike along the Wilson River Trail. The center demonstrates the forest’s recovery from the devastating Tillamook Burn. Confirm your attendance for the Oct. 23 hike with Larry Sawyer, 503-771-1616 or larry_sawyer@ comcast.net, by Thursday, Oct. 22. —Larry Sawyer RAPS club reports In memoriam: Loyal ’Sharkey’ Nelson Loyal “Sharkey” Nelson died August 22, 2009, in Seal Beach, California, at age 96 following hip replacement surgery. Our old friend Sharkey, longest-tenured Vikings men’s basketball coach, compiled a 162-156 record during the 12 seasons—1953 to 1965—that he reigned over the program. After relinquishing court duties, Sharkey resumed classroom teaching before returning to PSU athletics in 1975-76 to coach a beginning women’s basketball program. That team achieved a 19-13 record, thereby launching another highly successful—and enduring— PSU athletic component. In 1931, during the Great Depression, Sharkey, an Oklahoma farm boy, entered Cameron State Agricultural College, arranging to defray board and room fees by bringing a family cow to the college and daily furnishing three gallons of milk. At Cameron he acquired the nickname “Sharkey” after breaking his thumbs in a boxing match. The bandages resembled shark fins! After an arduous year at CSAC, he transferred to Central State Teachers College in Edmond, where a friend provided lodging—thereby relieving Sharkey of milking duties. In 1936 he graduated from Central, where he excelled in basketball and track, and married fellow student Della Lee Morris. Sharkey taught and coached in several Oklahoma high schools before entering wartime naval service. In 1946 he earned a master’s degree at Oklahoma State and later coached high school teams in Oklahoma and Oregon. In 1953 Sharkey became PSU’s pioneering basketball coach. Indeed, his legacy was to lay the foundation for today’s Portland State sports programs. In 2001 the PSU Athletics Hall of Fame inducted Sharkey into membership, and a year later honored his son, John, whose 2,123 points rank second in all-time PSU scoring. According to Michael Schrunk, Multnomah County district attorney, who was a hustling 1960s Viking guard and captain and who carried out a lifetime correspondence with his former coach, Sharkey “was very passionate, loved talking basketball, (and) loved to hear from people he coached.” Those of us fortunate enough to have known Sharkey, a marvelously intelligent, thoughtful, cheerful, and caring person, have been enriched by that experience. Della Lee preceded her husband in death. Our organization extends its heartfelt condolences and gratitude to the son that Sharkey always referred to as “Johnnie.” — Victor C. Dahl, Professor Emeritus of History
In memoriam: John Damis, 1940-2009 John Damis, professor of political science and international studies and director of Middle East Studies, died June 10 of pancreatic cancer. Prof. Damis was born in Northeast Portland on June 16, 1940. He graduated as valedictorian at Grant High School, where he earned eight varsity letters in three sports and was named outstanding running back in the 1958 Shrine All-Star game. He was inducted into the Portland Interscholastic Hall of Fame in 2007. As a Harvard College undergraduate, Prof. Damis played football (as well as basketball and rugby) and was named to the All-Ivy League freshman football team. After graduating magna cum laude with a history B.A. in 1962, he earned an M.A. in 1964 in Middle East Studies. At Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy—in a collaborative academic program with Harvard—he completed an M.A. in international relations and an M.A. in law and diplomacy in 1966, followed by a doctorate in 1970. Prof. Damis joined PSU’s Political Science Department in 1971 and launched a distinguished, productive career that featured stellar accomplishments in teaching, editing, research, and publication of numerous scholarly books and articles. In 2004, he became director of PSU’s Middle East Studies Center, where earlier he had studied the Arabic language while at home in Portland on summer vacations from Harvard. His area of expertise encompassed Morocco, North Africa, and the Western Sahara, with special emphasis on the United States’ relationship with Arab nations, which required extensive travel throughout the Middle East. From 1975 to 1984 he served the Department of State as a special foreign affairs policy analyst, and during 1993-1994 he gained global recognition for consultancy service for MINURSO, the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in North Africa. In 2000 Morocco’s King Mohammed VI decorated him with the Kingdom’s highest honors. Prof. Damis was a popular classroom teacher, and in 1994 he received the Branford Price Millar Award for faculty excellence. Under his leadership the Middle East Studies Center expanded dramatically and gained further national and international recognition as a pioneering, unique program of language and areas studies with undergraduate and graduate dimensions. Prof. Damis is survived by his spouse, Maria Wulff; by their children, Gregory and Alexa Damis Wulff; his brother, James Damis, and sister, Virginia Demos. To them our organization extends its heartfelt condolences. Maria, a PSU graduate, studied at PSU’s federally funded Center for Central European Studies at the University of Zagreb in Croatia and serves as president of the Oregon World Affairs Council. Those of us who were fortunate enough to know and work with John on shared international education interests owe him a great debt of gratitude, as does the entire University community. Extensive obituaries appeared in the Oregonian editions of June 17 and 21. A heavily attended memorial service took place at Hoffmann Hall on June 22. At a recent celebration of the Middle East Studies Center’s 50th anniversary, participants paid tribute to his significant role in developing this important academic program. Remembrances may be sent to the John Damis Middle East Scholarship Fund, PSU Foundation, P.O. Box 243, Portland OR 97207. —Victor C. Dahl, Professor Emeritus of History pus and bring us up to date on the recently completed “campus framework plan” that looks forward to the next 20 years. He is expected to touch on the University’s impact on the University District, the South Waterfront, and the city itself. Gregory has been with PSU since 1998, starting as director of computing and networking. In his current position he oversees facilities and planning, campus sustainability, information technology, housing and transportation, and campus auxiliary business units. Recently, he has been partnering with nonprofits and other universities to provide technical training and surplus computing equipment to schools and libraries in the United States, Guatemala, and Ecuador. October program . . . from page 1 Buell show on through Oct. 25 Tom and Joan Buell are presenting “Two Lifetimes,” a joint show of work, at Trinity Cathedral, NW 19th and Everett, Portland, through Sunday, Oct. 25. The show is open weekdays during business hours, on Sundays from 8 a.m. to noon, and Wednesday evenings until 7 p.m. The Buells will meet guests at the exhibit on request; call 503-292-3420.
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