THE RAPS SHEET MAY 2012 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.pdx.edu/raps Office hours: 9:00 am to 3:00 pm Mondays and Thursdays Officers Joan Shireman President Dave Krug President-elect / Program Chair Clarence Hein Past President Robert Lockerby Secretary Robert Vogelsang Treasurer / Regional Retirement Association Ad Hoc Committee Chair Dawn White Editor Board Members-at-Large Anne Bender Priscilla Blumel Susan Jackson Committees TBA Alumni Association Steve Brannan History Preservation Committee Chair Mary Brannan Pictorial History Book Committee Chair Beryl and Vic Dahl Social/Friendship Committee Co-Chairs Larry Sawyer Awards Committee Chair Marge Terdal Membership Chair Office Manager Sara Loreno 503/725-3447 / raps@pdx.edu Retirees feted at Annual Gathering hik Erzurumlu, Dean Emeritus of the Maseeh College of Engineering and Applied Science, and Charlene Levesque, retired scheduling officer and campus events coordinator, were honored April 12 with outstanding service awards at the President’s Annual Gathering for Retired Faculty and Staff. Chik received the Outstanding Retired Faculty Award and Charlene the Outstanding Retired Staff Award. Special awards were given to retirees Priscilla Blumel, wife of the late Joe Blumel, recognizing her many contributions to campus and community during the years her husband served as PSU’s fourth president (1974-86) and in the years since then, and to Jack Schendel, Alice Lehman, and Sylvia Moseley in recognition of their pivotal work in preserving the history of the School of Health and Human Performance. Cathy LaTourette, Associate Vice President of Human Resources, was honored with a special award for her role in helping preserve PSU’s heritage, in part by creating a slide presentation on PSU’s beginnings, history and legacy, and presenting it regularly to new employees. Award recipients (left to right) Charlene Levesque, Priscilla Blumel, Chik Erzurumlu, Jack Schendel, Alice Lehman, Sylvia Moseley, and Cathy LaTourette proudly pose for pictures following the April 12 awards ceremony recognizing their contributions to PSU and the community. Photo by Larry Sawyer. PSU President Wim Wiewel, who hosts the annual gathering, offered an overview of the “state of the university,” and graduate student Melissa Cannon, the first RAPS scholarship recipient, spoke of the scholarship’s impact on her life. Ice Cream Social ends 2011-12 program year When: Thursday, May 17 at 1:30 pm. Where: 338 Smith Memorial Student Union. Don’t miss it! C
2 President’s Message think this message should be an apology to the RAPS membership for the organization’s failure to provide the responsiveness that you deserve. When you asked RAPS to do something, too often nothing happened. Requests for address changes languished. Maintaining access to your Odin account required extraordinary diligence and activity. Receiving the RAPS Sheet via e-mail was chancy. There were long delays before checks were deposited. We had a delightful Holiday party, a wonderful spring President’s Event, and we had great programs—including an extra program in January—but the behind-the-scenes work wasn’t being done. In short, our little organization became a big organization, our office help was inadequate, and our supervisory activity was also inadequate. But it is spring now—I am writing this on our first day that feels like summer. We have hired a very competent new office manager, Sara Loreno. MiMi Bernal Graves, whom many of you remember, returned to us for several weekends to sort out what had happened in the office and to teach Sara about us and our organizational procedures. Board members have also taken stock of their roles in failing to insure that office tasks were completed. With a more complex organization, we have to implement more systematic supervision. And we shall do so. There is a lot of catching up to do, and things may not happen as quickly as you wish, but we are certainly putting things back in order. What does this mean for you? You may get a letter reminding you that your membership has expired. You may get an inquiry asking the status of an invoice or whether your Odin account was renewed. You will get your RAPS sheet by snail-mail for a month or two until we get the email list verified, but then I think we can promise you more reliable delivery. As we process address changes, you should receive the RAPS Sheet and any other RAPS material. And by the end of the summer, we hope there will be a new RAPS directory. Stop by the RAPS office and get acquainted with Sara—you will enjoy getting to know her. She is there Mondays and Thursdays this quarter. And enjoy the changing season, as winter turns toward summer. We have an ice-cream social coming up in May, a true marker of the end of winter. --Joan Shireman Sue Poulsen, Brian Lewis join RAPS Board . . . usan Poulsen, professor emerita of communication, is the new President-elect of RAPS, and Brian Lewis, retired from the Office of Human Resources, is the newest Member-at-Large. Susan Jackson, who has been serving as a Member-atLarge, was elected Treasurer. Results of the RAPS elections were announced at the April 12 President’s Annual Gathering for Faculty and Staff. The new Board members take their posts this fall, when current President-elect Dave Krug assumes the presidency. . . . and Sara Loreno joins RAPS team APS extends a warm welcome to its new Office Manager and Graduate Assistant Sara Loreno. Sara spends most of her time in the fourth floor of Cramer Hall and calls the Geography Department home base. Wrapping up her first year as a graduate student this spring term, Sara has at least one more year to go in her studies and hopes that her thesis will cooperate with her intention to graduate next spring. She is interested in spatial analysis and is happy to expand on that topic when prompted. After spending over five years as Shop Manager for the Community Cycling Center, a local non-profit Sara Loreno organization, Sara has gained administrative work experience that she is ready to put to good use during her time with RAPS. She invites RAPS members to stop in during office hours to say hello. I S R
3 PAST TENSE Snapshots of Diversity at PSU SU’s earliest efforts to address diversity in its instructor ranks can be traced to Edwin C. Berry, Vanport Extension Center’s first African American faculty member. Berry taught a sociology course at Vanport in the fall of 1947 while serving as the executive secretary of the Portland Branch of the National Urban League. At the time, Berry was the first black faculty member in the Pacific Northwest. Vanport Extension Center evolved to Portland State Extension Center when it moved in 1952 to the old Lincoln High School Building in the Park Blocks. By the time the Center became Portland State College in 1955, student enrollments and faculty recruitment had greatly George Guy in 1955 increased. That same year (1955), Portland State hired its first full-time African American professor, George V. Guy, in Education. Cultural changes nationwide in the late 1960s and 70s led to curricular changes at Portland State that addressed diversity. In 1968 President Gregory Wolfe promoted the development of a Black Studies Program. A first step in achieving this goal was the formation of the Center for Black Studies in 1969, followed in the early 1970s by the emergence of the Department of Black Studies and the post-baccalaureate certificate in Black Studies. These new developments required highly qualified faculty. PSU hired Darrell Millner as a full-time assistant professor to teach Afro-American literature and History in the Black Studies Department. Since joining PSU, Millner has been a driving force in the department’s growth as an academic interdisciplinary unit within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS). Along with helping develop major and minor undergraduate degrees in Black Studies, Darrell’s efforts have helped build and define a program devoted to the exploration and understanding of the history and culture of African people in the United States, the Caribbean, and Africa. Such efforts have been in conjunction with outreach efforts directed toward metropolitan community needs. Throughout his lengthy career, Dr. Millner has made significant contributions in teaching, publications, curriculum development, and service to his university and community. He is an expert on the history of AfricanAmericans in the western movement, focusing on the Oregon and California trail experiences, these states’ early black history, and the history of the Black Buffalo soldiers in the Indian wars. His expertise also includes Black cinema history and the development and perpetuation of negative racial stereotypes. Darrell Millner in 1975 As the senior full professor in his department, Darrell Millner represents a unit that is the oldest Black Studies program in the Northwest and the only one in Oregon that offers a degree. As one of the program’s pioneers, Darrell recently reflected on his career over the years in teaching, program development, writing, and especially being an advocate for Black Studies at Portland State. Darrell referred to a “legacy of struggle for survival, resources, and the ability to provide for the department’s future.” --Steve A. Brannan PAST TENSE features glimpses into Portland State’s history. To submit a story (or an idea for one), email the RAPS History Preservation Committee at raps@pdx.edu. P
4 In memoriam: Kristine Nelson, 1943 - 2012 ristine Nelson, Dean Emerita of the School of Social Work, was born Aug. 23, 1943 and died April 22 after a long fight with cancer. She received her BA from Stanford University and her MSW from Sacramento State University. In 1980 she received her PhD from the University of California Berkeley. She joined the PSU School of Social Work in 1993 as a Professor and was named dean in 2005. Dr. Nelson’s leadership was felt at all levels of the Kristine Nelson school through community service, teaching, and administration. During her tenure the SSW implemented a Bachelors of Social Work program, added Child and Family Studies to undergraduate offerings, and expanded distance education dramatically. Kristi's leadership was also critical in the process of moving the home of the SSW to the new Academic and Student Recreation Center. She was a tireless advocate for Social Work within the University System, as well as within state and national networks. In 2010 Kristi received the Lifetime Recognition Award from NASW-Oregon. She was nationally recognized for her rigorous research-based work on family preservation and child neglect. She believed deeply that children and families are best served by building strong community supports. She saw child welfare in the context of social justice and evidencebased practice. Early in her career she worked in child welfare in Harlem and carried in her heart a deep understanding of the demands of social work and the courage of people who do it. She was a child welfare historian and understood that our very best practices are bound by the limited view of our point in time, and will be replaced as our understanding evolves. Kristi was a woman of courage who made many contributions to the School of Social Work and the world that she believed in. She was a passionate advocate for social justice. She enjoyed hiking, travel, meditation, and living well. She is survived by her daughter, Katryn Adams, and her partner, Steve Richardson. A memorial is scheduled Sunday, May 20 at 3:00 pm in Lincoln Hall, with a reception following at the Simon Benson House. Gifts in Kristi’s memory may be directed to the Dean Kristine Nelson PhD Fellowship in Social Justice, PSU Foundation, PO BOX 243, Portland OR 97207. --adapted from the PSU School of Social Work website RAPS club reports Bridge Group shuffles May 8 The RAPS Bridge Group meets at 1:00 pm Tuesday, May 8 at Friendly House, 1737 NW 26th Ave. For further information, call Colin Dunkeld, 503-292-0838. For those who would like to play at the next gathering, please call no later than noon Friday, May 4. --Colin Dunkeld Book Club reads ‘Blood Brothers’ The RAPS Book Club meets at 2:45 pm Tuesday, May 15 at the home of Felicia Wirtz at 16344 NW Avamere Court, #8 in Portland. (Note the time change.) Contact her at 503-645-0947 to RSVP and for directions. We will discuss Blood Brothers by Elias Chacour, with a presentation by Marge Terdal and Maxine Thomas on their trip to Palestine and Israel. Chacour’s nonfiction book is described on the back cover as follows: As a child, Elias Chacour lived in a small Palestinian village in Galilee. The townspeople were proud of their ancient Christian heritage and lived at peace with their Jewish neighbors. But early in 1947, their idyllic lifestyle was swept away as tens of thousands of Palestinians were killed and nearly one million forced into refugee camps. An exile in his native land, Elias began a years-long struggle with his love for the Jewish people and the world's misunderstanding of his own people, the Palestinians. How was he to respond? He found his answer in the simple, haunting words of the Man of Galilee: "Blessed are the peacemakers." In Blood Brothers, Chacour blends his riveting life story with historical research to reveal a little-known side of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the birth of modern Israel. He touches on controversial questions such as "What behind-the-scenes politics touched off the turmoil in the Middle East?", "What does Bible prophecy really have to say?", and "Can bitter enemies ever be reconciled?" Looking ahead, we will read Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof for June. --Mary Brannan RAPS Club Reports continued on page 6 K
5 In memoriam: William H. Hamilton, 1924 - 2012 meritus University Professor William H. Hamilton was born March 9, 1924 in Evanston, IL and died in Portland Feb. 28 of congestive heart failure. He was reared in a middle-class Chicago suburb, earned a baccalaureate degree at Oberlin College in 1943, and served in the US Navy during World War II. At the behest of theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, with whom he eventually developed a lifelong friendship, Bill enrolled in Union Theological Seminary, earning a Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1949. He speculated that very likely he was Bill Hamilton the only crewman on his ship possessing a copy of Niebuhr’s notable work, The Nature and Destiny of Man. To complete formal theology training, Bill attended the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, earning a PhD in Systematic Theology in 1952. Professor Hamilton began his distinguished career with an appointment (1951-1953) as Dean of the Chapel and Assistant Professor of Religion at Hamilton College in Clinton, NY. From 1953 to 1967, he held an endowed chair as Professor of Historical Theology at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, an ecumenical institution stemming from Baptist origins. Concurrently he served (1955-1967) as Adjunct Professor Religion at the University of Rochester. Through teaching and publishing he gained recognition as a leading American academic theologian. For many years scholars had been exploring the nature of the relationship of God to the all-too-often brutal human historical experience. In 1965 he and Thomas Altizer published an essay collection entitled “Radical Theology and the Death of God.” During the April 1966 Easter-Passover season Time Magazine published a cover article, “Is God Dead?,” that embodied some of those ideas. The predictable resulting furor on behalf of self-identified defenders of religious belief totally altered Professor Hamilton’s scholarly career. Expression of displeasure by colleagues and trustees prompted him to leave Colgate-Rochester in 1967 to take an appointment as Professor of Religion at a nontraditional institution, New College, in Sarasota, FL. Professor Hamilton came to PSU in Sept. 1970, where he served as Dean of Arts and Letters until his designation as University Professor in Sept. 1976. He was a disciplined and prolific writer who authored several books and dozens of articles. A gifted speaker and teacher, he offered courses in his academic specialty until retirement in 1986. His scholarly achievements contributed significantly to this institution’s reputation for academic excellence. In 1949 Bill married Mary Jean Golden, a New York City ballet dancer, who survives him along with their children Donald, Ross, Patrick, and Jean Hamilton, and Catherine Passo; eight grandchildren; and four greatgrandchildren. To the Hamilton family, our organization extends its heartfelt sympathies. The family suggests that remembrances be made to Oregon Public Broadcasting, 7140 SW Macadam Ave., Portland OR 97219. Recognition of Professor Hamilton’s legacy appeared in numerous media obituary feature articles, including ABC News, the Oregonian, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and USA Today. Time Magazine (March 26, 2012, page 21) noted his passing with an analysis of its 1966 issue that had raised the “stark question, ‘Is God Dead?’” and acknowledged the worthiness of William Hamilton’s thoughtful reflections. --Victor C. Dahl, Emeritus Professor of History Remembering Don Willner ormer Oregon State Senator Don Willner died March 27. The obituary that appeared in the April 3 Oregonian records the life of a man who used his legal training in the service of justice. One dimension of that life not mentioned is his support for Portland State University. In The College That Would Not Die, Gordon Dodds described Willner as Portland State's "main legislative champion." Willner worked to allow Don Willner Portland State to offer doctoral programs. It was he who, in 1969, introduced the bill to raise Portland State's status from College to University. Willner used his membership in the Portland Chamber of Commerce to rally support for the bill from the local business community. The bill passed and was signed into law by Governor McCall. Tens of thousands of PSU graduates as well as current students and faculty have reason to honor his memory and to remember him with gratitude. Survivors include his wife Marjorie Burns, Professor Emerita of English. --Jack Cooper, Emeritus Professor of English E F
6 In memoriam: Judah Bierman, 1917 - 2012 meritus Professor of English Judah “Jud” Bierman, born Feb. 4, 1917 in Brooklyn, NY, died March19 at the Jewish Home for the Aging in Reseda, CA. He attended the University of Washington (1935-42), earning a bachelor’s degree in English (1939). After wartime aircraft industry employment and merchant marine service, he began graduate studies in American and English literature at UCLA in 1945, completing a doctoral degree in 1951. Professor Bierman took an appointment in early 1950 at Portland’s Vanport Extension Center. With characteristic energy and enthusiasm, he thrust himself into the processes of initiating instructional programs and framing academic governance for the new but skimpily supported pioneering educational institution. In addition to fulfilling demanding teaching assignments in the Center’s formative years, Jud served variously as faculty adviser to the student newspaper and member of several committees. Throughout his tenure he regularly participated as an elected or appointed member of campus-wide academic governance committees, notably the Faculty Senate and the President’s Advisory Council. His academic career paralleled the institution’s growth and eventual relocation to the Park Blocks and its development into full-fledged collegiate status as Portland State College (1955), finally becoming Portland State University (1967). In 1967 Professor Bierman participated in the development of an experimental interdisciplinary undergraduate scholastic unit that eventually became the highly acclaimed University Scholars Honors Program. He taught popular literature classes that attracted large enrollments. His major research interest focused on utopia studies which he infused into his instructional undertakings. With departmental colleagues Stanley Johnson and James Hart, he co-authored three textbooks for undergraduate instruction in language and drama courses. Various granting agencies supported Professor Bierman’s scholarly undertakings, including the Folger Library Fellowship program, the E.C. Brown Trust, Weyerhauser Foundation, and the Fund for the Republic. In 1966 he was one of 30 recipients of the legislatively mandated Mosser Undergraduate Teaching Award. Professor Bierman’s lifelong devotion to defending self expression rights prompted his involvement in founding the Oregon chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union in 1956 and serving as its first president. He did not shrink from publicly opposing intrusions on personal freedom. Jud enjoyed a wide friendship circle among his university colleagues. Avocations featured gardening, long walks, and competitive tennis. For a half century, he regularly engaged in a monthly poker game, often accompanied by a good cigar. In 1948 he married Judah Bierman Marjorie Hain; their 25-year union produced son Michael (Susie) and daughter Judy (Chris Byrne) and four grandchildren. From 1973 to 1982, Jud was married to Irene Snyder. To these surviving family members and Judah’s sister, Bea Collins, our organization sends its heartfelt sympathy. Memorial remembrances may be made to the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon, PO Box 40585, Portland OR 97240-0586. For his lifetime of contributions to this institution, we owe Professor Bierman a heavy debt of gratitude. He left an indelible impression on every activity in which he was engaged. --Victor C. Dahl, Emeritus Professor of History RAPS club reports . . . cont. from page 4 Hiking Group heads to Silver Falls The RAPS Hikers take to the canyon trail in Silver Falls State Park for their Friday, May 11th hike. Thanks to abundant spring rains, we should see lots of water over the falls along the canyon trail. We will assemble at 9:00 am on the roof of PSU Parking Structure I (between SW Harrison and Hall Streets) to carpool. Drivers without faculty parking permits should expect to drive. We will take two cars as we intend to car shuttle on the hike. Both cars will need an Oregon State Parks permit which can be purchased at the park. Bring a sack lunch. RSVP to Larry Sawyer at 503-771-1616 or larry_sawyer@comcast.net Thursday, May 10. --Larry Sawyer E
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