Retirement Association of Portland State Portland State University—RAPS Post Office Box 751 Portland OR 97207-0751 Campus Public Safety Building Second Floor, Room 212 SW Montgomery at Broadway Office Manager Eben Yemoh Telephone: 503-725-3447 Email: rapsmail@pdx.edu Office hours: Remote: 10 am-2 pm Mon, Wed & Thurs. In office: noon- 4 pm Tues, 10 am-2 pm Friday Campus mail: RAPS Web: www.pdx.edu/raps Board Members Co-Presidents Janine Allen & Bruce Stern Secretary Brian Lewis Treasurer Ansel Johnson Members-at-Large Kris Kern, Cheryl Livneh & Michael Taylor RAPS Sheet Editor Doug Swanson Website Editor Larry Sawyer RAPS Representative to Regional & National Retirement Associations Larry Sawyer Committees Awards Steve Brennan, Chair History Preservation Eileen Brennan, Chair Membership Pati Sluys, Chair Program Pat Squire & Dawn White, Co-Chairs Scholarship Vacant Social Nancy Eriksson, Chair The RAPS Sheet The newsletter of the Retirement Association of Portland State NOVEMBER 2022 RAPS MEMBERS hit it out of the ballpark last fall when an anonymous donor challenged them to contribute to the RAPS Robert Vogelsang Scholarship. Well, it’s a year later, and we’re stepping into the batter’s box again! Our generous RAPS anonymous donor is back with another exciting opportunity to enhance the scholarship fund. Last year’s challenge was so successful that the Scholarship Committee and the Board established a quasi-endowed fund in the Foundation of $50,000, increased the amount of the yearly scholarship to $9,000, and named it the RAPS Robert Vogelsang Scholarship. Now we need to continue to raise money to add to the endowment and fully fund the scholarship. The new challenge is simple: n The donor will match every donation at 50 percent. (If you donate $100, the donor will give $50, making the total $150—or see the second and third bullet points!) Anonymous donor challenges RAPS again How to donate to the scholarship challenge WRITE A CHECK payable to the PSU Foundation, with a note on the check that it is for the RAPS Scholarship. Mail the check to RAPS, Portland State University, P.O. Box 751, Portland, OR 97207-0751. (It is important to mail it to the RAPS Office so it can be counted toward the challenge.) Mail your check before December 31, 2022, to be counted in this year’s scholarship challenge. n The donor will match 100 percent to donors who have not given during the past three years. (If you haven’t donated for the past three years, and choose to donate $50 this year, the donor will match the $50, making the total $100). n The donor will match 100 percent to current donors, if they increase their last donation by 50 percent or more. (If you gave $100 last year, and increase it to $150 this year, the donor will match the $150, making it $300.) Nick Kristof, veteran Times columnist, speaks to RAPS Nov. 17 IN OCTOBER 2021, when journalist and political commentator Nicholas Kristof announced his retirement from The New York Times after 37 years, his plan was to seek the Democratic nomination for Oregon governor in 2022. Back home in Oregon, while comanaging Kristof Farms in Yamhill, he launched his campaign but was blocked from proceeding by the Oregon Supreme Court’s February 2022 continued on page 3 continued on page 3
2 RAPS SHEET n NOVEMBER 2022 CO-PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE November is here, and with it another great RAPS guest talk IT’S HARD TO BELIEVE that November is actually here. After a slow start to summer and an elongated fall, here we are in the eleventh month of the Gregorian calendar. Actually, November is derived from the word “novem,” which is Latin for nine—its position in the early Roman calendar. OK, enough of your history lesson for today. I hope you were able to attend our reception with President Stephen Percy in early October and Michael Alberty’s Oregon wine presentation later in the month. These were great ways to kick off the new academic year. Our next program will occur on Thursday, November 17. It features Nicholas Kristof, son of Jane and Ladis (Kris) Kristof, who were longtime professors at PSU. Nick’s topic will focus on challenges facing Oregon and his vision for addressing them. Nick was born in Chicago and raised on his family’s farm in Yamhill. He graduated from Harvard University and studied law at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. As a columnist for The New York Times he won two Pulitzer Prizes: the first, shared with wife Sheryl WuDunn, for coverage of the Tiananmen Square uprising and the second for his reporting on the genocide in Darfur. He is also a regular CNN contributor. He and his wife have authored five books—most recently Tightrope, which is about inequality in America and their ideas of how to fix it. Currently Nick is the general manager of the Kristof Farms. I hope you are able to join us at this program and our upcoming Holiday Party in December. Wishing you and yours a happy and joyous Thanksgiving. —Bruce Stern Upcoming RAPS events. DECEMBER Friday, December 2 Guided tour of Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art (JSMA) featuring an exhibit on “The Art of Food,” with more than 100 works in a variety of media showcasing works by prominent 20th and 21st century artists. Tour leader is Anna Kienberger, education and communication coordinator. Thursday, December 8 Annual Holiday Party, Augustana Lutheran Church in Northeast Portland. JANUARY Thursday, January 19 William Comer, professor of Russian and director of PSU’s Russian Flagship Program, speaking on the RussiaUkraine War. In-person or Zoom to be determined. FEBRUARY Thursday, February 16 Jett Koda, recipient of the 2021-22 RAPS Robert Vogelsang Scholarship, now working as a medical social worker at Care Partners Hospice & Palliative Care, speaking on creating a forum for discussing death as a means of appreciating life. In-person or Zoom to be determined. The President Percy reception and Michael Alberty’s wine presentation were great ways to kick off the academic year.
3 RAPS SHEET n NOVEMBER 2022 Beacon Rock and, in the distance, Bonneville Dam were among the views enjoyed by the RAPS Hiking Group recently. Read more about their adventures in the Hiking Group report on page 4. Tom Dieterich photo The challenge applies to donations made November 1 to December 31, 2022. Last year’s scholarship recipient, Jett Koda, was a student in the Graduate School of Social Work, focusing on hospice and end-of-life care. According to Jett’s thank-you ruling that he didn’t meet the state’s residency requirement. Like his campaign, Kristof’s retirement was shortlived. The New York Times announced in August 2022 that he would be returning in the fall to his old job—writing columns on human rights, women’s rights, health, and global affairs—after finishing a book that Kristof describes as a “journalistic memoir.” As he told New York magazine in April, “I like journalism, and I think it’s hard to beat the journalistic toolbox for making a better world.” A self-described “Oregon farm boy,” Kristof is planning to live in Oregon even as his return to the Times requires regular trips to New York and assignments all over the world. But his Oregon roots are in clear focus Nick Kristof speaks to RAPS . . . Continued from page 1 Thursday, November 17, when he speaks to RAPS over Zoom on “Challenges Facing Oregon and My Vision for Addressing Them.” To learn more about Kristof’s storied career as a journalist, which includes two Pulitzer prizes—one shared with his wife, writer Sheryl WuDunn, in 1990 for their coverage of the mass movement for democracy in China in 1989 and its subsequent suppression—see Co-President Bruce Stern’s column on page 2. The November 17 meeting begins at noon with a few announcements, followed by Kristof’s presentation. RAPS will provide the link to the Zoom meeting several days in advance of the event. letter to RAPS, “I am so grateful to be a recipient and for the investment you are making in my future.” Now is a good chance to make your donations really count. Thank you for your support of the RAPS Robert Vogelsang Scholarship! Anonymous donor back with another scholarship challenge . . . Continued from page 1
4 RAPS SHEET n NOVEMBER 2022 RAPS Group Reports Book Group THE BOOK GROUP MET on October 18 and discussed The Lost City of Z by David Gann. For the more frivolous among us the book was a rousing adventure tale of exploration in the Amazon, featuring a hunt for Percy Fawcett, “the last of the great Victorian explorers,” who had vanished 90 years earlier on an Amazon expedition. For the more serious minded it was a disjointed tale hopping from present to past and from place to place and difficult to follow. And in the end it was a story of the very different methods of the explorer and the anthropologist and of the beginning of understanding the ancient civilizations of the Amazon. Perhaps as a reaction to having read a book set in wartime London just before reading another about being lost in the Amazon, the group decided it needed a “happy” book for November. We selected the novel This is Happiness by Niall Williams. We hope it lives up to its title. For our December meeting the group decided to read Hearts Touched with Fire: How Great Leaders are Made by David Gergen. Working to uncover the basic elements of effective leadership, the author examines a rich array of contemporary and historic leaders. It should be an interesting book and discussion. The book group meets on the third Tuesday of each month at 1:30 p.m. Traditionally we have met in the homes of various members; currently we are using Zoom for our discussions and plan to continue in this way for a time. All RAPS members are welcome to join the group. —Joan Shireman Bridge Group THE BRIDGE GROUP has begun playing in person, after a long pandemic hiatus. We need additional players; do you want to join us? I would like to hear from any interested RAPS members or others you know who might want to play in our group. The RAPS Bridge Group does not require RAPS membership. Your friends and relatives would be welcome to join us. Please rattle your social and family networks to see if you might be able to shake loose a bridge player or two. Please contact Steve Brennan, 503-889-0146. My email address is: the.steve.brennan@gmail.com.. —Steve Brennan Hiking Group FOUR PEOPLE HIKED the Cape Horn Trail on October 27, taking advantage of a break in the rain to climb some 1,200 feet and hike some 7.5 miles to see lovely views of the Columbia River and its environs. While the sun felt good, the long-distance views of Beacon Rock and Bonneville Dam were somewhat hazy. The November hike may be in Newall Creek Canyon, in Oregon City, a new Metro park, if the weather permits. If it has been raining a lot to muddy the trails, the hike will be moved to the Sellwood Bridge-to-Tilikum Bridge in Portland, which is all on paved surfaces. The hike is scheduled for November 15 with an option to adjust the day of that week to accommodate weather (the hike has been moved up one week to avoid Thanksgiving). If you are interested in joining us for this hike, please contact Tom Dieterich by November 13, tgdieterich@earthlink.net. No hike is planned for December, which is reserved for planning the next year’s hikes. If you have suggestions for RAPS hikes, please contact Tom Dieterich, tgdieterich@earthlink.net, by November 30. —Tom Dieterich Tom Hard, Mary Lane Stevens, and Cilla Murray pause while hiking 7.5 miles along the Cape Horn Trail on October 27. Tom Dieterich photo
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