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: psu-raps.org Board Members Co-Presidents Janine Allen & Bruce Stern Secretary Brian Lewis Treasurer Ansel Johnson Members-at-Large Alan Cabelly, Rick Hardt, Kris Kern RAPS Sheet Editor Doug Swanson Website Editor Steve Brennan RAPS Representative to Regional & National Retirement Associations Larry Sawyer Committees Awards Steve Brennan, Chair History Preservation Eileen Brennan, Chair Membership David Krug, Chair Program Pat Squire & Dawn White, Co-Chairs Scholarship Sherwin Davidson, Chair Social Nancy Eriksson, Chair The RAPS Sheet The newsletter of the Retirement Association of Portland State SUMMER 2023 A NEW PROGRAM YEAR BEGINS! Annual RAPS Picnic August 17 at Willamette Park RAPS MEMBERS AND THEIR FAMILIES are invited to the RAPS Summer Picnic, the annual kickoff for the RAPS program year. The picnic will be at its usual venue, Willamette Park, 6500 SW Macadam Avenue. The picnic will be held on Thursday, August 17, beginning at 11:30 a.m., at the park’s Picnic Shelter A. RAPS will provide drinking water, cups, eating utensils, tablecloths , paper napkins, and plates. You are invited to bring a dish to share. You may also bring a beverage of your choice. Willamette Park provides bathrooms and metered off-street parking. Both the shelter and the site are accessible to people with disabilities. The park is served by TriMet buses 35 (Macadam/Greeley) and 15 (Belmont). Willamette Park stops are 3620 and 3622. Please call Nancy Eriksson at 503-913-7200 or email her at nan254@hotmail.com for more information. RAPS was on hiatus during summer, but the RAPS Hiking Group was not. Do you know where this photo was taken? Your hint: the big thing in the background. Find out if you’re right on page 4.
2 IN PREPARING the Co-President’s Message for this edition of The RAPS Sheet, I looked up the definition of lifeblood. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the term as “the indispensable factor or influence that gives something its strength and vitality.” The strength and vitality of RAPS are reflected in the names in the staff box on page 1, and I’m pleased to report that it contains three new names. We welcome to the Board Alan Cabelly and Rick Hardt as members-at-large and Dave Krug as chair of the Membership Committee. And I want to also acknowledge the contributions of the Board members whose terms of service are ending. Pati Sluys is ending her tenure as chair of the Membership Committee, and Cheryl Livneh and Michael Taylor are ending their terms as membersat-large. These three members have logged many hours of service to RAPS and, as a result, made significant contributions to our association. Indeed, volunteers are the lifeblood of RAPS, and I hope you will join me in thanking those who have served, continue to serve, and have recently volunteered to serve RAPS. Last spring, as we struggled to find people to volunteer for leadership positions, one person stands out for me, and that is Bruce Stern. Bruce volunteered to run for another term as co-president of RAPS; this will be his third term. We owe Bruce a debt of gratitude for once again stepping up to the plate and offering his considerable leadership talents to RAPS. RAPS SHEET n SUMMER 2023 CO-PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE RAPS has a strong foundation—you can make it stronger Moving into the coming year, RAPS has a strong foundation of successes upon which to build. Our fundraising activities have enabled us to continue to build our scholarship endowment and made it possible to upgrade the history preservation display in Smith Center and to enrich and diversify the images in the display. As you will learn in this edition of The RAPS Sheet, our association will continue its tradition of offering its members outstanding programs, events, and activities. Plus, you will learn that RAPS will bring back travel opportunities for its members. Still, the coming year will have its challenges. Our greatest challenges are increasing our membership and recruiting volunteers for leadership roles. You can help recruit members by making others aware of the association and encouraging them to join. You can also help by volunteering to work on an activity, serve on a committee, or assume a leadership role. Unfortunately, several people who have served RAPS admirably for a number of years will be stepping down next year, and we will be faced with the difficult task of replacing them. I encourage you to take a page out of Bruce Stern’s playbook and step up to the plate by volunteering to serve. I hope to see you at the annual picnic this month. And I encourage you to look in next month’s edition of The RAPS Sheet for additional benefits that will be available to RAPS members beginning this fall. —Janine Allen RAPS will continue to offer its members outstanding programs, events, and activities. Still, the coming year will have its challenges.
3 RAPS SHEET n SUMMER 2023 NOTES FROM THE SCHOLARSHIP CHAIR An invitation to travel and benefit a PSU student IS ALL THE TRAVEL you see others doing this summer starting to fire up your own enthusiasm? Here’s a great idea: from July 20 to August 2, 2024, you can take a wonderful trip with RAPS members to Portugal! Collette, a renowned travel company with which RAPS has partnered, has dubbed the tour “Portugal and Its Islands.” And at the same time, you can make a big difference for a Portland State student. “How can that be?” you ask. As part of a long-standing relationship between Collette and RAPS, Collette will contribute a 10 percent commission to the RAPS Scholarship for each person who signs up using the website included below. If you sign up by the deadline, you get an early payment discount. These benefits also extend to friends and family who are not RAPS members. And you have until January 21, 2024, to decide. You can still sign up after January 21 if there is space available, but there will be no early payment discount. Please take a look at the website and consider this RAPSpromoted tour: https://gateway.gocollette.com/link/1180745 Other tours are coming up. For example, you can enjoy “The Colors of New England,” October 2-9, 2024. Please watch the RAPS website https://www.psu-raps.org/and future editions of The RAPS Sheet for information. These opportunities are thanks to RAPS member Larry Sawyer’s long-standing relationship with Collette. —Sherwin Davidson The sharecroppers’ son who became president of PSU Dan Bernstine was president of Portland State University during the 10-year period between 1997 and 2007. His parents were Louisiana sharecroppers who moved to California after World War II. His father worked as a janitor. Dan accompanied his dad to clean attorneys’ offices, and that got him interested in the field of law. After earning his bachelor’s degree at the University of California, Berkeley, he went on to earn a law degree at Northwestern University, and then a Master of Laws degree at the University of Wisconsin. Prior to his tenure at Portland State, Dan was dean of the University of Wisconsin Law School. During his time as president Portland State’s enrollment grew by 70 percent. Building renovations and new construction also occurred on campus during his time. Additionally, he helped bring in millions of dollars of private support to the University’s endowment. Dan’s leadership style was quiet, congenial, and reflected honesty and fairness. According to Stan Hillman, professor emeritus of biology, “Dan’s vision (for PSU) was to be a university of the world, rather than one to simply service a city that consistently undervalued what PSU could be.” Earl Molander remembers Dan as a “very committed internationalist.” He supported the efforts of PSU faculty to have international exposure and experience. One example was the School of Business Administration’s free market business development efforts to establish a relationship with a partner university in Khabarovsk, Russia, Portland’s sister city. Many PSU faculty taught classes to Russian students and businesspersons in Khabarovsk and several other locations in Russia. In doing so, faculty not only learned about Russia’s culture, but also helped Russians better understand business principles and practices that occur in capitalistic societies. After his time as president of PSU, Dan went on to become president of the Law School Admissions Council in Pennsylvania. He died too soon at the age of 69 in September 2016. Dan’s legacy and contributions to Portland State should not be forgotten. —Bruce Stern PAST TENSE: Looking back at PSU’s early history
4 RAPS SHEET n SUMMER 2023 Book Group THE BOOK GROUP has met three times this summer. We have had good reading and good discussions. And planning for fall meetings is underway. On May 16 we discussed Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan. The teller of this story is a mother with a teenage son and several bee hives. The book is a murder mystery and a tender and moving story of teenage love, maternal devotion, and the complexities of family life. We all enjoyed the book and thought it a good introduction to summer reading. On June 27 we discussed The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David Wengrow. The book is a scholarly revisiting of what we know about the history of humankind. It’s a long book and difficult to understand. We came to the meeting with little good to say about it, and yet we had one of our best discussions as we shared our understanding of the complex concepts being put forward. On July 18 we discussed Transcription by Kate Atkinson. The book takes place in three time periods, 1940, 1960, and 1981. In 1940 the book’s heroine was hired to transcribe conversations taking place among British citizens with Fascist sympathies. As her competence became evident she was drawn further and further into the web of espionage and counterespionage. By 1960 she assumed that part of the war was over, only to discover that the espionage continued, with a different enemy. The 1981 part of the book is brief, and provides only a hint that these events impact future generations. A wonderfully researched and well-written book, it never provided RAPS Group Reports quite all the answers that the reader wanted—perfect for a book about espionage. The Book Group meets on the third Tuesday of the month. We are still using Zoom for our meetings, and it has worked well for this group. Any RAPS member is welcome to join the group. —Joan Shireman Bridge Group THE BRIDGE GROUP is in need of additional players; do you want to join us? We really could use some more players. We are a friendly group and we promise to welcome new players warmly. I would like to hear from any interested RAPS members or others you know who might want to play in our group. The 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 THE AUGUST 16 HIKE, which was to be a geology hike, is being replanned and may be along the Wilson River in the Coast Range. In July eight hikers climbed the 1,400-foot elevation gain to reach Elk Meadows on Mt. Hood. We saw many wonderful wildflowers, including paintbrush, penstemon, and Washington lily. The Boulder wildfire was not in evidence. To be notified of upcoming hikes, please contact Tom Dieterich at tgdieterich@earthlink.net. —Tom Dieterich C. KERTH O’BRIEN, who served Portland State for more than 30 years as a professor of psychology, died July 2 in Portland at the age of 66. Professor O’Brien was born in St. Louis in 1957 to Rita Kinsella O’Brien and Thomas G. O’Brien. She earned a bachelor’s degree in 1979 from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a master’s in 1983 and a Ph.D. in 1987 from the University of Michigan. She joined Portland State in 1987, teaching courses and workshops in social psychology, health psychology, ethics, social roles and identities, focus group methods, and survey research methods. Off campus, Professor O’Brien was devoted to Irish music and language, the Oregon Coast, meteor showers, In memoriam: C. Kerth O’Brien, 1957-2023 conservation, word play, social justice, and staying connected with friends and relatives. She is survived by her mother and by her siblings Mary Anne (Marvin) Friedlander, Noreen O’Brien (James McNally), Thomas F. O’Brien, Francis X. O’Brien (Ellen Hinkebein), and Margaret (Theodore) Dolter; beloved nieces and nephews; and many friends and colleagues of all ages. Her family is grateful to the many friends and neighbors who provided assistance during Professor O’Brien’s illness. Remembrances may be sent to Friends of Hopewell House of Portland, Oregon: https://hopewellhousepdx.org A private service will be held at a later date.
5 RAPS SHEET n SUMMER 2023 In memoriam: David C. Cox, 1937-2023 DAVID CHARLES COX, who served Portland State as science educator for three decades, died on May 3, 2023. The only child of educators John Randolph and Mildred (Fuge) Cox, David was born in Portland on March 23, 1937, lived in Sherwood and Hillsboro before moving to Albany in 1953, and graduated from Albany High School in 1955. He attended Oregon State University, received his Bachelor of Science degree in 1959, and became a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army Reserve. He was called to active duty with the U.S. Army Artillery at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and served in Bamberg, Germany, for the remainder of his time on active duty. When he returned to the United States in 1961, David was the executive officer and battery commander of the Oregon National Guard in Newberg. David was a science and mathematics teacher at McMinnville High School for three years and at Rex Putnam High (Milwaukie) for 20 years. In 1965, he earned his master’s degree at OSU, and following that began teaching part-time at PSU. He also served as Oregon coordinator for the National Energy Foundation for five years. During a sabbatical year at Rex Putnam, he entered graduate studies at The Ohio State University in Columbus, earning a Ph.D. in 1982. He became a full-time professor of science education at PSU in 1984, retiring in 1995, and received emeritus status as associate professor. In 1988-91, Cox was principal investigator—working with Paul Hammond and Stephen Carlson (Geology)—of a $338,584 National Science Foundation grant to develop A Model for Studying Natural Phenomena Using Mt. St. Helens. The project selected 15 outstanding middle school and 15 outstanding high school science teachers from across the country who developed instructional materials for fellow teachers, participant administrators, and the academic science education community of participant locales. Following his retirement from PSU, David rounded out his 41-year career in science education at Willamette University in 2002. He was married to his high school sweetheart, Wilma May Yutzie, who preceded him in death. Remembrances can be made to the David and Wilma Cox Science Educator Scholarship that he established years ago at the PSU Foundation. —Rick Hardt, Professor Emeritus of Education PHYLLIS WILLERDINE KOENIG, who served Portland State as an accountant in the Budget Office, died on July 6 at age 95. Ms. Koenig was born August 6, 1927, to Raymond and Edith Phillips (née James) in Snohomish, Washington. Until she was 17, she lived in Eastern Oregon with her grandmother, Helena James, and graduated from McLoughlin Union High School in Milton-Freewater in 1946. She moved to Woodland, Washington, where she met and later married Adolph “Dolph” W. Koenig in 1952. The couple resided in Southeast Portland, where they raised two children. In 1969 they moved to Milwaukie, where she lived for more than 50 years. Ms. Koenig’s business career began when she entered the lumber industry as an accountant. She then worked in small businesses and real estate before joining the budget office of OSHU and, later, Portland State. After retiring from PSU, Ms. Koenig opened her own accountancy and taxation business. She grew her firm to some In memoriam: Phyllis Willerdine Koenig, 1927-2023 150 clients and operated it into her 80s. Her outside interests included music—she sang in the Portland Symphonic Choir—travel, genealogy, photography, serving as an elder in her church, and making and painting ceramic dolls. Ms. Koenig was preceded in death by her husband of 49 years, Dolph; and her later-in-life companion, William “Bill” Bell. She is survived by her children, Thomas P. Koenig, Sr., (Sheree), of Happy Valley, and Susan Koenig-Field (Ron) of Forest Grove, as well as several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. A memorial service was held on July 21 at Oak Hills Presbyterian Church, Milwaukie. She was interred at Willamette National Cemetery.
6 Upcoming RAPS events SEPTEMBER 8FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8 Guided tour of the exhibit “A Question of Hu: The Narrative Art of Hung Liu” at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Maseeh Hall. 8WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20 Hiking Group: Wildwood Area, Boulder Ridge (Mt. Hood) Contact: Tom Dieterich/Cilla Murray, tgdieterich@earthlink.net OCTOBER 8WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18 Hiking Group: Steigerwald. Contact: Tom Dieterich/Cilla Murray, tgdieterich@earthlink.net 8THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19 Presentation by Tom Potiowsky, professor emeritus of economics: “‘The Recession is Coming! The Recession is Coming!’ Or Is It ‘Waiting for the Godot Recession’? What’s a Forecaster To Do?” NOVEMBER 8WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15 Hiking Group: Newall Creek Canyon (Oregon City). Contact: Tom Dieterich/Cilla Murray, tgdieterich@earthlink.net 8THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16 (date subject to change) Presentation by Ann Cudd, Portland State’s new president. DECEMBER 8THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14 Annual Holiday Brunch, held at Augustana Lutheran Church. In memoriam: Nelson B. Crick, 1938-2023 In 1982 Professor Crick received a Juris Doctor from the Northwestern School of Law of Lewis & Clark College. He developed a private practice serving attorneys in the Pacific Northwest, providing expert witness testimony and consulting in the field of economics. Upon his retirement, he was promoted to professor emeritus. Professor Crick’s outside interests included reading crime novels, the classics, and politics. He enjoyed classical music and jazz, and he and Linda often attended concerts at the Oregon Symphony. He was also a passionate fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Denver Broncos. He is survived by his wife, Linda; sisters Katherine and Margaret; brother, William; brother-in-law Kurt Busch; sisters-in-law Lesley Pedersen Keeley, Ceseley Pedersen Kathrens, and Catherine Streeter Crick; and several nieces and nephews, as well as his colleague and friend of many years, Professor Giles Burgess, of Portland State. Remembrances may be made to the Oregon Food Bank, Salvation Army, or the Oregon Symphony. A guest book is available at www.oregonlive.com/obits. NELSON B. CRICK, who served Portland State as a professor of economics for more than 30 years, died June 25 in Portland. He was 85 years old. Professor Crick was born in Pittsburgh on March 9, 1938, to Carleton and Mildred Crick. He graduated in 1956 from East High School in Denver, and after graduation served in the Colorado National Guard and in the Army. Professor Crick received a bachelor’s degree in 1960, a master’s in 1962, and a Ph.D. in economics in 1967 from the University of Colorado. He taught at the Colorado School of Mines in 1963-64 before joining The American University in Cairo as an assistant professor of economics in 1964. His time in Cairo ended abruptly when the 1967 Arab-Israeli War broke out on June 5. He joined the Portland State Department of Economics in 1967. During his 30 years of service, Professor Crick served as department chair and as a faculty participant for the Middle East Studies Center. He also met Linda Pedersen at PSU. They married on September 14, 1970.
7 In memoriam: Clarence L. Hein, 1939-2023 CLARENCE HEIN, who represented Portland State to the media and served under five PSU presidents during more than 20 years at the University, died June 3 in San Diego. He was 83. Mr. Hein was born June 3, 1939, to Daniel and Mary Hein, joining two older brothers, Allan and Willard. He graduated from Jefferson High School in Portland, served in the Navy, and was a member of the Portland State class of 1965. He was editor of the Vanguard, the PSU student newspaper, his senior year. After completing a master’s degree in communication at the University of Washington, his career took him to WABC-TV in New York City and KOMO-TV in Seattle. He also worked for the Portland Reporter, a paper that grew out of a long and bitter newspaper strike in the early 1960s, and for Seattle Public Schools in the 1970s. Mr. Hein joined Portland State in 1978 as director of the Office of News and Information. His work for the University included media relations as well as researching and writing speeches, legislative testimony, and magazine articles. Just as important and valuable were his wit, his sound advice —both to colleagues and, most particularly, University presidents—and his institutional memory. His service to Portland State continued after retirement in 2001. As a volunteer for University Archives, he wrote three articles chronicling critical periods of Portland State’s history. “Portland State and the GE College Bowl” told the story of an upstart PSU team that made an undefeated run on the nationally televised GE College Bowl, which Mr. Hein described as “a sort of intellectual Olympics.” The team’s success was front-page news and prompted a story in Time magazine that asked, “What in tunket is Portland State College?” The stunning winning streak brought recognition to a young college and began to bring it out of the shadow cast by University of Oregon and Oregon State. In a 2005 Vanguard article, Mr. Hein recalled that the wins “gave everybody a sense of pride . . . It really was a little bit of legitimacy.” In “The Best Laid Schemes . . .” Mr. Hein recalled the period between October 1995 and December 1996, when Chancellor Joe Cox proposed a statewide realignment that might have altered PSU and stifled its development. One of the ideas suggested that Portland State might become “Oregon State University at Portland.” Mr. Hein detailed the University’s response, “a politically savvy resistance effort” that not only derailed the chancellor’s plans but helped solidify Portland State’s position as the region’s major university. In “Notes on the Sicuro Era at PSU, 1986-1988,” Mr. Hein offered his opinions and personal recollections of Natale Sicuro’s two years as president of Portland State. Mr. Hein, who had the unenviable task of dealing with the media during the Sicuro administration, detailed the controversies that overwhelmed Sicuro and led to his removal from office. Mr. Hein also conducted interviews for an oral history of the University. Among those he interviewed were W.T. “Bill” Lemman, a Vanport student who rose to become a senior administrator at Portland State and a vice chancellor and acting chancellor for the Oregon State System of Higher Education; Judith Ramaley, president of Portland State from 1990 to 1997; and Michael Reardon, who served Portland State as professor of history, director of the Honors Program, provost, and acting president. The articles and interviews can be found at pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu. Mr. Hein as also involved with RAPS, and served as the organization’s president in 2010-2011. Mr. Hein met his first wife, Jean Harvey, while working for the Jeffersonian, Jefferson High’s student newspaper. They married in 1961 and remained married until Jean died in 1984. He met his second wife, Rebecca (Becky) Wolcott, at Portland State in the late 1980s, when she was chief financial officer for the PSU Foundation. They were married in 1990; Becky died in 2018. Mr. Hein is survived by a daughter, Susan, a son, Matthew, and a daughter-in-law, Casey Quinlan. Remembrances may be made in his memory to the Deborah Murdock Endowed Scholarship /Fund for public service and the Wilma Morrison Scholarship for journalism at the PSU Foundation, www.psuf.org.
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