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Featured

Spirit of Portland U Pennant

August 25, 2020 By Carolyn

Portland Pennant, late 1940s

This Spirit of Portland U pennant (circa 1948 or 1949) is one item in the Student Life collection of the University Museum. Dr. Manuel Macias was the donor, a 1951 alumnus, long-time professor of Spanish (1958-1995), and faithful student scholarship donor — a true Pilot.

Bookstore, ca1962 (click to enlarge)

The colorful pennant design logo prominently features then-new University mascot, Spirit of Portland U (SPU) – a river pilot with rain gear and spyglass – created in 1948 by Nolan Drurey, class of 1949, winner of a Beacon-sponsored mascot design contest. One of the early items for sale in the University Bookstore with the new mascot design.

SPU’s image spread to spirit and campus swag and publications — 1948 Homecoming (napkins and coasters), student book covers, Pilot Student Guides, student body ID cards, t-shirts and more, as pictured in this photo from the University Bookstore.

The SPU rally-squad mascot (a student inside animating the heavy costume) evolved through the years and embraced a name change to become Wally Pilot in the 1970s. Our earlier post about Wally Pilot tells the backstory.

Additional References:
Spirit of Portland U (SPU): https://up.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16472coll10/id/414/rec/27

Wally Pilot:
https://sites.up.edu/museum/?s=wally+pilot

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From the University Bulletin, themes of mission and value

August 11, 2020 By Carolyn

The University of Portland, an independently governed Catholic university guided by the Congregation of Holy Cross, addresses significant questions of human concern through disciplinary and interdisciplinary studies of the arts, sciences, and humanities and through studies in majors and professional programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels. As a diverse community of scholars dedicated to excellence and innovation, we pursue teaching and learning, faith and formation, service and leadership in the classroom, residence halls and the world. Because we value the development of the whole person, the university honors faith and reason as ways of knowing, promotes ethical reflection, and prepares people who respond to the needs of the world and its human family.

The mission includes three core themes: Teaching and Learning, Faith and Formation, and Service and Leadership. The three core themes capture the essential elements of the mission and collectively express the essence of the University of Portland.

The goals/objectives supporting the core themes are:

  • Core Theme: Teaching and Learning — A university with premier academic programs.
  • Core Theme: Faith and Formation — A campus-wide culture that promotes human formation and integrates reason, faith, and ethical values
  • Core Theme: Service and Leadership — A community that demonstrates service and leadership for the common good.

Source: Bulletin, 2020-2021

Pre-1991 Mission banner: https://up.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15458coll4/id/666/rec/24

Previous new school year post:
Welcome to College

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Battling Germs

July 28, 2020 By Carolyn

Deep in the museum basement storage room in Shipstad Hall is a very large World War II-era Autoclave Sterilizer manufactured by the American Sterilizer Company. The hand-made sign reads: Sterilizer Used at the Swan Island Shipyards in World War Two

Autoclave Sterilizer (click to enlarge)

The curious-minded might wonder the part a sanitizer might play in industrial shipbuilding, during World War II, or even before, or after. How does it fit?

Swan Island names the area below the Bluff. During World War II the Portland airport and the Henry J. Kaiser shipyard were both located on the island. The shipyard operated under the authority of the U.S. Maritime Commission’s Emergency Shipbuilding program. They built war-ships there for the Navy; big ships, armored ships, ships for offense and attack. Rather urgently. The work and workers did not stop but had three-shifts for 24-hour production.

Front of Autoclave Sterilizer Chamber (click to enlarge)

A sterilizer autoclave is not used for industrial battleship production (examination gives no evidence of that sort of wear and tear). However, Kaiser furnished a Child Service Center to provide 24-hour child care while parents (women filled the gaps in the labor shortage) worked at the shipyard. Children using the center were inspected upon arrival and sent immediately to the infirmary for additional care if any signs of illness appeared. An autoclave does sanitize medical instruments. These Child Service Centers operated from November 1943-September 1945.

When the war ended, shipyards declined, and the Child Service Center shuttered its doors; much of their production material was repurposed as well. The University acquired a number of War Surplus items for use in the classrooms, and even as classrooms. The biology department and science programs received quantities of supplies and equipment, the sterilizer a prime specimen, a first-rate industrial-grade laboratory upgrade for biology and science instruction.

References:
“Child Care for Swan Island Shipyard Workers.” Oregon History Project, https://oregonhistoryproject.org/child-care-for-swan-island-shipyard-workers/. Accessed 3 June 2020.

Curd, Mary Bryan. “Child Service Centers, Swan Island Shipyards.” Oregon History Project, 19 Nov. 2019, https://oregonhistoryproject.org/articles/child-service-centers-swan-island-shipyards/

Willingham, William F. “Swan Island.” The Oregon Encyclopedia, 1 June 2018, https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/swan_island/#.XtaA9zpKjI

Clark Library Digital Collections

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On the Bluff: looking out, looking up

July 9, 2020 By Carolyn

Observatory, 1977 (click to enlarge)

Once upon a time in a quiet corner of the campus, UP had a Starr Observatory.  That is, an actual astronomical observatory with a twenty-inch computer-operated telescope for looking at stars in the night sky.  The all-too-appropriate name was bestowed in 1985, honoring Professor Merle Starr at his retirement after years of teaching astronomy in the observatory shed.

The Observatory was the 1952 Class Gift; and in actual fact, members of the graduating class worked together with faculty to build it after Br. Godfrey Vassallo, C.S.C., secured the gift of the 20-inch instrument for campus (see, Dr. James Covert, A Point of Pride.) The 1952 installation of the telescope is documented as a campus-highlight page-filler in the 1959 Log.

Through its first twenty-five years stories labelling the Observatory as a hidden-treasure-on-campus featured as an almost annual feature in the pages of The Beacon (14 stories and notices).  The building came down in 2009, making room for the addition of the Quiet-Side of the expanded Bauccio Commons.  The real doom of the observatory, however, was urban growth and the increased ambient light which washes out the night sky.

The Beacon, March 30, 1963, pg. 4
(click to enlarge)

The building was not indicated on campus maps until 1958 (number 15).  The lens and refractor (which was created as a prototype for the 200-inch Mt. Palomar Observatory in California) is currently in the care of the Environment Studies faculty.

Campus Map with Observatory marked, The Bulletin, 1959 (click to enlarge)

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Tonsillectomy Bag

June 17, 2020 By Carolyn

Tonsillectomy Bag (click to enlarge)

The tonsillectomy (tonsil-removal surgery) has been a rite of passage for many children (especially children from classic family television from the 60s and 70s). After-care always promising ice-cream treats!

Side View (click to enlarge)

In real life, discharge instructions suggest applying cold-therapy externally in order to reduce swelling and inflammation. Today’s therapies might favor using a bag of frozen vegetables or a sealed bag of ice. Before ziploc, the Davol Company (maker of rubber medical supplies) produced this ugly, but functional item. A brown, rubber circular bag for cold water or ice and wrapped around the neck to secure in place. Estimates place its manufacture in the 1940s or 50s.

University Museum, Nursing Collection, M2009.9.4

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TWIRP DANCE (=The Woman is Requested to Pay)

May 27, 2020 By Carolyn

Article accompanied by picture of two students
Couple dancing

From its inception in 1951, the Associated Women’s Students sponsored awareness events. One such popular event was a Women’s Week to mark women’s accomplishments and activities. They capped off the week with a Sadie Hawkins-type dance — The TWIRP Dance (which was also a fundraiser). The woman partner arranged the date and purchased the dance ticket = TWIRP (see our header); at the end of the evening the attendees voted (by bid) to select a King of the event.

The dances begin in 1954 and were held at various venues, both on-campus and downtown. 1965 appears to be the last in the series.

The dashing king of the Dance is First-Year Student Benny Dean (right).  Mr. Benjamin Dean, BA ’60 is the brother of Kay Frances Dean,  BA ’64.  Ms. Kay Dean Toran (PhD., Honorary, 2012) has served on the University’s Board of Regents since 2006, and helps support both the Class of 1964 Endowed Scholarship and the Class of 1964 Leadership in Ethics or Diversity Endowed Scholarship. Part of the UP family. Defining a legacy of commitment.

The yearbook page from 1960– sixty years ago– prompted this fact-check: in that year women constituted 35% of the undergraduate population at UP. The education school had not yet been separated, but we do find certain stereotypes fulfilled: women dominated the nursing enrollment (124-0), and they were over-matched in Engineering (1-188). Today the undergraduate ratio of women is approaching 60%. The picture constantly changing, and different doors constantly opened (there are even male students in the School of Nursing, the first of whom graduated in 1973.)

Article about Twirp Dance

Photo & article credits:
top, 1960 LOG, p. 109
middle, 1957 LOG, p. 162
bottom, The BEACON, Oct. 22, 1954

For Kay Toran, see Portland Magazine, Winter 2020

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Social Distancing, 1970-ish

May 19, 2020 By Carolyn

American society seemed to fracture and unravel in the late 1960s; a time of social revolution and mutual distrust characterized by the generation-gap, Nixon’s Southern strategy, tense race relations, anti-war and draft protests. Many of these protest movements found natural outlets on college campuses. But the University of Portland was not much disturbed or disrupted by the larger social unrest. As reflected on in this retrospective piece from the July 1971 UP Alumni Bulletin:

Alumni Bulletin, July 1971, p. 4

During the time of unrest and splintering, UP practiced a measure of ‘Social Distancing’ seen appropriate to the circumstances.

(looking out from the Bluff over a not-yet-developed industrial Swan Island, and Mt. Hood, circa 1968)

However, some assembly of persons was allowed—and even encouraged—to move towards healing divisions, expressing grievances, and valuing the free exercise of speech and opinion. Though students were expected to observe the ‘5-minute rule’ (the context for this directive is found in the exhibit at the bottom).

Gatherings and communication were expected in that moment of national stress; however, the Administration anticipated that after people had their say, then dispersal would follow, all students would return to studies and the work of education would resume. Asking for continuity-determinedly so—in unsettled times. So that, despite not being able to see the future clearly, the academic community continued to watch and prepare whatever the future would bring.

(this image cheats a little, grainy; The Columbiad October 1923, p.17; another old view of Swan Island)

This last exhibit is spliced and edited from the Alumni Bulletin, January 1969, pp. 6, 11.

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2020 Retiring Faculty

May 7, 2020 By Carolyn

At the end of the 2019-20 academic year, nine members of the University of Portland faculty will retire after many years of service to this institution and making a difference in the lives of untold numbers of students.  The University gives thanks to our retiring faculty for their dedication and commitment to teaching and learning and wishes them all the best.

Dr. Robert J. Albright, Professor of Electrical Engineering, at UP since 1970
Dr. Robin D. Anderson, Dean of Pamplin School of Business and Franz Endowed Professor of Entrepreneurship, at UP since 1998
Dr. James B. Carroll, Professor of Education, at UP since 1994
Dr. Willoughby Deming, Professor of Theology, at UP since 1992
Dr. Mark Eifler, Associate Professor of History, at UP since 2000
Dr. Richard Gritta, Professor of Business, at UP since 1976
Dr. Pamela Potter, Associate Professor of Nursing, at UP since 2007
Frances Simmons, Instructor, School of Nursing, at UP since 1989
Dr. Thomas G. Greene, Provost and Professor of Education, at UP since 1983

(Photos from the University Archives, School of Nursing, School of Education, Pamplin School of Business, Marketing & Communications; Click on image to enlarge)

Dr. Robert Albright, ca1970
Dr. Robert Albright in the classroom, date unknown
Dr. Robert Albright, October 2004
Dr. Susan Decker and Dr. Robert Albright, Grand Marshals for Rev. Mark Poorman, C.S.C.  Inauguration, 2014

Dr. Robin Anderson, 1998
Rev. E. William Beauchamp, C.S.C. and Br. Donald Stabrowski, C.S.C. with Endowed Chairs, Drs. Steven Kolmes, Margaret Hogan, James Male, Robin Anderson, 2003
John & Jackie Goldrick; Robin & Jean Anderson, Heroes Among Us Gala, 2014
TeachToss-BizFrz Frisbee Challenge, Dean Robin Anderson and Dean John Watzke, 2012

Dr. James Carroll, September 1997
Dr. James Carroll (center), Dr. Sally Hood, Dr. Gregory Pulver, 2014 Commencement
Dr. James Carroll, 2015 Commencement
Dr.-Rebecca-Smith-Dr.-James-Carroll-Dr-Nicole-Ralston-Dr.-Jackie-Waggoner-April-2019

Dr. Willoughby Deming, 1992
Dr. Willoughby Deming, 1999
Dr. Willoughby Deming (left), 2016 Commencement
Dr. Willoughby Deming, UP Directory Photo

Dr. Mark Eifler, 2000
Dr. Mark Eifler, 2013
Drs. Mark and Karen Eifler, 2015
Dr. Mark Eifler and Dr. Mark Kennedy, 2017

Dr. Tom Greene,  1998
Dr. Thomas Greene appointed as Provost, February 2013
Groundbreaking for Dundon-Berchtold Hall, 2017
Dr. Tom Greene Receives the Spirit of Holy Cross Award, Fr. Mark Poorman, C.S.C., Shannon & Tom Greene,  Rev. Charles McCoy, C.S.C., January 2020

Dr. Richard Gritta, 1977
Dr. Richard Gritta, 1983
Dr. Richard Gritta, 1993
Dr. Richard Gritta, 2013

Dr. Pamela Potter, 2009
Dr. Pamela Potter, UP Directory photo
Dr. Pamela Potter (center), 2015
Instructor Tanya Bachman and Dr. Pamela Potter, 2018

Frances Simmons, 1978
Frances Simmons, UP Directory Photo
Frances Simmons with School of Nursing Faculty, Commencement 2016
Larizza Limjuco Woodruff, Frances Simmons, Theresa Duda, School of Nursing Celebration, 2019

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Extraordinary Measures: 1948 Graduation

May 1, 2020 By Carolyn

During WWII the Port of Portland built ships.  The surge of shipyard workers was met by a surge of public housing. Built in 1942, Vanport grew up rapidly on the site of present day Delta Park and was the largest wartime housing project in the U.S.  By 1944 the Vanport area was home to 40,000 people: making it Oregon’s second largest city at the time.  As the war ended and many workers left the area, returning veterans and their families moved in.

City of Portland (OR) Archives, View of flood at Vanport with overturned cars. A2001-083, 1948.

On Memorial Day, Sunday, May 30, 1948, during the University of Portland commencement exercises, president Rev. Theodore Mehling, C.S.C. announced to those in attendance the emergency news that the Vanport dike had broken and Vanport City stood flooded. Fr. Mehling urged those concerned to leave immediately. At least two seniors and a number of guests at the ceremony lived in Vanport.

By evening, the whole of Vanport City was underwater and destroyed. Two residents, Emmett Barrett, (UP ’41), and his wife, were on campus that day to celebrate Eugene Barrett’s graduation (Emmett’s brother). When they returned to Vanport a month later, their apartment house was still standing but the inside was covered in mud.

Emmett Barrett, ’41, Letterman’s Sweater, 1948

Emmett earned his monogram playing football for UP from 1938-1940 (he had also distinguished himself by playing center for the NFL’s New York Giants for the 1942 season). All that he was able to salvage from the flood wreckage was his University of Portland letterman’s sweater (pictured) and letterman’s blanket. An insurance agent, hopefully Mr. Barrett’s losses beyond the monogram mementos were covered.

Flooded apartments during the Vanport flood, Oregon Historical Society, Library

References:
Portland Magazine, Spring 1988, p. 9-10

View of flood at Vanport with overturned cars. City of Portland (OR) Archives, A2001-083, 1948. Accessed April 27, 2020 from City of Portland Archives https://www.portlandoregon.gov/archives/article/24770

Flooded apartments during the Vanport flood. Camera Art Studio. Oregon Historical Society, Library. OrgLot131_014. Accessed April 27, 2020 from Oregon Historical Society, Library https://digitalcollections.ohs.org/flooded-apartments-during-the-vanport-flood-2 . In Copyright – Rights-holder(s) Unlocatable or Unidentifiable

Related:
UP Alma Mater (audio file)

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Blanchet Gold Medal Award

April 28, 2020 By Carolyn

round gold medal with C U in the center
Blanchet Gold Medal for Bookkeeping

Among the awards and distinctions conferred at the Columbia University commencement exercises on June 14, 1905 was the Blanchet Gold Medal for outstanding bookkeeping student. This academic award is one of the earliest objects in the University’s museum collection and was named for its donor, Monsignor F. X. Blanchet, who was also present for the occasion.

Reverse, with monogram of the recipient

The Blanchet Gold Medal was presented to Frederick L. Weber. One of a class of ten graduates. Mr. Weber was awarded a Commercial Diploma. Archbishop Alexander Christie, founder of the University, was in attendance and addressed the members of the graduating class. Mr. Ignatius McNamee delivered the valedictory.

The medal was only awarded twice, 1905 and 1906.  These academic honors were, as it were, personal gifts by the sponsors to the student-recipient.  And Monsignor Blanchet died in 1906. 

Columbia University was the precursor to today’s University of Portland, existing from 1901-1935. The ten diplomas awarded in 1905 were in the high school division.

Reference:
The Columbiad, June 1905, vol. 3, no. 9

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Recent Posts

  • Spirit of Portland U Pennant
  • From the University Bulletin, themes of mission and value
  • Battling Germs
  • On the Bluff: looking out, looking up
  • Tonsillectomy Bag
  • A Given Life: Entwined with Learning
  • TWIRP DANCE (=The Woman is Requested to Pay)
  • A Most Noble Order Indeed

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