People/Legends

University Librarian Emeritus and former Dean of Information Resources, Richard (Rich) Hines passed away on May 11, 2021 in St. Augustine, Florida, at the age of 74.

Dean Rich Hines, M.S. arrived at UP in 1997 as interim director of the Clark Library and served as permanent director from 1998-2006. During those years he provided oversight for the library and Instructional Media Center. In fact, from 2002-2006, Hines assumed dual roles as Library Director and Dean of Information Resources. And was called back from retirement to continue as Chief Information Officer for five months in 2007-08.

During his years as Library Director, the main book collection was reorganized by subject with some sections reclassified by call number to the Library of Congress classification system. The library organization was restructured to meet new needs with the redesign of an access services department combining circulation, periodicals services, interlibrary loan, reference, and outreach services and user education. Additional patron-use computer workstations were increased throughout the library, and access to electronic databases and library consortium resources improved for on- and off-campus use. Dean Hines is also credited for laying the groundwork for the successful library instruction program in place today.

As Dean of Information Resources, Hines was responsible for extending the reach of technology services across campus. His team introduced the UP community to the first version of the campus portal, Campus Pipeline (the precursor to today’s PilotsUP), and brought computer-lines and modem-lines to each residence hall (bringing email to the reach of every corner of campus– in the long-ago time when computers and phones need wall-connections!). Leading Information Resources, Dean Hines reorganized Computer and Telecommunication Services from audio-visual equipment services into a technical support unit of experts for infrastructure, information systems, and web services bringing on high-quality integrated technology-based services to faculty, staff, and students.

As service was the hallmark of Dean Hines’ work ethic, it seems fitting to share these words from him in an email to the library staff as he was closing up his office to begin retirement in 2006: “As I sit here doing my final cleanup before Drew [Harrington] arrives, I want to take this chance to say thanks to each and every one of you. Without a doubt, the library stands out as THE service unit on campus. There is only one reason why this is so, and that’s YOU! Your efforts have made this a far better place than it was when I arrived in 1997. Your commitment to service is known throughout campus, so much so that the Northwest Commission [on Colleges and Universities] doing the University’s 10 year review [in 2001] specifically commended us on our service ethic.”

Rich Hines with Library Staff and Instructional Media Staff in 1998 https://digital.up.edu/Documents/Detail/1998-the-log/1132?item=11717

Rich Hines and Library Staff in 2001
https://digital.up.edu/Documents/Detail/2001-the-log/1144?item=14396

Brother David Martin, C.S.C., arrived on the Bluff in 1928. With no college degree (yet). He was immediately named the Librarian. The irony became sort of an inspiration. He was to hold the office of Library director until 1966.

Faced with many challenges, Br. David worked in stages; waiting, proposing, pushing toward the possible and making progress. First, having charge of a limited collection of books, he created a dedicated reading-room for student study by moving the library from West (now Waldschmidt) Hall to Christie Hall where there was space for reading tables.  Next, or perhaps already within that first vision, he began to plan for a Library building, an impossible ambition in those days when there was only a single dedicated classroom building (Science Hall, 1937). But Br. David was patient and persistent. And prepared not only the design of a modern college library but also himself through the years of waiting. When the Library was built in 1958 — in no small part through his own efforts as promoter and chief fund-raiser — Br. David had, in the meanwhile, picked up four advanced degrees, founded the Library Summer School, and earned the rank of Dean of the School of Library Science. 

But, he wasn’t finished yet. Coincident with his retirement as Dean of the Library, the University Archives was established, with Br. David as the first University Archivist (June 1, 1966). Collating, arranging, and indexing historical files accumulated through more than sixty years of University life was to be the work, but his first order of business was again creating space and access– once again moving resources out from closet filing cabinets in West (Waldschmidt) Hall across campus to the library, and eventually to Shipstad Hall.

His fifty-five years of service (retiring from the Archives in 1983!) is a life-time of contributions to the growth and maturity of the University of Portland. The two developed together, Br. David and the University he loved. Br. David was ever learning and put his curiosity and knowledge into the hands of students and the University community. As his successors both the Clark Library and the Archives & Museum host digital collections available through the Clark Library web page and the historical page-posts on the Museum web page. Continuing his legacy.

Related posts about the Library:
The 1958 Library doubled in size with the 1979 addition; the 2013 renovation prioritized electronic learning and student study space.

Christie Hall Library

Peace studies began at the University of Portland in 1975. Fr. Joseph Powers, C.S.C., the then Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, acting as impresario. This program of Interdisciplinary Studies was at first an academic concentration terminating in a certificate, it continues today as the Social Justice Minor, a program of undergraduate study.

Dr. Loretta Zimmerman (History) was the first director; then Dr. Matthew Baasten (Theology), and from 1993-2008 Rev. Claude Pomerleau, C.S.C., (PhD., Political Science) headed Peace Studies, and (later) Social Justice Studies. Fr. Pomerleau died July 21, 2019. He served at the University of Portland until his retirement in 2014 — and of course was still teaching post-retirement, leading students in classroom instruction and discussion through Spring 2019. Retired, but not retiring.

International Relations was his academic box; but of course Fr. Pomerleau’s reflex was to escape pigeonholes and boxes. From his arrival on campus in 1991, his courses were cross-listed with the Peace Studies Program. When he became chair of the Department of History and Political Science he was already Director of Peace Studies (he was chair of Political Science and Director of Peace Studies simultaneously, 1994-2000). He was still Director of Peace Studies when the program was renamed in 2003 and then reimagined in 2006 to incorporate service internships into the curriculum. Fr. Pomerleau continued in the director’s role through 2008. Plus, somehow, while on sabbatical in 2003, he also served as the founding director of “The Department of Diplomacy and International Studies” at Uganda Martyrs University (Kampala); and also also, as visiting professor of International Studies at the University of Chile (IEI) since 1991. Many-sided, Claude preferred international football (Futbol = soccer) to the American game. Yes, Pilots’ Soccer first of all. Many-many-sided. Priest. Teacher. Scholar. Pastoral Resident. Prison Chaplain. Musician. Friend. In every role, an encourager cheering and inspiring others onward.

A model where what is received is handed on with value-added (see, listen, act); what the Holy Cross religious tradition refers to as an Educator in the Faith.

Dr. Arthur A. Schulte, Jr., died September 24, 2018 at age ninety in his sixtieth year as a Pilot. Which is not to say that his priorities were strange, though there is a hint of madness topping the list when asked in 1998 how he would choose to be remembered and Dr. Schulte confessed:

“Well, I’d like to be remembered as a man who loved the University and the people he worked with, as a man who worked and prayed each day for the University’s success. As a man who worked hard to keep the University’s progress as a whole in mind, and bent all his efforts to making it secure so it could grow safely and responsibly.  As a good steward of the Church I loved.  As a father who loved his daughters deeply.  And as a husband – a good one, I hope, but there you’ll have to ask Ruth. God blessed me with Ruthie.  Or that I used the tools God gave me to make the University better than it was when I started.  I helped the place change for the better, I hope.” (Portland Magazine, Spring 1998)

In truth, that hope was full and realized.  Dr. Schulte’s work earned him the University’s highest faculty honors and national recognition for his scholarship.  And also the University’s trust, twice steering the University in crisis times, appointed Acting President following the resignation of Brother Raphael Wilson, C.S.C., and once more after the tragic death of Rev. Thomas C. Oddo, C.S.C. in 1989.  In fact, he served as Executive Vice President for 25 years in total, from 1971-1996.

Therefore, very much a good-steward as in the quotation above, but remember those words were delivered in the Alumni magazine, and large heart is able to answer more than one duty.   Dr. Schulte’s family also earned the full devotion of a full heart.  And after their children were grown two Schulte scholarship funds were established at the University assisting a new and expanding generation of the Pilot family learning, living, and growing at UP.  From 1996 to date, the Dr. Arthur A. Schulte, Jr. Endowed Scholarship and the Tessa Ruth Schulte Endowed Scholarship funds have provided a helping-hand for nearly eighty students attending UP.

Gallery of photos from the University Archives

Each Veterans Day Air Force and Army ROTC cadets from the University of Portland keep a 24-hour vigil at the Praying Hands/Broken Wall Memorial near Christie and Kenna Halls.  The Memorial Circle remembers those from Columbia Preparatory School, Columbia University, and the University of Portland who gave their lives in war-time.  In this post we remember one of those men, Second Lieutenant David R. Kingsley, Columbia Prep student from 1933-1936, who fought and died in World War II.

David Kingsley knew about sacrifice from the early age of 10 or 11 after his father died from an automobile accident while helping a neighbor, AND after putting aside his own need for medical treatment insisting that his passenger be seen first.   And again, when David’s mother was paralyzed from cancer, and he assumed the role of father and mother to care for his seven younger brothers and sisters, giving up sports and study at Columbia Prep one year short of his graduation.

But the sacrifice which cost the young lieutenant his life came when Kingsley’s crippled plane was under attack over Romanian oil fields during World War II in June 1944.   When crew members were hit by enemy fire, Kingsley tended to the wounded on board.  Under orders to bail out of the badly damaged plane, Kingsley placed parachutes on the injured, but when too few were found, he removed his own parachute in favor of an injured soldier and released him to safety.  Without a chute for himself, Kingsley perished with the plane — four days before his 26th birthday.

The Congressional Medal of Honor was posthumously awarded to 2nd Lieutenant David R. Kingsley on April 9, 1945.  (Full citation)  In 2004, the David R. Kingsley Memorial was erected near the crash site in Suhozem, Bulgaria. 

Kingsley Field Air National Guard Base in Klamath Falls, OR is named to honor his valor.

For related posts on the Broken Wall and Veterans Day Observance:
https://sites.up.edu/museum/veterans-day-observance/

https://sites.up.edu/museum/broken-wall-memorial-1990-2015/

https://sites.up.edu/museum/broken-wall-memorial-is-broken/

Sources:
“The Making of a Hero” by Christopher Boehme, Portland magazine, Summer 1989;
Wikipedia; United States Army Center of Military History

Brian Doyle was recruited to come to the University of Portland and edit Portland Magazine, our alumni newsletter, in 1991.  In his twenty-five years of service, the magazine became an award winning literary journal through essays and profiles highlighting University Events, Accomplishments, Alumni , and all the stories of why the University of Portland is a home and community for students, faculty, and all who belong to the Bluff.

Brian died on May 27, 2017.  He was an award winning editor, a widely published and award winning author, and, for the students who worked at publications and journalism on campus, Brian was a spark, friend, inspiration, and mentor.

He was a pied-piper, who wrote an annual public-service announcement for The Beacon calling students to the vocation of writer, life-participant:

(from January 24, 2013)

Question: you like telling stories, don’t you?  I mean, that’s why you have friends, and that’s why people enjoy your company, and that’s why you enjoy their company, largely because you share stories that make you laugh and think and sometimes even move you to the bottom of your soul.
So why not work for The Beacon?

(answering objections, in January 23, 2014)

I don’t have the time …

Yes, you do.  Look at yourself right now, in those ratty pajamas, watching the “Burn Notice” episode for the ninth time.  Good Lord, man, get out of your room.  And pick up that towel off the floor before you go.

I have no experience…

Yes, you do.  You collect stories.  You share stories. You trade stories.  You remember stories.  You are stories.  Your family, friends, pursuits, thrills, adventures, ambitions, dreams — all stories.  Why not put that curiosity and hunger for stories to work, on, say, the yearbook staff?  Wouldn’t it be cool to try and catch the joys and shivers for a year on The Bluff in stories and photographs and paintings for the Log?

We remember his service at the university primarily through his work as a writer.  Brian Doyle was also a great audience.

http://www.upbeacon.com/article/2017/05/a-few-words-on-brian-doyle-from-a-student

One of Brian’s essays in a Museum blog post, July 16, 2014:
https://sites.up.edu/museum/in-the-beginning-day-one/

Rev. Charles David Sherrer, C.S.C., died at the age of 81 on Holy Thursday, April 13, 2017 at home at Notre Dame surrounded by members of the Congregation of Holy Cross.  Fr. Sherrer studied at Notre Dame as a seminarian, taking his BA in 1958.  He set foot in a UP English classroom for the first time in 1962.  In 2005, he retired from UP, Professor of English and distinguished administrator.  Between these beginnings and ends, Fr. Sherrer did a lot of stuff along the way, but always and first, understood himself as Holy Cross religious, priest, and teacher.

At UP he occupied multiple lecterns.  In classrooms, at many faculty functions, and serving as master of ceremonies for many, many Commencement exercises during the years when Fr. Sherrer carried the duties of Graduate School Dean and, later, Academic Vice President (1987-1995).  A full-professor from 1991 until his retirement. 

Brian Doyle, the editor of Portland Magazine, caught and highlighted the following words in which Fr. Sherrer describes the dynamic and rewards and humility of the teacher’s art:

“Of all the hours in my day the most rewarding are those in class, and it is my conclusion after forty years that it is never a bad day in class as long as I learn something, which I do every class, so there you are.” (Portland Magazine, Spring 2005, p. 13)

(Photos from the University Archives, click on image to enlarge)

Rev. David Sherrer, C.S.C., English professor, 1963

University President, Rev. David Tyson, C.S.C. and Vice Presidents, 1996 Commencement

Rev. David Sherrer, C.S.C., President of Kings College, and lion mascot, 1980 or 81

Rev. David Sherrer, C.S.C., Academic Vice President, ca1996 Commencement

UP Deans Meeting, 1983

Rev. David Sherrer, C.S.C., at Desk in Buckley Center, 1974

Rev. David Sherrer, C.S.C., in Chapel of Christ the Teacher, 2015

Rev. David Sherrer, 2005

Rev. Ronald J. Wasowski, C.S.C., associate professor of Environmental Science, passed away unexpectedly the evening of December 5, 2016 at the age of 70; in phased retirement and his last year of classroom teaching.  At UP since 1998, offering general and upper division science courses, and contributing to student life as Mehling Hall Pastoral Resident, Voice for Life Chaplain, and more.

Which sounds sort of ordinary, maybe even dull.  How about this?  For the past three years, Fr. Wasowski was part of the University of Portland archaeological team, the Pollentia expedition, spending part of each summer in Mallorca, Spain.  The excavation is uncovering a Roman-era city.   Fr. Wasowski’s contribution to the team was the use of drones in Archaeology (tracing the outlines of city-walls, building foundations, and streets from the air), and nick-named “Father Drone” by expedition colleagues.  He flew drones and taught classes where students spend class-time and homework FLYING camera-drones.  Helicopter camera-drones, all too cool for the catalogue, where the course title is listed as ENV 384 / BIO 384 / CE 458 Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems, listed within the academic degree concentration Quantitative and Spatial Methods, which also requires course-work in Vector Calculus and Ordinary Differential Equations (bring on the drone lab).

He also knew far too much about rocks, minerals, meteor showers, and regular weather.  Sharing enthusiasm and abiding inquiry with students and friends both.

Fr. Wasowski taught at the University of Notre Dame, King’s College, Wilkes-Barre, and the University of Portland, earning tenure twice (he departed Notre Dame when their Earth Sciences/Geology program folded).

Clark Library Digital Collection about the 2015 Pollentia Expedition
http://up.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/p16472coll4

Fr. Ron Wasowski’s Aerial Photography – 2015 Pollentia Expedition
http://up.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/search/collection/p16472coll4/searchterm/Aerial%20Photography/field/subjec/mode/all/conn/and/order/nosort

Photo gallery, click to enlarge images

Father Ron Wasowski, C.S.C. with Drone, Pollentia Expedition (Maria Erb photo)

Holy Cross First Profession Class (Back row, 3rd from left, next to Tom Oddo), 1966 (University Archives)

Fr. Wasowski with a drone, Pollentia Expedition, 2015 (Clark Library digitial collections)

Back row: David Kroon, Lewis Lum, Rev. Ronald Wasowski, C.S.C., Rev. John Kurtzke, C.S.C., Front row: William Fuller, Michael Akerman, David Cresap, Steven Vegdahl, 1998 (University Archives)

Holy Cross Retreat at Mt. Angel Abbey Rev. Ronald Wasowski, C.S.C., Rev. James Connelly, C.S.C., Rev. James Lies, C.S.C., 1998 (University Archives)

Rev. Ronald Wasowski, C.S.C., 1998 (University Archives)

Fr. Ron Wasowski, Junior Parents Weekend Mass, 2013 (Marketing & Communications)