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
The end of an era. Thank you Dr. Schulte for your exceptional stewardship of our University of Portland. You’ve positively impacted the experiences of tens of thousands of Students, Faculty & Staff over your years which is an amazing legacy in and of itself. Condolences to the Schulte family, seems like you were blessed with one of God’s better creations.