The rush is over...

We’ve made it through commencement season, and I continue to hear positive feedback about Martha Ackmann’s address. You can read it online here. She traveled to Oregon with her father, Florenze, and I believe they enjoyed their stay. As we parted they were planning a Father’s Day trip to Crater Lake. The photo below shows Martha talking to some of the attendees at the Commencement Eve dinner.

At that dinner, I was pleased to make Thomas Sternburgh an Honorary Emeritus Faculty member. He was one of the founding instructors of the Medical Technology program at the old campus. It was a fitting turn of events that he was named Emeritus the same week we broke ground for the Oregon Center for Health Professions. The facility will house the Clinical Laboratory Science program, which is the new name for Medical Technology. Phased out in the late 1980s, the program is now offered in Portland through a partnership with Oregon Health and Science University.

Pictured above are Mr. Sternburgh and one of his students, William Dettwyler. Mr. Dettwyler is a Golden Owl, a designation assigned to alumni with graduation dates of 40 or more years ago.


I thought you might also like to see a photo from the groundbreaking. We were so fortunate that the weather held off. There had been rain and hail earlier in the day. I was so pleased with the attendance. Many people told us that no one attends a groundbreaking, but the more than 200 in attendance seems to discount that theory.

I want to thank Mike Payne for his feedback. As this blog continues, I hope to provide more detail about areas where I would encourage more student discussion. It was interesting to hear about the lack of pencil sharpeners. I imagine the use of mechanical pencils made someone think there wasn’t a need for the devices. It’s amazing what you can learn here.

I also want to thank Palmer for his positive feedback.

Have a great weekend.