Almanac: October
October 1
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This is the feast of St. Theresa of the Child Jesus (1873-1897), a French Discalced Carmelite. At the suggestion of her spiritual director she wrote an autobiography that was published shortly after her death, winning wide admiration for its simplicity and insight. Her appeal led to a rapid spread of devotion to her "little way" of spirituality and to her canonization less than twenty-eight years after her death. Despite her modest education and limited writings she was declared a doctor of the Church by Pope John Paul II, one of only four women to be so honored in Church history.
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Louis Untermeyer, poet, critic, and anthologizer was born on this date in 1885. It was also the birthday, both on the same day in 1924, of Jimmy Carter, thirty-ninth president of the United States, and of William Rehnquist, chief justice of the United States. And it is the birthday in 1963 of Mark McGwire, the outfielder for the St. Louis Cardinals who held the record for home runs hit in a single season in major league baseball from 1999 until 2001.
October 2
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Today the Church celebrates the feast of the Guardian Angels. And in 2001 it was the first day of the Jewish feast of Succoth, also known as the feast of Tabernacles, an observance of thanksgiving marking the ending of the traditional harvest season.
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Father Eugene R. Montoya, C.S.C., died on this date in 1993 at age 49. He had served in campus ministry from 1973 to 1975 and again briefly before his death.
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And Brother Meinrad Secard, C.S.C., died on this date in 1972 at age 63. He had served at the University in the 1948-49 school year and again from 1951 until his death. For many years he was manager of the bookstore.
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Wallace Stevens, the poet, was born on this day in 1879. And Graham Greene, the novelist, writer of film plays, and sometime spy, was born on this day in 1904. On this day in 1950 Charles Schulz's cartoon "Peanuts" first appeared, under the name "Lil Folks."
October 3
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This was the birthday in 1900 of Thomas Wolfe, author of Look Homeward, Angel (1929) and other novels and short stories. It is also the birthday in 1925 of novelist Gore Vidal. It is the anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln's designation in 1863 of the last Thursday in November as a day of national thanksgiving.
October 4
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Today is the feast of St. Francis of Assisi. Born in 1182, in a lifetime of barely forty-four years he created a religious movement of extraordinary influence in the history of the Church. He was canonized as a saint only two years after his death.
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Father Gordon Wilcox, C.S.C., died on this date in 1984 at Notre Dame, Indiana, at age 56. From 1978 to 1983 he had been resident director of Shipstad Hall.
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In Colorado in 1987 this day saw the death at age 58 of Father James C. Schultz, C.S.C. He taught philosophy at the University from 1967 to 1974. His shy, self-effacing humor and his passion for ideas charmed and discomforted friends and students. He died in a fall while hiking on Mount Blanco in south-central Colorado.
October 5
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The Chapel of Christ the Teacher was solemnly dedicated on this date in 1986. Bishop Paul E. Waldschmidt, C.S.C., former president of the University, presided at the ceremony. The funding of the chapel came principally from the investment of a gift made in the 1950s by Father James Fogarty, C.S.C., professor of economics at the University. Further contributions to the chapel fund were made over the years, especially from the family of Father James G. Anderson, C.S.C., also of the University's faculty. Father Anderson's careful (and fortunate) stewardship of the fund produced a sum that persuaded then President, Father Thomas Oddo, and the Board of Regents that the time to build the long-planned chapel had come.
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Father John O. Thillman, C.S.C., who had served briefly as vice president of the University from 1903 to 1904, died on this date in 1936 at age 64. In the same year he was appointed the first pastor of Holy Cross Parish in North Portland, a position he held until 1910.
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On this day in 1877 Chief Joseph, along with a large band of his Nez Perce followers, surrendered to federal troops at Big Hole, Montana, about 30 miles from the Canadian border.
October 6
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Father Jeffrey G. Sobosan, C.S.C., professor of theology, died on this date in 1999 at the age of 53. He had served at the University for just over two decades. In his years at the University he developed a following of students, young and old, conservative and liberal, who professed that his introduction to theological ideas was transforming. He was a prolific writer who spelled out a Christian vision of the future that was especially sensitive to the natural world. He was well known for his compassionate interest in animals and gardens.
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On this date in 1985 the statue Portlandia was brought by barge up the Willamette River, past the University, to a site on the west bank of the river above the Morrison Street Bridge, where it was transported to the Portland Building on S.W. Fifth Avenue.
October 7
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The feast of Our Lady of the Rosary was instituted in grateful commemoration of the victory of the Holy League (an alliance of Spain, Venice, and Italian forces under the leadership of John of Austria) over a Turkish fleet on October 7, 1571. The battle is commemorated in "Lepanto," a
poem
by G. K. Chesterton.
October 8
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In 1999 this date marked the dedication of the Dr. Robert B. Pamplin, Jr., School of Business Administration. The School of Business Administration had been established at the University of Portland in 1939. The new name of the school was adopted to reflect both the generous gift of Dr. Pamplin and a new commitment to "intellectual growth, leadership, social responsibility, and a global perspective" announced in its mission. Dr. Pamplin is a graduate of the University, having received the M.B.A. degree in 1968 and the M. Ed. in 1975. He and his father were also recognized in 1972 when the University bestowed upon each of them the degree doctor of laws, honoris causa.
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This date saw the death in 1977 of Father Irwin W. Orkiszewski, C.S.C., teacher of history at the University from 1947 to the time of his death at age 64.
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Father William T. Morrison, C.S.C., who served at the University from 1947 to 1952, died on this date in 1994 at the age of 81.
October 9
- Pope Pius XII died on this date in 1958. He had been elected to the papacy on his birthday, March 2, in 1939. The rumblings of World War II were already disturbing Europe and within months German armies were rolling into the neighbors to the east. Pius XII remained in Rome throughout the war and was often praised in those years for his courage and for his attention to the suffering and persecuted. After the war, however, and especially in the decades that followed his death voices of complaint arose that he had failed to speak out clearly enough in condemnation of the Nazi persecution of Jews. This, despite acknowledgement that nearly a million Jews had been saved, in part through his efforts. On this date in 2008 the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights posted an advertisement on the Op Ed page of the The New York Times citing a number of contemporaries who praised Pius XII for his aid to the Jewish people of his time.
October 10
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This date in 1982 saw the inauguration of Father Thomas C. Oddo, C.S.C., as the eighteenth President of the University. Before being appointed president Father Oddo had served on the theology faculty of Stonehill College in Massachusetts.
- In the year 2009 this date was the occasion of the dedication of the renovated engineering building named for Donald P. Shiley, a graduate of the University in 1951 with a degree in engineering. Shiley had gone on to use his knowledge in engineering to design an artificial heart valve that was successfully used in thousands of patients. His generous support, together with gifts from Edward and Sharon Sweo and other friends of the University, made possible what was virtually a new building.
October 11
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Father Robert W. King, C.S.C., died on this date in 1972 at age 67. He had taught philosophy at the University from 1949 until the time of his death.
October 12
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In 1962 a major storm struck Portland on this date, remembered by those who experienced it as "the Columbus Day storm." The roof of St. Joseph Hall, a two-story wooden structure to the west of Howard Hall then serving as a residence for several Holy Cross religious, was ripped away by the wind and many of the native Douglas firs on the campus were uprooted. Power was lost to much of the city including the campus. The food service at the Commons improvised with hamburgers cooked over charcoal on the grills that originally lined the west entrance to the building.
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Father John T. Biger, C.S.C., who taught French at the University from 1947 to 1965, died on this date in 1993 at age 83.
October 13
- The University of Portland Almanac presently offers no specific entry for this date. If you wish to suggest material that would appropriately be listed under this date, please contact the editor.
October 14
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This date in 1995 was marked by the first initiation ceremony and chapter charter ceremony at the University of Portland of Kappa Delta Pi, an international honor society in education.
October 15
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This is the feast of St. Teresa of Avila, a Spanish Carmelite of the sixteenth century. She was a reformer in her religious community but her writings gave her influence beyond her convent and beyond her lifetime. She is one of four women accorded the title doctor of the Church.
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St. Teresa died on this date in 1582, exactly the same date on which Pope Gregory XIII inaugurated a reformed calendar that is followed today and is called the Gregorian calendar in his honor. The previous day, a Thursday, had borne the date of October 4; by the pope's decree the next day, a Friday, was to be known as October 15. The omission of ten days was intended to bring the occurrence of the spring equinox back to March 21. The old Julian calendar had been devised so that the equinox would occur on March 25, but when the Council of Nicea met in 325 the equinox was already falling around March 21, so that date was accepted as the basis for the calculation of Easter. The Gregorian reform of 1582 also amended the Julian formula to avoid future drift between the solar year and the calendar. Henceforth years ending in --00 would not be counted as leap years unless they were divisible by 400. This correction is exact enough to preclude even as much as one day's slippage until about the year 5267.
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In 1936 this date saw the death at age 71 of Father James S. Ready, C.S.C., who served at the University from 1913 until his death. Among other appointments, he served as vice president of the University during the 1918-1919 school year. At the time of his death he was serving as Chaplain to the student body.
October 16
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And this date in 1986 saw the death at age 80 of the Very Reverend Christopher J. O'Toole, C.S.C., former superior general (1950-1962) of the Congregation of Holy Cross. He regarded the introduction of co-education on the Bluff as "an experiment" and insisted that Villa Maria, the first residence hall for women, be built on the opposite corner of the campus from the men's halls. He also approved the seeking of government loans to support the building expansion on the campus in the late 1950s.
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On this date in 1902 the "second English class" of what was then Columbia University debated the topic, "Resolved: that capital punishment should be abolished." The prize was awarded to those on the negative side.
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On this day in 1903 the University was visited by the Catholic bishops of the Northwest: Archbishop Christie of Oregon City and Bishops O'Dea of Seattle, Glorieux of Boise City, O'Reilly of Baker City, and Brondel of Helena.
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On this date in 1978 Karol Cardinal Wojtyla, Archbishop of Krakow, Poland, was elected as Pope John Paul II. He would live to have the second-longest reign of the successors of St. Peter, nearly twenty-six and a half years.
October 17
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This date in 1973 saw the dedication of the Mago Hunt Center for the Performing Arts. As part of the festivities inaugurating the new facility, a production of The Man of La Mancha was offered, directed by Professor Paul Ouellette, with musical direction by Dr. Roger Doyle. Graduate student Les Sarnoff (later a Portland radio personality) appeared in the title role, with Barbara Holcraft, also a graduate student, as Dulcinea, and Ernie Casciato, then a freshman, as Sancho Panza. The sets for this inaugural production were designed by Professor Jerome Badraun.
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This date in 1992 marked the re-dedication of the renovated and renamed Waldschmidt Hall. At the ceremonies Bishop Waldschmidt noted that the naming of the building in his honor seemed appropriate since it was "the oldest and roundest building on campus."
October 18
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This is the feast of St. Luke, Evangelist.
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Father Joseph A. Kehoe, C.S.C., former professor of economics, dean, and vice president of the University, died on this date 1997 at Holy Cross House, Notre Dame, Indiana, at age 87. Kehoe first came to Portland as a seminarian in 1935 to teach for two
years at Columbia Preparatory School. When he returned nearly twenty years later as a priest he had earned a doctorate in economics. He later served as financial vice president of the University and as dean of the Graduate School. A brusque manner and gravelly voice masked a lively wit and esthetic appreciation revealed in his occasional poems and other writings. In the years of his retirement in Portland (from 1975 to
1991) he turned his interests to history and published, among other pieces, a monograph on Holy Cross in Oregon, 1902-1980.
October 19
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This is the feast of Saints Isaac Jogues, John de Brebeuf, and their companions, seventeenth-century French Jesuits who had undertaken the difficult task of spreading the Gospel among the native peoples in the territories now identified as the Province of Quebec and the State of New York. Known collectively as the North American Martyrs they were put to death by Iroquois in the years 1642, 1648, and 1649.
October 20
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This date saw the death in 1994 of the Most Reverend Paul E. Waldschmidt, C.S.C., auxiliary bishop of Portland and, from 1962 to 1978, and fifteenth president of the University. He was 74 at the time of his death. One of the best known figures in the history of the University, he had come to Portland as vice president with Father Howard J. Kenna, C.S.C., in 1955. His administration fostered the transfer of ownership and control of the University from the Congregation of Holy Cross to a Board of Regents in which lay persons held the leadership and the majority of membership. His administration oversaw the construction of Buckley Center, the largest of the University's buildings, which provided a variety of instructional classrooms, a large auditorium, and offices for the deans and faculty of Arts and Sciences, Education, and Nursing. Under his leadership the University also expanded the library, and built Shipstad Hall and the Mago Hunt Center for the Performing Arts. A theologian by education, he brought the University from a period of fiscal crisis and low enrollment to the national accreditation of its four professional schools by the time he was appointed bishop by Pope Paul VI. He was widely known and admired in the larger Portland community for his leadership, his dedication to the Church and the University, and for his self-effacing humor. He established the University's program in Salzburg, Austria, and often spent his summer vacations there where he developed deep personal and institutional ties.
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And this date in 1984 was marked by the dedication of the Chiles Center (the name was later expanded to honor both Earle A. and Virginia H. Chiles). A few days before the formal dedication the new facility was opened to the public for a visit by President Ronald Reagan, then in the midst of his campaign for re-election. The seats of the new arena were filled to capacity on this occasion by supporters and those sensitive to the historic occasion and by a small but vocal group of protesting hecklers.
October 21
- The University of Portland Almanac presently offers no specific entry for this date. If you wish to suggest material that would appropriately be listed under this date, please contact the editor.
October 22
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This date in 1956 saw the first meeting of the University of Portland Faculty Association. The association was largely eclipsed by the establishment twelve years later of the Academic Senate.
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Brother Austin Guenther, C.S.C., died on this date in 1984 at Notre Dame, Indiana, at age 78. He served at the University from 1942 to 1964 and earned an unhappy reputation among students from his duty to ticket cars parked in violation of the University regulations.
October 23
- The University of Portland Almanac presently offers no specific entry for this date. If you wish to suggest material that would appropriately be listed under this date, please contact the editor.
October 24
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In 1945 the United Nations came into being through its charter signed by the four major powers (the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and China) and forty-six other participating nations.
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In 1903 the University played its first football game. Columbia University defeated Pacific University 11 to 5.
October 25
- The University of Portland Almanac presently offers no specific entry for this date. If you wish to suggest material that would appropriately be listed under this date, please contact the editor.
October 26
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On this date in 1936 the University paid a sum of $600 to Mr. Mark P. Paulson for relinquishing his rights and claims to the name, "University of Portland."
October 27
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On this date in 1971 the Robert B. Pamplin family pledged a gift of $450,000 to the University. Robert B. Pamplin, Jr., then a regent of the University, challenged other regents to match the gift. The combined gifts were later remembered as a turning point in the University's efforts to win recognition through national accreditation of its School of Business Administration.
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Father John A. Molter, C.S.C., died on this date in 1960 at age 54. He died unexpectedly after teaching a class earlier in the day. For fifteen years he had been a faculty member in biology and had served as advisor to many students who went on to medical school. Thirty-five years after his death the University established its first endowed professorship, named in his honor and funded by gifts from his former students.
- The poet Dylan Thomas was born on this date in 1914 at Swansea, Wales. He wrote of his own realization of the human mortal struggle:
Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,
Time held me green and dying
Though I sang in my chains like the sea.
October 28
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This is the feast of the Apostles Simon and Jude about whom we know little more than their names.
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At the Vatican in 1958 this date was marked by the election of Angelo Cardinal Roncalli, Patriarch and Archbishop of Venice, as Pope John XXIII.
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Father Clement A. Kane, C.S.C., died on this date in 1984 at Notre Dame, Indiana, at age 84. He had taught at the University from 1937 to 1943, and again from 1946 to 1953. He was one of two priests on the University faculty who interrupted their teaching to accept army commissions in order to serve as chaplains during the Second World War.
October 29
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On this date in 1989, Father Thomas C. Oddo, C.S.C., seventeenth president of the University, was killed in an automobile accident in North Portland shortly after returning from his first board meeting as a trustee of the University of Notre Dame. He was 45. He had come to the University seven years earlier as a young and charismatic leader, who generated enthusiasm for the institution. He made easy contact with students, faculty, and regents alike, and was highly visible on campus despite duties that required extensive travel away from Portland. His death brought a dramatic expression of grief to the campus and his funeral in the Chiles Center was attended by the governor of the state and other civic leaders.
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On this date in 1940 the Reverend Donald Bridenstein, C.S.C., a faculty member at the University, drew the first number, 158, in the draft lottery for military service. In January of 1942, shortly after the United States had declared war against Japan and Germany, he volunteered his services as a chaplain in the army and served for the duration of the war.
October 30
- Ezra Pound was born on this date in 1885 in Hailey, Idaho. He spent much of his life in Europe and in the decades before World War II he played an important role in encouraging some of the greatest literary figures of the century: William Butler Yeats, James Joyce, T. S. Eliot, and Ernest Hemingway among others. His own poetry often seemed beyond the understanding of the common reader, but he was widely recognized for his great talent. During the Second World War he remained in Italy and lent his voice to the support of the Axis Powers. As a result, there were those who wished to charge him with treason. The United States, however, acting in an established tradition, found him criminally insane and he spent several years incarcerated at a federal hospital prison in Washington, D. C.
October 31
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This day is popularly known as Halloween, an observance whose name comes from its occurrence on this date which is the vigil or eve of the feast of All Saints, also referred to as All Hallows or Hallowmas. Its modern American associations of masquerading, begging for treats, and playing pranks or threatening tricks seem to come from several traditions that have been blended. Ancient Celtic observances, unrelated to the Christian feast day, connected this date with the end of summer and called for rites to frighten away evil spirits.
