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Almanac: September

September 1

The PORTLAND Magazine, published quarterly by the University, first appeared in its new editorial design on this date in 1984. Two years later, on this same date, a new format of the magazine, under a new designer, first appeared. Competing with similar publications from universities across the country (including the largest and most celebrated institutions), the magazine has received prizes for various aspects of the publication.

September 2

In 1901 this date marked the dedication and consecration of Columbia University, Portland, Oregon.
In 1947 Columbia Preparatory School, the high school department of the University, opened for the first time at the former Wilcox estate in southwest Portland with Father Michael J. Early, C.S.C., as its principal. The first student at the new site was Thomas J. Fox. Columbia Prep was the last vestige of the pre-college division of the University that had once constituted the principal operation of the institution. Columbia Prep closed its doors in 1955.
Also in 1947 this date saw the establishment of the University of Portland School of Music. It was merged with the College of Arts and Sciences in 1967.

September 3

This is the feast of St. Gregory the Great, pope and doctor of the Church (b. 540, d.604). His commentary on the Book of Job (Moralia super Job or Morals on the Book of Job) provided a basis for the next thousand years of textual interpretation, offering especially a foundation for a non-literal understanding of the scriptures and of other literary materials.
Father Frederick McKeon, C.S.C., who served at the University from 1907 to 1910, died on this date in 1950 at age 76.
Construction of the St. John's Bridge over the Willamette River began on this date in 1929.

September 4

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.

September 5

This date in 1901 marked the first day of classes at the University. Dr. James T. Covert gives an account of this momentous day in A Point of Pride: "The story is told that on opening day the faculty gathered in the president's office in West Hall. At about 10:00 a.m. one of the instructors turned to Father E. P. Murphy and said: 'There are a few boys out there on the campus. Don't you think we ought to start operation?' The president calmly replied: 'Oh, I guess we should start. Ring the bell.' Thus classes began" (34).

September 6

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.

September 7

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.

September 8

In 1995 this date saw the inauguration of the John A. Molter, C.S.C., Chair of Science, the first endowed professorship in the history of the University. The chair was named for Father John Molter, who had been a professor of biology from 1945 to 1960 and Dean of the School of Science at the University from 1950 to 1956. In these positions he served as advisor to students seeking admission to medical school. The endowment for the chair was provided from gifts of former students. Dr. Stephen A. Kolmes was installed as the first holder of the chair.
Professor of History Emerita Lillian Pereyra died on this date in 2009 at the age of 89. She had come to the University in 1963 with a specialization in the history of Latin America and retired in 1986. She received the Culligan Award, the University's highest award for a faculty member, in 1970 and in 1971 was promoted to the rank of Professor of History, the first woman at the University to hold the full professor rank.

September 9

Reverend James. A Burns, C.S.C., died on this date in 1940. As provincial superior in the 1930s, he had urged the development of an ambitious master plan for the University that was to include a large church and other buildings in the popular collegiate gothic style of the day (cf. page 95 of Professor James Covert's A Point of Pride).

September 10

In the Jubilee Year 2000 special observances were held throughout the world for universities.
In 1985 this date marked the opening of the L-P Tennis Center. The building was a gift of Harry A. Merlo and the Louisiana-Pacific Corporation. It provided the first covered tennis courts for the University and allowed the University to reclaim the area occupied by the old outdoor tennis courts next to the Pilot House for much needed parking.
Father George Marr, C.S.C., who served at the University from 1910 to 1919, died on this date in 1955 at age 73.
Father Michael A. Mulcaire, C.S.C., who served at the University from 1933 to 1945, died on this date in 1964 at age 69.

September 11

On this date in 1973 a military coup swept the elected government of Chile from power. Led by General Augusto Pinochet, the military forces killed the president of the country, Salvadore Allende, the socialist and avowed Marxist who had been elected in 1970. One of the consequences of the establishment of the military dictatorship under Pinochet was the seizure of direction of St. George's College, a secondary school run by the Congregation of Holy Cross. The Holy Cross religious who had been running the school, most of whom were U. S. citizens, withdrew and refused to cooperate with the new government but maintained ownership of the school. Direction of the school was returned to Holy Cross in 1985 when the Reverend Claude A. Pomerleau, C.S.C., was appointed Rector of the College by the Provincial Superior in Indiana.

September 12

Brother Godfrey Vassallo, C.S.C., died on this date in 1974, at the age of 80. In his forty-five years at the University, Brother Godfrey was well known as a professor of physics and as a counselor and friend to innumerable students. His connections with one student, Howard Vollum, led to the largest bequest, more than eleven million dollars, in the history of the institution. In his later years he became a fixture at commencement exercises as the grand marshal of the procession of graduates and faculty. The University mace, carried as a symbol of the institution's authority at the head of formal academic processions, is named in his honor.

September 13

Fields and Schoenfeldt Halls were dedicated on this date in 2009. A gift from Regent Suzanne Fields and her husband Fred Fields had made possible the construction of the building, one wing of which is named for these donors and the other for Father Arthur Schoenfeldt, C.S.C., Suzanne's brother. Father Art, known popularly as Padre, had served at the University for more than thirty years before his death in 2007.
This is the feast of St. John Chrysostom, patriarch of Constantinople and doctor of the Church, regarded as the greatest of the fathers of the eastern Church.
On this date in 1968 the University's Board of Regents approved, with reservations, the establishment of the Academic Senate.
This date in 1973, saw the death at age 71, of Father Howard J. Kenna, C.S.C., fourteenth president of the University, from 1955 until 1962 when he was elected provincial superior of the Indiana Province of the Congregation of Holy Cross. He had become president at a time when the University was still recovering from the drop in enrollment that followed the graduation of the World War II veterans and the onset of the Korean War. His administration fostered the expansion of the campus through the construction of the University Commons, two new residence halls (Villa Maria and Holy Cross Hall, now known as Kenna Hall), a new library, and laid plans for the construction of Mehling Hall.
Father Gregory Lombardo, C.S.C., long professor of theology at the University, died on this date in 2002, at age 85. He first came to Portland in 1951 and over the next forty years taught thousands of undergraduates, served several terms as chairman of the department of theology, and for two years in the first decade of the University's Salzburg Program served as its resident director.

September 14

This is the feast of the Triumph of the Cross.
In 1962 the first faculty orientation workshop was held on this date. Professor Frank O'Malley from the University of Notre Dame gave a keynote address.
In 1956 the first "SPU camp" began on this date. Later known as the leadership conference, this was a meeting, held in this first year at Seaside—later at Gearhart—and sponsored by ASUP, of students, faculty, and administrators to discuss issues of mutual importance. This first meeting included Father Howard J. Kenna, C.S.C., president of the University, and meetings in subsequent years were also usually attended by the president.
Father John C. McGinn, C.S.C., who served at the University from 1911 to 1917, died on this date in 1948 at age 69.

September 15

In the Church calendar this is the solemnity of Our Lady of Sorrows, patronal feast of the Congregation of Holy Cross. And on this date in 2007, the founder of the congregation, the Reverend Basil Anthony Moreau, was beatified in ceremonies at Le Mans, France, and received the title Blessed. Further details of Blessed Basil's life can be found in the Almanac on February 11, the anniversary of his birth. The University of Portland was represented at the beatification ceremonies by Father William Beauchamp, C.S.C., President, Brother Donald Stabrowski, C.S.C., Provost, and some dozen other officers, faculty, and staff.

September 16

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.

September 17

The Church marks this date with the commemoration of St. Robert Bellarmine, a Jesuit and professor at the Roman College (known later as the Gregorian University). He is a doctor of the Church. His place in history, however, has been marred by his being remembered as having accused Galileo Galilei of heresy in holding his heliocentric theory in apparent contradiction to scripture.
Father John J. Margraf, C.S.C., who served at the University from 1930 to 1947, died on this date in 1980.

September 18

Father Maurice Rigley, C.S.C., professor of English literature at the University, died on this date in 1962 at age 56. He had taught Shakespeare and Chaucer among other areas. He had come to the University in 1938. His habit of reading while seated on a bench beneath one of the trees near what was then West Hall led to the designation of the area as "Rigley Field," an allusion to Wrigley Field, the home of the Chicago Cubs. A memorial was placed on the spot after his death with the exhortation, "In God's name cheerly on, courageous friends," from Shakespeare's Richard the Third (5.2.14).
Dr. Becky Houck, Professor of Biology at the University, died on this date in 2009 at the age of 58. She had come to the University in 1977 after finishing a doctorate in marine biology at the University of Hawaii. In her 31 years at the University she played an especially important role in introducing students to the science of biology and in guiding and advising pre-med students.
This was the birthday in 1709 of Samuel Johnson. He wrote The Dictionary of the English Language (1755) and The Lives of the Poets (1781), two works that were to have a lasting impact on the study of literature and of the English language. He wrote the dictionary with the help of a number of assistants, who were reputedly paid little and who lived in poor quarters, and though he sometimes gave cavalier and inaccurate definitions to individual words, he established the notion that a language has a history and that recapturing the history can help us to understand this extraordinary aspect of human development and civilization. According to The Writers' Almanac he said, "No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money."

September 19

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.

September 20

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.

September 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.

September 22

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.

September 23

In 1999 this date marked the dedication of Swindells Hall, which houses the laboratories and faculty offices for biology and chemistry. No building in the history of the University had been longer in the planning. An elaborate complex was designed in the early 1980's to provide space for the physical sciences and computer science but failed to be built due to lack of funding. Revisions of this building were contemplated before this new design was adopted and built with the help of a major gift from George Swindells, long a regent of the University.
This date in 1949 marked the dedication of a psychological services clinic to be known as the Delaunay Center, in honor of its founder, Father John B. Delaunay, C.S.C., professor of philosophy and education at the University from 1933 to 1953 and first head of the psychology department. The clinic became independent of the University on July 1, 1965, and later moved to a site on North Lombard Street.

September 24

In 1998 this was the date of the inauguration of the Robert W. Franz Chair in Entrepreneurial Studies. This third endowed professorship at the University was named for a Regent and former Chairman of the Board of Regents, whose gift created the chair and its endowment. Dr. Robin D. Anderson was installed as the first holder of the Franz Chair.

September 25

This was the date in 1997 of the inauguration of the Edwin A. and Sharon Sweo Chair in Engineering. This chair was the second endowed professorship in the history of the University. The donors are graduates of the University and Edwin Sweo has served on its Board of Regents. Dr. James W. Male was installed as the first holder of the professorship.
Corrado Hall was dedicated on this date in 1998. The hall was named for Albert and Susan Corrado, whose generous gift made construction of the University's sixth residence hall possible. Al Corrado graduated from the University in the class of 1952 and was Chairman of the Board of Regents at the time of the hall's dedication.

On this date in 2010 the expanded and remodeled University Commons was dedicated and renamed in honor of Fidel Bauccio, an alumnus of the University and the founder of Bon Appetit food services, whose financial gifts made possible the renovation.

September 26

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.

September 27

This is the feast of St. Vincent de Paul (1580-1660), the founder of the Congregation of the Mission (also known as the Vincentians or the Lazarists) and, with St. Louise de Merillac, of the Daughters of Charity. Much of his own energy and that of those he influenced was directed to the needs of the poor, of prisoners, and of the sick. His legacy continues in many forms but especially in the missions, in education, and in the works of mercy. The Parish of St. Vincent de Paul (the Downtown Chapel) in Portland became associated with the University when Father Richard F. Berg, C.S.C., then Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Psychology, was named its pastor. Through Father Berg's influence many of the University's programs as well as its students, faculty, and staff have provided service to the neighborhood of the Chapel, close to Portland's "skid road."

September 28

In 1995 this date marked the dedication of Franz Hall named in honor of Robert W. Franz and his sister Elsie Franz Finley, both regents and benefactors of the University. Franz attended Columbia Prep on the University of Portland campus and later served as chairman of the Board of Regents. The building provided thirty classrooms, ten of which were tiered and especially designed to foster interaction among students and between the instructor and the class. These classrooms, in the corners of the building, were inspired by the design of classrooms in Aldrich Hall on the campus of the Harvard School of Business. In addition to a celebrated entrance lobby, the building provides offices for faculty, space for the administration of the schools of business and education, and meeting rooms. The entrance level of the hall also holds student computer laboratories.
In Sydney, Australia, at the 2000 Summer Olympic Games, University of Portland alumna Tiffeny Milbrett scored two goals for the U. S. Women's soccer team, one in the last seconds of regulation play to force a tie, in the gold medal game against Norway. The Norwegians went on to win in overtime play, leaving the Americans with the silver medal. Two other University of Portland alums were among Tiffeny's silver-medal teammates: Shannon MacMillan, assistant coach for UP, and Michelle French. Milbrett and MacMillan had both won gold medals at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and had been members of the U. S. Women's World Cup championship soccer team in 1998.
In 1952 this date saw the establishment of a local chapter of Alpha Kappa Psi, a fraternity for students of business administration.
Father John T. Boland, C.S.C., fourth president of the University, from 1914 to 1919, died on this date in 1924 at age 57. Twice president of St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas, he left the University of Portland to become vice president at Notre Dame under Father James Burns.

September 29

Now a feast in honor of the three archangels named in the Scriptures, Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, this day was from medieval times known as the feast of St. Michael and is referred to in English writings as Michaelmas. The fall academic term at Oxford and Cambridge is still regarded as Michaelmas term.
In Sydney, Australia, at the 2000 Summer Olympic Games, the United States men's soccer team, coached by the University of Portland's Clive Charles and with Conor Casey, a University of Portland student athlete and the second youngest player on the team, advanced to a bronze medal playoff against Chile, losing 2 to 0. This was the best Olympic showing ever for the American men's soccer team and the first for which Clive Charles served as head coach.
In 1964 the first classes began at the University's program in Salzburg, Austria.
Father Lloyd W. Teske, C.S.C., died at Holy Cross House, Notre Dame, Indiana, on this date in 1995 at the age of 84. He had served and resided at the University for a total of more than forty years. He had come to Portland to teach at Columbia Prep when still a seminarian in 1939-40 and returned after his ordination to teach English at the University from 1944 to 1948. He returned again in 1953 and in the next nine years served as dean of admissions, dean of the College of Arts and Letters, and as dean of the faculties. After serving as university chaplain at Notre Dame he returned to Portland where he once again served both in the classroom and as an administrator. He officially retired in 1977 but continued to teach part-time. He also served two years as director of the University's program in Salzburg, Austria.

September 30

This is the feast of St. Jerome (340-420), one of the four great fathers of the western Church and doctor of the Church. He undertook the translation of the entire Bible into the common Latin of the day (hence its name, the Vulgate) from the Hebrew and Greek sources. His version of the Bible served the western Church for more than one thousand years, until language scholarship of the early Renaissance and the theological movements of the Reformation led to further versions. He still stands virtually alone, however, as a critical translator of the entire Bible. A few later translators would undertake the translation of the whole of the Sacred Scriptures, but these never attempted the comprehensive re-examination of the text represented in Jerome's work.
According to the Writer's Almanac this is also the date in 1452 of the first publication of the Gutenberg bible. This constituted the first (European) effort to create a book using movable type.