Mothering & Fathering

It is a craft and an art and a prayer. It is exhausting and enervating and epiphany. Once begun it does not end, forever and ever amen. It is to be privy to miracles all day and night. It is laundry and cooking and cleaning and barking and insurance and doctors and bandaids and toothbrushes and cereal and yelling and praying and weeping and snorting with laughter and teaching them to walk and talk and read and do complicated algebraic somersaults and trying to seed their souls with grace and courage and mercy and independence, and then watching heart in mouth as they sail away into the ocean of pain and joy and heartbreak and brilliance that is their own life to make, and all you can do ever after is be ready to listen and hold them when they need you which they do. This is Being a Parent, and it's essentially impossible to explain or train for, and it makes you gaunt and gray, and the only tools that really help are patience and love and sleep, but o the joy, the exquisite holiness, the power and passion and poem of love it is! And so much else that we cannot articulate no matter how much we try. There may be no greater confusing complicated joy available to human creatures than that of being granted the mysterious gift of children; so to celebrate and sing the subtle craft of mothering and fathering we cheerfully gather here, in the pages that follow, some of the many mothers and fathers and children among the University of Portland motley and farflung clan and tribe: regents, professors, alumni, students, administrators and especially our students’ parents, who are, as University president Father Bill Beauchamp, C.S.C., says, our students' first and greatest teachers, and always will be, all due respect to the terrific professors on The Bluff. — Editor

Regent Allen Lund, his wife Kathie, their daughter Christina ’97, and their granddaughter Noel Peterson ’08, in their California kitchen. Allen and Kathie fell in love working at a carnival in Utah (now there’s a story), married, were graced with gobs of children, and turned a little trucking business into the vast and creative Lund Corporation. Kathie’s late dad Eddy Baranski, a brave and riveting man, is profiled in this issue (see page 30, or www.up.edu/eddy).

One of the more entertaining aspects of a close-knit University community more than a century old is a startling number of families in which lots of people over several generations have earned degrees on The Bluff — among them the shy and talented Louie clan, which includes progenitors Dick ’69 and Jacque ’70 andtheir children Ben’95, Christina ’97,David ’99, Tim’01, Joe ’02,Marielle ’03,current students Mark and Matt, and wee beaming Brian, and grandson Tom(neither of the latter quite yet enrolled). Wow. In the middle here, dressed like the late great Johnny Cash, is University administrator Fr.Tom Doyle, C.S.C., brother of Molly Doyle Louie ’97(wearing the cool silver pin).

The supple and hilarious Driessen brothers, Michael’02 (heading south) and Mark ’05. The University annually enrolls more than thirty Minnesotans to campus, and Michael might be the most broadly talented (well, so far): valedictorian, mountain-climber, guitarist, tireless activist for social justice, cheerful as a jaybird, Rhodes Scholar candidate, post-graduate year working with disabled folks in France, now studying for a doctorate while not doing headstands...

The lanky Sundborg clan of Yakima,Washington, which features two alumni (patriarch Charles ’78, matriarch Kelli ’79, and daughters Sara, Cindy ’07, Susy, Stacy, and Christine. Susy, we note, smiling, is a high school senior and is applying to the University of Portland, Stacy is a sophomore and dreaming about the University, and Christine says if we don't mind she’s going to concentrate on seventh grade for the moment.

The University’s annual freshman class has doubled in recent years, to more than 700 annually, from more than 30 states and 30 countries, and they are every faith there is, and bright (3.68 gradepoint), and we choose one to stand for all: the very amused Christina Downing, from Olympia, Washington.

The Johnston family of Redmond, Washington, which holy corporation has two students on The Bluff: junior nursing major Caitlin (in front), and freshman computer engineering scholar Kevin (gazing askance, as usual, at his kid brother Sean). Liz and Ed Johnston’s other daughter Bridget is 16 and “just starting to ponder the University,” says Caitlin, who concludes after three years that “I love the community here, love the fact that I know almost everybody, love dorm life, and even like that it’s harder academically than I thought it would be. ” Hmm — perceptive young lady.

The Torres family of San Jose, California— parents Carmen and Alex, and sons Ricky and Chris. The Clan Torres also produced the smiling young lady on the next page, Alejandra, who is majoring in environmental ethics and policy, dreams of a career in environmental law, and says what she likes best about The Bluff is the communal zest and the “amazingly accessible professors.”

University physics professor Shannon Mayer and a colleague with whom she works very closely — her husband, University chemistry professor Steven Mayer — and their two immensely complicated and mysterious science projects, daughters Jordyn and Haley.

"My name is Alejandra Torres, I’m a sophomore at the University, and that’s my nutty family on the other side of this page, and I am here to say that if you are a prospective student, or the parent of a prospective student, or curious about this most unusual University and the welter of ways it welcomes the parents of students, see the Web (www/up/edu/parents.html), peruse Parents newsletter (editor Marc Covert ’93 is at covertm@up.edu), or contact Colin McGinty ’99 in the development office, who can cheerfully explain the University’s maaaany gift opportunities for parents (mcginty@up.edu, 503.943.7395). For information about admission to the University’s Class of 2009, call the admission office at 503-943-7147, or email admissio@up.edu, or see the web, www.up.edu"