In Memoriam, Fall 2011

1940s

Kathryn Mary Heaton Derr BA ’40, December 18, 2010, age 91, in Portland. Born in North Dakota, Derr moved to Portland with her family shortly after her birth. She attended Albany College, the predecessor of Lewis & Clark, where she met her future husband, Robert Derr CAS ’40. They married in 1941 and raised their son, Larry, in Portland. In 1972, they moved to Lincoln City, where they established a public accounting and bookkeeping service with coastal and regional clients. In 2008, three years after her husband’s death, Derr moved to Portland to be closer to family.

Iris Elliot Nordberg CAS ’40, October 19, 2010, age 93. Nordberg graduated from Portland’s Roosevelt High School in 1939 and attended Albany College, which later became Lewis & Clark, from 1939 to 1941. She graduated from the University of California at Berkeley and taught high school. In 1945, she married Orville Nordberg. She was an English teacher at El Camino High School for 20 years and a Kaiser Permanente hospice volunteer for 13 years.

Margaret “Peggy” Allsop Mushatt BS ’47, December 28, 2010, age 86, after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Mushatt received an M.S.W. from the University of California at Berkeley and worked in adoption services before moving to Boston, where she married Dr. Cecil Mushatt (now deceased) and started her family. In 1977, she earned a master’s degree from Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science. Mushatt was the head librarian for the medical library at Children’s Hospital of Boston and volunteered for the women’s auxiliary of the Massachusetts Mental Health Center. She moved to New Orleans in 2001 to be near her grandchildren.

Jack Kieling BA ’49, January 8, 2011, age 88. Kieling, the grandson of Aurora Colony settlers Wilhelm and Anna Siebert Kieling, graduated from Molalla High School in 1941. During World War II, he served in the Marine Corps. His work running and repairing communication lines through uncharted enemy mine fields, often under artillery fire, earned him a commendation. He married Willa Cole on September 10, 1947, and they had four sons. After earning his BA in education, Kieling taught and coached football and baseball in Myrtle Creek. In the mid-1950s, the family moved to a farm near Ashland, where he taught school. He left teaching in 1970 and returned to a family farm south of Canby. The last 10 years of his life, he was afflicted with Parkinson’s disease.

1950s

William Logan MEd ’50, December 24, 2010, age 86. Logan was a center for the Franklin High School Quakers, Portland’s 1942 champion football team. During World War II, he served in the Marine Corps as a sergeant on the islands of Guam and Tinian and took part in the invasion of Iwo Jima. In 1949, he married Mary Weigel. Shortly after completing his MEd at Lewis & Clark, he served in the Korean War. Upon his return, Logan began a 42-year career with the Beaverton School District, which included serving as principal of Sunset High School and Beaverton High School. In 2002, he suffered a severe stroke that greatly curtailed his activities. In 2007, Logan and four members of his high school football team were inducted into the Portland Interscholastic League Hall of Fame.

Donald Lindsay BS ’51, May 24, 2010.

Benjamin Wallace Park BS ’52, June 30, 2010, age 83. He was a member of the U.S. Air Force, Psychiatric Division.

Roy Seaquist BS ’52, February 22, 2011, age 84, in Orem, Utah. During World War II, Seaquist served as a radio operator on U.S. Maritime Service ships. After the war, he earned a business degree. In 1995, he met and married Marlene Shortridge. They moved to Southern California and had two sons, Kristjan Jay “Kris” Seaquist and Justin Jan “Jay” Seaquist. In his mid-50s, Seaquist was again single and married Phyllis Louise Hewitt Pratt. He became the stepfather of five half-grown children. Years later, the union was dissolved. After retiring at age 80, he moved to Orem with his widowed sister Shirley Myers, who was his caretaker and companion.

Sarah Brand BS ’54, February 18, 2011, age 78, of agerelated causes. Born in Oakland, California, Brand worked as an advertising traffic controller for KVAL-TV for 15 years. She is survived by her sons, Jon, Patrick, and Bill; a brother and sister; and seven grandchildren.

Margaret Lee Hayes BS ’55, March 25, 2011, age 79. Schroeder was an inspired gardener and painter and was happiest when outdoors.

Milton Schroeder BA ’56, April 10, 2011, age 78. Born in Nebraska, Schroeder played basketball at Lewis & Clark, where he met his wife of 50 years, Diana Schroeder CAS ’58. He served in the U.S. Army from 1956 to 1958 and then in the U.S. Army Reserves. In 1966, Schroeder earned his PhD from the University of Denver. He and his family then moved to Flagstaff, where he worked as assistant to Lawrence Walkup, then-president of Northern Arizona University. Later, he became dean of admissions and records, a post he held until he retired in 1981. Schroeder enjoyed further success as a real estate broker until his second retirement in 2007. He was active in several commissions and organizations, including those with Northern Arizona University, the City of Flagstaff, United Way (president), Route 66 Rotary Club (president), Elks, and Masons. Shroeder loved basketball, playing golf, and classic sports cars, but above all, his family was his most treasured joy in life.

Richard Stonebrink BS ’56, December 14, 2010, age 78, in Goodyear, Arizona.

Albert Lee Laxdal BS ’57, February 17, 2011, age 78. Born in Portland, Laxdal participated in local plays and productions as a young man. He married Lila “Kitch” in 1956. After graduating from Lewis & Clark, he earned an M.S. in mathematics at Oregon State College. In 1971, Laxdal was hired by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, where he worked as an engineer. In 1981, he joined the Aerospace Corporation as a “mission mother” for a set of inertial upperstage rockets, which carried U.S. Department of Defense and NASA payloads into space. Laxdal also served as mayor of Thousand Oaks, California, and was an architect of the city’s landmark slow-growth policy, Measure A.

Charles Robert “Bob” Rindt BS ’57, January 20, 2011, age 76. Rindt worked for Pan Am and United Airlines in customer service and was also a small-business owner. He married Sharon Umino in 1971. After his retirement, Rindt became involved with repertory theatre and did minor film and commercial work. He served as chair of the Sandy Actors Theatre board, an officer for the Northwest Neighborhood Association, and a reading tutor with OASIS. An avid outdoorsman, Rindt was a Mazamas member for more than 60 years, serving as an instructor with the Basic Climbing Education Program. He made multiple summits of Mount Hood and other Northwest peaks.

Joseph Hamel BS ’58, April 2, 2011, age 79. Born in North Dakota, Hamel grew up in Mount Angel. In the early 1950s, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and served with the 10th Corps Artillery in the Korean War. Upon returning to the States, Hamel taught for 22 years at Willamette Primary School in West Linn, where he pioneered his district’s outdoor school program. He retired in 1980. Hamel was an involved community member, serving as a Boy Scout Troop leader, a school board member, chief of the Robinwood Volunteer Fire Department, and an emergency medical technician. He coached baseball and basketball, played harmonica and many stringed instruments, and performed in many productions with the West Linn PTA.

Ronald Somers BS ’59, January 3, 2011, age 73. Somers earned a law degree from Willamette University in 1962. That same year, he began his practice in The Dalles.

1960s

Lawrence “Larry” Klang JD ’62, September 29, 2010, age 79, in Tualatin. Klang worked for Portland General Electric in its land acquisition department and later for Albertsons as a corporate attorney. In 1970, he moved to Fort Worth, Texas, where he worked as a real estate attorney and commercial developer. His business friends called him “The Enforcer” because he could always close the deal. An avid outdoorsman, Klang worked as a logger in the Pacific Northwest beginning at age 18. He appeared as the “Masked Marvel” in carnival wrestling matches. In later life, he hunted for big game, rafted the Zambezi River, and traveled across the North Pole by dogsled. In 1997, after living in Texas for many years, Klang returned to Portland. He married Andrea Ranne in January 2000.

Dennis Ferguson BS ’66, December 28, 2010, age 67, in Brookings, Oregon.

Cheryl Anne Fugle Mesdag BS ’66, January 22, 2011, age 65, of ovarian cancer. After graduating with a degree in elementary education, she married Paul Munsell and had two children, Denyc and Mark. After their divorce, she pursued a career in real estate. Mesdag created and ran Keep In Touch, which provided client followup for realtors for more than 25 years. Later, she married Bob Balser and enjoyed being a stepmother to Stacie and Jason. Mesdag was passionate about politics and country and also loved music and performance. She met and married Dr. Tom Mesdag through ballroom dancing. They enjoyed traveling the world together and were active in HeartChange, a Christian ministry.

Robert Hawkins BS ’69, September 18, 2010, age 78, in Tarboro, North Carolina. Hawkins retired from Black & Decker and was a member of St. James United Methodist Church. He is survived by his wife of 47 years, two sons, and several grandchildren.

1970s

Jennifer Ann Rittenour BS ’73, December 5, 2010, age 60, in Fort Worth, Texas. After graduating from Lewis & Clark, Rittenour enjoyed numerous careers in her vibrant life, including choreographer for USO entertainers and other dramatic groups. She was a professional leadedand beveled-glass artist. In 1982, she married Richard Denning. Two years later, she moved to Stephenville, Texas, where she served as executive director of H.O.P.E., Inc. After retiring, Rittenour expanded her lifelong joy of vegetable and flower gardening. She loved volunteering and served as an organizational driver and member of the board for Meals on Wheels, an ESOL teacher at First United Methodist Church, and a lunch server at the Wesley Center.

Catherine Coffin Senungetuk BA ’74, December 18, 2010, age 57, in Anchorage, Alaska, from breast cancer. After graduating with an art degree, she married Robert Doss Jr. and headed to Alaska, where she opened a graphic design business. The marriage ended in 1980, and in 1987, she married her soul mate, Joe Senungetuk. She studied with a variety of well regarded artists and received multiple grants from the Alaska State Council of the Arts. The Out North Contemporary Art House hosted a retrospective of her art, titled The Color of Life, shortly before her death. Senungetuk graduated from the University of Alaska at Anchorage with a BS in nursing. She integrated her art with nursing by creating the Art Cart, a rolling art studio at the Children’s Hospital at Providence.

Mark James Chambers BS ’75, January 12, 2011, age 58, from colon cancer. During his illness, Chambers inspired those who knew him through his commitment to “just keep playing” and by demonstrating the determination, good humor, and cheerful optimism that defined him throughout his life. He will be remembered for offering a listening ear, coaching and supporting his children’s sports teams, provoking laughter on the golf course, planning his next adventure, and singing along to Jimmy Buffett lyrics. As he and Buffett have said, “Some of it’s magic, some of it’s tragic, but I’ve had a good life all the way.”

Steven Lee Crosby BS ’79, March 26, 2000, age 56, in Mesquite, Nevada, in a fourwheeling accident. A longtime resident of Estacada, Crosby was operations manager for Reliance Connects, a telecommunications firm, for more than 30 years. He coached youth football for 16 years and was chairman of the Estacada School Board for 8 years. He was married to Brenda Day. He enjoyed hunting, fishing, snowmobiling, four-wheeling, cooking, coaching, brewing beer, pottery, and landscaping. Mostly, he enjoyed spending time with his family.

1980s

Sandra Noreen Duffy JD ’81, October 2, 2010, age 63. Duffy was born in Tacoma, the eldest of six children. After a divorce, she raised four children as a single mother and obtained a history degree and a law degree. She met Robert Greaves in 1980 while both were law clerks at the U.S. Attorney’s Office; they married in 1986. Duffy served 23 years as a highly respected attorney with Multnomah County Counsel, focusing on land use, taxation, and the sheriff ’s office. She volunteered as a health advocate and was board president of Consumers for Dental Choice, a national nonprofit. Through tireless pro bono work—including testimony before the U.S. Congress and the Food and Drug Administration— Duffy helped dentists gain the freedom to inform their patients about the risks of mercury amalgams. As a result of her tenacity, the Environmental Protection Agency is slated to propose a rule to regulate dental mercury this year.

1990s

Stephen Brand MAT ’97, December 24, 2010, age 45. A lover of words, Brand had the uncanny ability to carry on a full-blown conversation while scanning newspapers, novels, or magazines. He also enjoyed “book talks” with his late mother, LaVetra. A teacher at Chapman Elementary in Portland, Brand took special delight in encouraging his students to share in his love for reading and writing.