In Memoriam, Fall 2013

1940s

Althea B. Dorman ’42, March 28, 2013, age 92.

Constance A. Robinson ’45.

1950s

Arlee David Bragg BS ’50, May 7, 2012, age 86.

Jean Dunlop BA ’51, March 20, 2013, age 85.

Shirley Reynolds Klingbeil ’51, February 27, 2013, age 84.

Joel B. Krausse BS ’51, April 15, 2013, age 87. A descendant of Oregon pioneer families, Krausse served in the Army Air Corps from 1943 to 1946 and then earned a degree in physics. He completed post-graduate studies in electrical engineering at the University of Washington. When the Oregon Air National Guard was activated for the Korean War, Krausse was recalled to duty in 1951. He retired as a colonel from the Oregon Air National Guard in 1980 and the Air Force Reserves in 1985. For 30 years, he was an engineering manager for Pacific Northwest Bell Telephone Company in Portland and Seattle; he retired in 1985. He enjoyed volunteering at Fort Stevens State Park, researching family history, and spending time at the family beach house in Ocean Park, Washington. Krausse’s wife of 61 years, Mary Frances, died in 2011. He is survived by his sons, Jeffery and Thomas; his daughters, Mary Ann and Susan; and three grandchildren.

James Annala B.M. ’52, March 7, 2013, age 83. A musically talented child, Annala studied violin under Boris Sirpo, founder of the Portland Chamber Orchestra. During the Korean War, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, “defending the free world armed with a violin and a French horn” in Naples, Italy. In 1959, he earned his master’s of music performance from University of Portland. He and pianist Evelyn Plog married in 1962. Two years later, their son, Carl, was born in McMinnville, Oregon, where Annala taught music and orchestra classes for 30 years. He was associate concertmaster with the Mid-Columbia Orchestra, later the Chehalem Symphony Orchestra, for three decades. A lifelong fisherman, Annala loved to troll Hagg Lake with friends. His appetite for all things Finnish included his favorite composer, Jean Sibelius, and his scholarly interest in Finnish politics of World War II. He was a staunch Democrat and a fantastic letter writer, often using his dry wit to write charming letters to the editor. He will be remembered as a teacher, stamp collector, “violin head,” letter writer, political humorist, gossiper, and entertainer. Survivors include his wife, Evelyn, and his son, Carl.

Ted Moore BA ’52, April 10, 2013, age 82.

John Sander BS ’52, March 22. 2012, age 84.

Richard “Dick” Balsiger BS ’53, April 22, 2013, age 85. Balsiger graduated with a sociology degree and then went to work as an insurance agent for the Hartford Insurance Company. In 1958, he married Bobby Hackworth. Balsiger was involved with the Clan MacLeay Pipe & Drum Band, Blue Goose, and Delta Tau Rho fraternity. After becoming a Friend of Timberline, he was instrumental in the saving and restoration of Silcox Hut. In 1975, he became a Portland Rose Festival director and chaired many events, including the Starlight Parade. As one of the Rose Festival’s longest-serving directors, he received emeritus status in 2008.

After retiring from Hartford in 1983, he devoted his time to his business, Balsiger Rental Properties. He purchased a ranch and a cattle company near Shaniko in 1985, where he enjoyed hunting, horses, and habitat restoration. His wife, Bobby, passed away eight years to the day before him.

In 2005, he found a loving companion in Dayle Denton, who shared his love of travel. He is survived by his children, Dane and Al; his grandchildren, Joshua and Rachel; and his companion, Dayle.

Marva Hutchins BA ’56, JD ’79, September 26, 2011, age 75.

Norman L. Peterson BS ’56, December 17, 2012, age 84.

Joseph E. Kordic BS ’57, May 5, 2013, age 81. Kordic served as a yeoman in the U.S. Navy at Pearl Harbor. After graduating from Lewis & Clark, he taught at Sellwood Elementary School in Portland. He later earned an MEd from Portland State University and taught many years at Beaumont and Alameda. Kordic loved to restore old cars and was active in the Vintage Chevrolet Club of America. He is survived by his wife of 50 years, Audrey Manning Kordic; his sister, Marilyn Toenjes; and longtime friends from Delta Tau Rho fraternity.

Elizabeth Wolfe Montgomery BS ’57, September 16, 2012, age 77.

Marilyn Romaneski BA ’58, February 10, 2013, age 83.

Margaret Youngblood Staley BA ’58, January 14, 2013, age 76.

Ronald Dean Gray BS ’59, December 19, 2012, age 75. Gray worked in a fruit cannery to finance his political science major at Lewis & Clark. After a stint in the army, he planned to attend the University of Washington School of Law, but he stopped off in Olympia and never left. Gray was hired in 1960 by the Department of Labor and Industries. During his 38-year career, he became one of the state’s foremost authorities on the agency’s workers’ compensation program. Early in his career, he met another state worker, Sandra Weber, over the phone while cross-checking claims with Employment Security. They married in 1964 and raised a family of three sons. Gray was a longtime resident of Tumwater, Washington; a dedicated state employee; a lifelong Democrat; an unrepentant Huskies fan; and a pretty fair slow-pitch softball player. Survivors include his wife, Sandi; his sons, John, Jeff, and Chris; and two grandsons.

Donald Dean Palmer B.M. ’59, April 18, 2013, age 76. Palmer taught, composed, and directed music in many venues. He was successful in retail sales, but his real love was for family. Palmer enjoyed playing cribbage and solving crosswords and Jumbles. He also excelled in photography, growing orchids, and telling original stories to his grandchildren. After retirement, he became a Washington County Sheriff’s Department Community Chaplain and participated in the Beaverton Police Phantom Car program. He is survived by wife Carolyn; daughter Christen Hammond Daniel; sons Dean and Paul Palmer; and five grandchildren.

Janice M. Keller Roehr BA ’59, February 20, 2013, at home, age 76, of cancer. She married John Roehr in 1959, just prior to receiving her degree in business administration. The couple moved to Seattle within days of her graduation to enjoy boating and to avoid the state income tax. Later, they lived in Detroit for a few years while John pursued advanced medical training. The couple ended up settling in Medina, Washington, in 1964. For several years, Roehr was a stay-at-home mom who raised two sons and volunteered for charitable organizations. In 1978, she became a travel consultant and eventually co-owned travel agencies in the Bellevue and Redmond areas. She retired in 2002. Roehr and her husband spent many summers on their boat in the San Juan Islands and the Canadian Gulf Islands. She is survived by her husband of almost 54 years, John, and her sons, Benjamin and Matthew.

1960s

Edwin D. Hicks BS ’60, January 11, 2013, age 76.

William “Bill” Joseph Culp BS ’63, May 26, 2013, age 74. Culp earned his PhD in biochemistry in 1970 from the University of Texas at Austin. He and his wife, Megan Morrison Culp, moved to La Jolla, California, where he was appointed Damon Runyon Memorial Fund Postdoctoral Fellow in Neurobiology and later an assistant professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. In 1974, he was recruited to the Dartmouth Medical School biochemistry department.

After 20 years as a medical research scientist, Culp spent a year as a fellow at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, where he completed an M.BA in 1986. He returned to Dartmouth Medical School to serve in various leadership positions, including associate dean of academic affairs. One of the original visionaries of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center campus, Culp was instrumental in the establishment of the Center for the Evaluative Clinical Sciences at Dartmouth, the Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making, and the C. Everett Koop Institute. Along the way, he had a distinguished career as a researcher, authoring more than 45 scientific papers and other publications on biochemistry, neuroscience, pain pathways, and nerve disorders. He retired in 2006.

Culp loved being with his family. When his boys, Peter and Matthew, each turned 16, he took a summer off for an extended bike trip down the Pacific Coast. They dodged logging trucks, slept in seaside campgrounds, met many other adventurers, and built lifelong memories together.

In the 1990s, Culp met Posie Taylor. They married in 2000, officially uniting an already close-knit if unconventional group.

Sharon L. Wray Thomas BA ’64, MA ’65, April 26, 2012, age 69, in Loup City, Nebraska. She married Charles Thomas in 1968 and moved to Laurel, Nebraska. She began teaching at Wayne State College in 1968 and continued until her retirement in 2006. She was named Wayne State’s Social Sciences Outstanding Faculty Member in 1989. Thomas enjoyed tennis, golf, riding horses, and photography. An active member of the community, she sponsored the local 4-H horse club and sang in the choir and played piano at Laurel Presbyterian Church. She also filled in as “pulpit relief” for local churches. Survivors include her daughters, Heather and Courtney.

Rita Wienecke BA ’68, October 10, 2012, age 86.

1970s

Mike D. Van Patten ’75, April 12, 2012, age 58.

1980s

Leon J. Vitovitch BA ’80, April 15, 2013, age 54, from complications of diabetes. Vitovitch, an outstanding scholar, earned a BA in psychology and French from Lewis & Clark. He went on to study history and French at the University of Toulouse and pursued postgraduate studies in business management practices at the University of Oxford. Vitovitch received his M.BA in global management from the Thunderbird School of Global Management in 1981. At the time of his death, he was enrolled in the doctoral program in East-West psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Vitovich began his professional career as an account executive at Merrill Lynch. For 17 years, he was the owner/manager of Performance Capital Corporation (later Performance Management Group), one of the highest-rated investment funds in the Northwest. In 2008, Vitovich left the financial world and moved to San Francisco, where he became involved with several volunteer and charitable organizations. He fulfilled a longtime dream when he appeared in the San Francisco Opera productions of Turandot and Lucrezia Borgia. He also loved to travel and to cook. Vitovich is survived by his 25-year-old conure, Dewy; several cousins; and a worldwide circle of friends.

Rene M. Pisel Walker BA ’85, April 1, 2013, age 49, of cancer. Walker earned a BA in political science from Lewis & Clark and then moved to Haines, Alaska, where she helped run the 10-Mile Roadhouse. In 1987, she left Haines for a job with Planned Parenthood in Portland. She married David Walker in 1990 and settled in Juneau, where she spent 13 years as an education specialist and client advocate for AWARE (Aiding Women in Abuse and Rape Emergencies). When their children, Dawson and Eliza, were young children, the Walkers spent six months camping in Australia. On returning to Juneau, Walker earned her teaching credential. She began teaching at Gastineau Elementary School in 2003 and pursued a master’s degree at the University of Alaska Southeast. Of her careers, Walker said, “I have now taught two children of teenage women I helped when I worked at AWARE. It’s so cool to see them doing great now. I like feeling that I can make a difference.” Walker sought out Heather Lende of Haines to write her obituary. She told her, “Don’t say I never complained. I hate that. What’s with that? I complain all the time. Cancer is so unfair.”

1990s

Amy E. Wagner BA ’93, April 26, 2013, age 42.

Correction

In the spring 2013 issue of the Lewis & Clark Chronicle, we published an incorrect class note involving two individuals with the same first and last names. Albert L. Menashe JD ’65 has, indeed, retired; however, Albert Menashe, a share-holder in Gervurtz Menashe Larson & Howe, is still actively practicing law at his firm and is not an alumnus of Lewis & Clark Law School. We regret the error and any confusion it may have caused.