Friends of Lewis & Clark Remembered
Jane Templeton Bryson, for whose family Templeton Campus Center is named, died of pneumonia on January 26 in Portland. She was 93. Bryson was a Lewis & Clark trustee from 1982 to 1986 and then a life trustee until her death.
Born in Montana, Bryson attended Scripps College and graduated from the University of Washington with a BA in 1938. She served the community on a number of boards including the Herbert A. Templeton Foundation, Albina Youth Opportunity, Portland (now Oregon) Symphony, Family Service Association of America, Family Counseling Service (now Metropolitan Family Services), Camp Fire Girls, and the Westminster Presbyterian Church. Bryson was the founding chair of the Portland Symphony Women’s Association, and also served as a member of the acquisitions committee for the Portland Art Museum.
The large reading room in the Watzek Library’s south wing was named in the mid-1990s for James E. and Jane T. Bryson. In an earlier generation, Jane Bryson’s father, Herbert Templeton, contributed funds to build Evans Music Center as well as Templeton Campus Center. Continuing the interest of her father and her brother, Hall Templeton, Bryson joined Lewis & Clark’s board in 1982. At that time she said that her involvement with the Herbert A. Templeton Foundation “continued to keep me in touch with the life of the whole community which I love. The reason I did this job? The belief that private voluntary responsibility to the total community is an absolute necessity in a democratic society. Our response to this personal mandate really stems from Christian teachings.”
Survivors include her son, John; daughters, Ruth and Susan; and nine grandchildren. The family suggests contributions to charities she supported, including Lewis & Clark.
W. Burns Hoffman, life trustee and benefactor of Lewis & Clark, died February 12. He was 93 and lived in Santa Barbara, California.
While a member of the Board of Trustees from 1963 to 1972, Hoffman served as chair of the Physical Plant Committee. During the 1990s, his generosity helped advance the Signature Project, which renovated and expanded Watzek Library and built the Miller Center for the Humanities and the Fields Center for the Visual Arts.
Hoffman was born in Portland. After earning his BA in civil engineering from Stanford University in 1938, he worked for the construction company founded by his father, Lee Hawley Hoffman. Burns Hoffman later served as president of Hoffman Construction Company, retiring in 1965 to pursue his own business and investment interests. He also served as national director of the General Contractors Association of America. He moved from Oregon to Santa Barbara in 1975.
A leader in Portland’s civic and community life for many years, Hoffman was a trustee of Catlin Gabel School and was a member of Trinity Episcopal Church in Lake Oswego, the Arlington Club, the University Club, and Waverley Country Club. He was also active for many years as Oregon’s representative to Radio Free Europe.
Survivors include his daughter, Caroline Swindells, wife of life trustee and former board chair Charles “Butch” Swindells BS ’66, and his younger brother, Eric—who, with wife Ronna Hoffman, a life trustee, endowed the Ronna and Eric Hoffman Gallery of Contemporary Art.
Suzanne “Sue” Schoenfeldt Fields, a Portland native, community leader, and philanthropist, died February 3 in Indian Wells, California. She was 83. Fields was married for 52 years to Fred Fields, life trustee and former chair of Lewis & Clark’s Board of Trustees.
According to Jane Monnig Atkinson, interim president, “Individually and together, Sue and Fred have been at the forefront of business, education, community service, and philanthropy in our city, state, and region for many decades. Their generosity has had a lasting impact on academic leadership and innovation at Lewis & Clark. Their gifts helped endow our Morgan S. Odell Professorship in Humanities, led to the construction of the Fred W. Fields Center for the Visual Arts, and time and again set the pace for philanthropy that supports our students and faculty.”
Sue Fields herself was active in many civic causes and clubs. She served on the board of regents of the University of Portland and contributed to endow a distinguished visiting writers program on that campus. One of her proudest achievements was her active involvement in bringing about the 1984 restoration and renovation of St. Mary’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Northwest Portland.
