Richard “Dick” Schwartz passed away last week. He is perhaps best remembered at Evergreen for his service as Interim President. Dick was hired as Vice President for Finance at the college in 1980, but was appointed by the Board of Trustees to fill the role of Interim President when Dan Evans left the presidency abruptly in 1983 to fill the vacancy in the US Senate left by Henry (Scoop) Jackson’s sudden passing. He served in that role for almost two years, from 1983 to 1985. Before his time at Evergreen, Schwartz served as Director of Business Affairs and Chief Financial Officer at University of Michigan, Dearborn; Campus Planner at Stockton State College; and as Executive Vice President of Monmouth College. Although he was at Evergreen for just five years, he remained connected to the college, including participating in the Presidents Seminar at the college’s 40^th anniversary celebration in 2012.

An obituary was published in The Olympian.

Mark your calendars now for Return to Evergreen 2016 on October 15! Back by popular demand, Faculty Emeritus Steve Herman, PhD will lead a nature walk through the lush woods surrounding campus.

This session will put you right in the ecological core of Evergreen. Steve will name and describe for you the native specimens and how they interact while answering any questions you have about how the college is part of an ecosystem. From the upper forests, the session treks down to the rocky shoreline past the marshes and creeks stretching over the Evergreen property. On the waterfront, you’ll be treated to views of Eld Inlet and rolling foothills leading north to the Olympics.

Steve still teaches summer ornithology programs, as he has been doing for more than forty years. He’s taken student across the west, from Washington to Oregon, California and beyond, but he knows few places like he knows Evergreen.

His work in naturalism has not only helped him succeed in academia, but also in activism against abusive grazing by ranch cattle. He’s focused on protecting wild lands for as long as he’s been teaching, and has even been able to combine the two in his programs. More recently, Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, where Steve engaged with federal and private landowners to modify land practices in favor of native flora and fauna, was part of a nationally covered struggle this past January.

Nature-lovers should come with warm fabrics and shoes that can handle the elements and live to tell the tale. The Evergreen Conservation Corps’ work this past spring has significantly improved the primary beach trail, but the chance for mud is still high.

Register for Return to Evergreen 2016 today!

I’m pleased to share this article from past Student Trustee Emily Dunn-Wilder about a truly unique program and dining experience honoring Evans Scholar Dr. Donna Haraway.

Only at Evergreen do you get a student-designed, seven course farm-to-table dinner that interprets a famous scholar’s academic work through food sourced locally and from alumni-owned businesses.

Annie Sloan, a junior at Evergreen, led students from the academic program Terroir: Chocolate, Oysters, and Other Place-Flavored Foods in planning and executing a seven-course dinner for Dr. Donna Haraway. Distinguished Professor Emerita at University of California, Haraway was this year’s Daniel J. Evans Chair Lecturer in Liberal Arts and was invited to Evergreen to speak as part of the Anthropocene Lecture Series.

Instead of treating the Evans Chair to dinner at a fancy restaurant in downtown Olympia as is tradition, former student of Dr. Haraway and Evergreen faculty member Sarah Williams proposed a student-led dinner of locally sourced food hosted at Evergreen’s Organic Farm.

President George Bridges was in attendance to help student Armando DeLao and graduate Maxwell Cohen shuck the Totten Inlet and Samish Bay oysters purchased from Son of A Beach Shellfish Farm and Taylor Shellfish Farms. The oysters were served with a tapioca pearl mignonette.

Each course was  based on a quote or concept from Dr. Haraway’s extensive work. Student Annie Sloan said, “I read A Cyborg Manifesto in 2009 and it blew me away. I link almost everything I read to feminism and food, but Haraway changed the way I viewed both. When Sarah asked me to do the dinner, I didn’t start thinking about local farms or composed dishes, I thought about Donna Haraway’s figuration’s. Her work became dishes in my mind. It made sense to ingest her theoretical concepts in the spring, and to eat them communally.”

The third course, entitled Coral Reef: Spring in Olympia, was artfully created with green garlic, purple sprouting broccoli from Urban Futures Farm owned by alum and adjunct faculty TJ Johnson, pine tips, radishes, and purple daikon on top of nettles, inspired by Dr. Haraway’s work concerning reefs created by toxic fibers.

The fourth course, Pork and Beans based on Jane Goodall’s dinners, “There is only one jarring note in the scene of the female representative of man alone in the Garden-she eats a spare dinner of pork and beans from a tinned can.” (Primate Visions by Dr. Haraway) The beans were slow-cooked with lavender, rosemary, and pork from Evergreen graduate Evan Mulvaney’s Hidden River Farms in Montesano.

 

As always, the geoduck mascot was featured, both in a course entitled Companion Species, and in a mask gifted to Dr. Haraway. The mask was made from geoduck skins donated by Taylor Shellfish’s Xihn’s Oyster House in Shelton, which were crafted and molded using leather-tanning techniques by students Owen Day and Aurora Sonenshin. The geoduck mask inspired the graphic on the dinner menus, drawn in ink and lung tincture by Annie Sloan.

A dessert course, accompanied by Ray Charles on the record player, closed the evening with coffee from Olympia Coffee Roasters (owned by alumni Sam and Oliver), raw cow’s cream from Sigmon’s Raw Dairy in Rochester, coconut sugar from graduate Ben Ripple’s Big Tree Farms, and fennel and rose liqueurs from Salish Sea Organic Liqueurs (owned by alumni Sam Desner and former Board of Governors Sandy Desner). Tastebuds were further treated to a rhubarb and parsnip layered crepe cake, peas dipped in woodruff-scented whipped cream, and salted-butter caramel on pie crust.

Annie Sloan, Daniel Saunders, Bonnie Zion, and Lydia Hammond served and prepared the meal.

Is it too early to “throwback” to an event that happened so recently? One month ago Evergreen inaugurated our 6th college president, George Bridges. The day of ceremonies welcomed more than 1,000 attendees including staff, students, alumni, and community members.

We were honored to be joined by five unique alumni who shared stories about their Evergreen experiences and how the college has shaped their lives.

Are you interested in speaking to a class about your career after Evergreen? Would you like to mentor a current student? Email me at heckk@evergreen.edu today to get involved!

Only at Evergreen would this unforgettable combination of alumni-produced treats find their way into one gift bag. Thanks to Whimsy & Spice, Olykraut, and Batdorf & Bronson for donating their products to the thank-you gifts for our inauguration speakers.

Did you miss the inauguration festivities? Catch the highlights from the day!

Delectible cookies were provided by Mark Sopchak ’94 and Jenna Park ’94, the husband and wife team behind Whimsy & Spice. Read more about their tempting spicy and sweet treats in The Evergreen Magazine.

Sash Sunday ’09, grew up in Olympia, WA and, in 2008, co-founded a sauerkraut company called OlyKraut to put her fermentation fanaticism to work building a food system that supports vibrant health and sustainable farms. Learn more about this fermentation revolution in the Cooper Point Journal.

Always close to the Evergreen heart is Batdorf & Bronson Coffee Roasters, located in downtown Olympia since 1986. Batdorf and Bronson has flourished in part because of the energy and entrepreneurial spirit of many Greeners who have worked at all levels of the organization over the years. View a brewing tutorial on their blog today!

On this day in 1972, Evergreen inaugurated the first college president, Charles J. McCann, Ph.D. The featured speaker at the ceremony was then Washington Governor and future Evergreen President, Daniel J. Evans.

Tomorrow, on April 22, 2016, Evergreen will celebrate the Inauguration of George S. Bridges, Ph.D. as the sixth president of the college. We are honored to again be joined by Daniel J. Evans, who will deliver remarks during the Installation Ceremony.

We hope you will join us tomorrow, April 22! You can learn more about the events and RSVP here.

If you would like to read the complete newsletter from April 15, 1972 announcing the inauguration and other activities, click here. As always, we love to hear from our alumni community. Please share your memories or pictures of Evergreen in the comments below.

Drop in and join with us in the celebration and installment of George S. Bridges as the President of the College on Friday, April 22nd. The ceremony will begin at 1PM, with distinguished speakers Daniel J. Evans and Fred Goldberg.

Daniel J. Evans has demonstrated a lifelong commitment to public service, and was instrumental in the founding of The Evergreen State College. As the 16^th Governor of the State of Washington—a position he held for three terms from 1965 to 1977—Evans signed the legislation authorizing the formation of the college. Following his role as governor, Evans served as the second president of The Evergreen State College from 1977 to 1983. The Evergreen State College campus library is named in his honor.

Fred Goldberg was appointed to The Evergreen State College Board of Trustees by Gov. Jay Inslee March 20, 2013. A philanthropist, Army veteran, banker and entrepreneur, Goldberg helped found Saltchuk Resources, a global logistics company, currently the largest private company in Washington State. With deep roots in Olympia, Goldberg channels his leadership commitment to community, education, and global health issues in the area. His work for the Civil Service Commission of Olympia, Providence Saint Peter Foundation, Washington Center for the Performing Arts, The Evergreen State College Foundation, and the University of Washington Alumni association is heartfelt, extensive, and impactful.

On this day in 1967, the 16^th Governor of the State of Washington Daniel J. Evans signed the legislation authorizing the formation of the Evergreen State College. The state Legislature did not want “just another four year college” bound by rigid structures of tradition. Governor Dan Evans expressed the need to “unshackle our educational thinking from traditional patterns.” And so, on a beautiful piece of land on Cooper Point, Evergreen’s 1,000- acre campus and 3,000-foot Puget Sound beachfront became a living laboratory for creative and scientific inspiration and research.

Following his role as governor, Evans served as the second president of The Evergreen State College from 1977 to 1983. The Evergreen State College campus library is named in his honor.

We are honored to have the former governor and former college president join us for the celebration and installment of George Bridges, Ph.D. as the President of the College on Friday, April 22, 2016. The weekend of activities will include an Alumni Showcase, a film screening and a Day of Service on Saturday, April 23rd.

Learn more about this historic weekend and RSVP by clicking here!

Check out this short video about ocean acidification from the academic program Visualizing Microbial Seascapes: An Introduction to Marine Biology and Animation.

The faculty team with animator Ruth Hayes and oceanographer Gerardo Lin-Cheo reminds us of great interdisciplinary teams from years past like when physicist Don Middendorf and artist Susan Aurand teamed up to teach a program on light.

What faculty teams do you remember most vividly?