A long time coming

Jagdish Ahuja has had the same view from his office for 40 years. Ahuja, a mathematics professor, moved into Neuberger Hall, Room M327 in 1966 and was honored Wednesday for his years of service to the university.

Length of Service awards were held Wednesday afternoon, honoring 52 staff, faculty and administrators for their years of service at Portland State. Ahuja and three other faculty members have been at PSU for 40 years.

Around 175 employees and their family and friends filled the ballroom and ate from catered trays of cheese, fruit and pastries, while administrators read names and short biographical information for each honoree. The ballroom held a jovial mood.

The awards ceremony, put on by human resources, took place in the Smith Memorial Student Union Ballroom at 3 p.m. to honor PSU employees who have been employed full-time from 20 to 40 years. The awards were started in 1986 to honor faculty that had been at the university for 20 years, and the event has grown incrementally since then, according to Cathy LaTourette, organizer of the event and associate vice president of human resources.

LaTourette said each employee is invited with a handcrafted invitation that PSU “puts a lot of heart into.”

“It’s thanking people and recognizing them for [their] hard work and effort for a long period of time,” LaTourette said.

When Ahuja received his award he was allowed time to give a speech in which he thanked his former math chair, Robert Rempfer, who hired him 40 years ago. He said he met him at a math-conference barbecue and was sent a letter asking him to come to PSU.

“He said, ‘How about coming to Portland and making PSU your home?'” Ahuja said.

When Ahuja showed up to his first class to teach, there was only one student, he said, but he has seen the department grow since then. He said in his acceptance speech that he is now teaching introductory math courses, which he calls “Mickey Mouse courses.” He said the people teaching higher-level statistics at PSU have not had much statistical experience.

“All those people who are teaching have never had statistics in their school days,” Ahuja said.

Ahuja thanked his wife, who helped him take care of his two daughters when he used to work during weekends on his mathematics research, usually having to ask the same campus security guard to let him into the building.

Ahuja received his master’s in statistics in India and completed his Ph.D. at the University of British Columbia in 1963. He said his specialty is in Statistical Distribution Theory. He quotes an Albert Einstein statement as his personal motto: “If A equals success, then the formula is A = X + Y + Z. X is work. Y is play. Z is keep your mouth shut.”

The last recipient of the night, John Walker, chair of the economics department and another 40-year recipient, said he almost came with a walker, which he “owns many of.”

“I thought that I would bring a walker, but I thought it may encourage people, so I didn’t,” Walker said.

Walker said he has never stopped learning from his students. He said he remembers one instance where a student continued to pressure him about a fact until Walker looked into the fact and found out the student was right. From that point on, he said he has listened closely to his students. Walker said PSU is a “fabulous Incan Village,” and that he does not plan on retiring soon.

“I’m planning on costing the state of Oregon just as much as I possibly can,” Walker said.

Two other 40-year recipients were honored, but did not attend: Donald Carver, of the Millar Library, and John Erdman, associate mathematics professor.

Each recipient was given a gift basket filled with various PSU engraved items and posed for a picture with Portland State President Daniel Bernstine.

Not every award recipient showed. Some employees, LaTourette said, are “introverted by nature” and decline to attend, although she said they would still be recognized. Twenty-seven out of 52 were in attendance at the awards.

The jovial mood of the awards had administrators and faculty joking among each other, classifying recipients-from those who have served 20 years to those who have served for 40 years-as different seasons and in boxing terms, like heavy weight and super heavy weight.

Bernstine joked that the script written for him was not up to par.

“Obviously the person who wrote this script doesn’t value their own length of service,” Bernstine said.

At the end of the event, Bernstine thanked all of the employees for their many years of service and read a note that LaTourette gave him, which said all recipients are allowed to take the flowers on the tables. “Not the vases-those belong to the [human resources] staff,” joked Bernstine.