Portland State’s pictorial history

A pictorial book featuring the university’s history was completed despite demanding workloads, differences in opinion and the sickness and eventual death of one of its creators.

Much like Portland State’s tumultuous early years, where it persevered through a massive flood and constricted growth, the book took on significant challenges but ultimately persisted to completion.

But Portland State: A History in Pictures, a project spurred by the Retired Association of Portland State (RAPS), was a blazing success, creators say. It provides an insightful look at how the small Vanport Extension Center grew up to become the largest university in Oregon.

The book was written by class of 1957 graduate Richard Sanders, who worked through intense sickness and pain before dying in February, just more than two months before the book was released.

Retired Portland State photographer Brent Schauer compiled and edited 60 years worth of photographs from the institution’s history, picking over 300 photos to appear in the 180-page book.

Schauer met Sanders when the project first began, but got to know him during the book’s development. After Sanders was hospitalized, Schauer and emeritus professor Charlie White, who edited the book with Clarence Hein, went to visit him, taking along an unbounded, nearly finished copy.

Sanders initially had a few reservations about some of the book’s text and design, but Schauer said historian and writer Sanders was pleased when he saw the finished product from his hospital bed. The project that was envisioned over a poker game between Sanders, White and other alumni, had finally come to fruition.

“He was very committed to this book,” Schauer said about Sanders.

The book’s production was strenuous and it was quite an ordeal for creators to pull together many photos which were not archived or labeled, said Schauer, who worked as a campus photographer from 1975–2002.

Additionally, the ultimate direction of the book was up in the air as RAPS board members and editors, along with Sanders and Schauer, tried to find a common ground.

Through many meetings and discussions, eventually everyone saw eye to eye.

“After three years of really intense work, it was very gratifying to see,” Schauer said.

People make a genuine connection when they work together on such a daunting project so closely, Schauer said.

“I love these people,” he said. “It was just a fantastic experience.”

Portland State: A History in Pictures already has a fan in Wim Wiewel, Portland State’s president. An advance copy adorns the coffee table in his office and when he has free time he flips through the pages to get a glimpse into the past.

Being relatively new to the university, Wiewel said the book helps him see just how intensely connected Portland State is to the city and how important students are in shaping the university.

“It’s a way for me to get to know the past of this institution,” he said. “It brings it to life in a way that words cannot do.”

Over 100 RAPS members, alumni, staff and students celebrated the release of the book on Friday at the Millar Library. They flipped through its pages while reminiscing about their own history at the campus, many of their nametags showing graduation years all the way back to the early days of the college.

They were there through the difficult as well as joyful times and the book lets them vividly relive it all.

“I really hope the students will take a look [at the book] even if they don’t buy it,” Schauer said. “Just to get a sense of where the institution came from, what it’s been through and how important it is to the city of Portland and beyond. The early history shows very clearly. It was the students that built this school.”