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Margaret Wallen ’56 was determined not to let her GI Bill go to waste. She spent the last years of World War II overseas in the U.S. Army and another four years as a WAAC (Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps) in the United States.
Now it was 1952, and as a married, 40-year-old rancher living in Boring, Oregon, Wallen wanted a degree in elementary education. She chose to attend Portland State Extension Center, 24 miles west in Portland.
“I’ve always had ambitious goals. I made my own way and didn’t stop a minute,” says Wallen.
Born on her family’s 40-acre southern Oregon ranch near Merlin, she moved to Medford after high school and held two jobs in order to put herself through business college at night.
Now at Portland State, with an average student age of 26, Wallen’s age, marital status, and service record often left her feeling like an outsider looking in. In addition, the long daily drives from home and the need to maintain the ranch were taxing. Wallen became discouraged and almost left the program.
“I had been indoctrinated into a different way of thinking in the military and re-entering society was difficult. I was very independent but had an inferiority complex about my ability to achieve,” she says.
But education faculty members Alma Bingham and John Jenkins, who was also Wallen’s adviser, encouraged her to stay and reach her goal.
“I feel very honored to have been in the first graduating class at Portland State College (the name changed in 1955),” says Wallen. “I so enjoyed my association with the faculty and students—that was an education in itself.”
After graduation, Wallen spent 20 years teaching second grade at the old Lynch Elementary School in Multnomah County and Firwood Elementary School in Sandy. In addition to a full curriculum that included physical education, music, and art, Wallen taught her students how to trust others, be independent, and develop self-confidence.
Wallen continued her own studies and received a master’s degree in education with a minor in guidance and counseling from Oregon State University in 1970.
Retirement in 1977 didn’t slow Wallen down. She helped develop a Youth at Risk program in conjunction with her volunteer work for the League of Women Voters and was a member of the Gresham Police Department’s Crime Prevention Board. She also volunteered at Mt. Hood Community College, worked in the interpretive center at Mt. Hood’s Timberline day lodge, and tutored at several Gresham elementary schools.
Wallen’s most gratifying volunteer effort was with the East County Neighborhood Accountability Board’s Eastwind Center. During her years at this counseling facility, Wallen greeted over 1,000 families in crisis and helped to ease the tensions of troubled youth.
In 1997, Wallen bought a home in Grants Pass. Now 93, she is assembling memorabilia and plans to write a story of her life. She attends meetings for the Disabled American Veterans and the Veterans of Foreign Wars and participates in a women’s social group, the Red Hat Society. She is also in the process of becoming a volunteer mentor with the Rogue Valley Youth Authority.
“Life is going just as fast as ever,” says Wallen. “It’s a wonderful adventure and you should enjoy every minute of it.”
In 1954, physics professor Will Norris traveled the nation visiting other urban universities. He was collecting information to draw up basic campus expansion plans for the soon-to-be-renamed Portland State Extension Center—a task given to him by President John Cramer.
At the time, the school had only one classroom building, Old Main, today’s Lincoln Hall.
Norris sent back facts and figures to his lab assistant, junior Stuart Hood ’56, who correlated the data by hand. Hood made charts and graphs that compared the number of teachers, students, and classrooms with facility types, square footage, and an array of other components.
Norris used this information to generate his concept for campus growth, and had Hood sketch the buildings in one-quarter-block increments to present to the architects.
“I had to find solutions to things I’d never considered before, like how to get pianos onto the fourth floor of a music center,” says Hood. “That working plan set in motion the basic concept of the campus, from Old Main up the Park Blocks to Shattuck Hall.”
Hood, a 1948 graduate of Portland’s Benson Polytechnic High School, was now a veteran of the Korean War enrolled at Portland State on the GI Bill.
Because he’d been away for four years, Hood had to repeat several high school courses during his first year. Getting back into academics proved frustrating. Hood focused on his
education and didn’t participate in the school social scene until a blind date introduced him to his future wife. She was a student at Lewis & Clark College and together they attended functions and dances at both schools.
“College was a wonderful experience,” says Hood. “I had a great time and met many people that I still correspond with today.”
With a degree in general science, Hood became a field engineer for SKF Industries, a bearings manufacturer. Attracted to the diversity of the industry, he worked with anti-friction bearings for different companies until 1994 and held a variety of positions, including part owner of a distributorship.
At one point in college, Hood thought he might become a teacher and took several education courses. Years later, he drew upon this knowledge and conducted seminars on bearing installation and maintenance at several Western universities.
“The education I received at Portland State College allowed me to become a teacher as well,” says Hood.
At 75, Hood lives in Bellevue, Washington, with his wife. They are chairpersons of the senior group at their church, organizing its social activities and trips.
The couple shares a particular affinity for cruises. Recently, Hood and his wife took a cruise from San Diego to Hawaii and back to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. Their travels have led them to various spots in Latin America and on a transatlantic cruise with ports of call in Portugal, Spain, and Italy.
Coming to Portland State right out of high school, LaRae (Koon) Bogh ’56 promptly began writing to Oregon’s representatives in Congress and the state legislature to certify the school as a four-year degree-granting college.
Her involvement at school never let up. Bogh appeared in three theatrical productions, was student body secretary in her sophomore year, was named Outstanding Student of the Year and a homecoming princess her junior year, and was Founder’s Day Queen during her last year.
“I loved being active,” says Bogh, now 71. “The college had so many interesting classes and dynamic professors like John Jenkins. And the students were wonderful.”
A part-time job in the placement office further connected Bogh to fellow students. Throughout her four years, she helped match students to part-time jobs on campus and in the community.
Her future husband, Ron Bogh, was an older student at Portland State studying on the GI Bill.
“I met him on a blind date, but he was the other girl’s date,” Bogh recalls. “He was in a graduating class behind mine and I didn’t see him again until a year later. Then we started dating.”
They were married the year after she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in humanities.
Although Bogh taught at Milwaukie High School and David Douglas High School over the following three years, she didn’t sever her ties to PSC. She began writing a column for the PSC Alumni Association newspaper called “Listening in with LaRae.” Until 1962, Bogh wrote about the status of former students, allowing her to stay in close contact with alumni.
“Those were some of the happiest years of my life,” says Bogh. “Alumni would write and send me information about where they were and what they were doing. I’m still in touch with some of the alumni who graduated from PSC after I did.”
When her children were young, Bogh tutored part time and conducted testing for home study programs. She eventually got a job in public relations at Portland State, where for two years she wrote feature stories about gifts, grants, and visiting dignitaries for local newspapers.
Bogh then became a vocational rehabilitation counselor for the state of Oregon, a job that lasted 11 years. She worked another three years as assistant program director at Eastco Diversified Services, taking an early retirement when surgery on both knees made it difficult to walk. After a long recovery, she began to travel. She now has been to Europe twice and also took a hiking tour in New Mexico. She frequently visits her relatives in Nebraska.
In the past 10 years, Bogh has found a new outlet for her writing. She secretly assumes the role of Santa for a class at Shaver Elementary School. Her daughter is a second-grade teacher there and has each of her students write a letter to Santa, bringing the bundle to Bogh. After reviewing all the letters, Bogh writes back one collective response.
“I tell them about the North Pole and answer all their questions about Mrs. Claus and the reindeer,” she explains.
True to her personable manner so familiar to many alumni, Bogh always mentions every student’s name in her response.
Kelli Fields, a Portland freelance writer, is a regular contributor to PSU Magazine.