In
Memoriam ’71 Anna Jahns, 85, BA English, died July 21, 2009.
’50s ’54 and ’52 Elva T. Salt, 103, MEd and education certification, died Nov. 25, 2008, in Yakima, Wash.
Faculty/Staff Blaine Bergam, died Dec. 28, 2008. He retired from the Physical Plant in 1998, after 13 years of service. Dolores Ford, died March 21, 2009. She retired from staff in Management in 1998, after nine years of service.
Ralph Hawley, died Jan. 15, 2009. He retired from Custodial Services in 2002, after five years of service. William Robert Kidd, PhD, 79, died April 10, 2009, in Las Vegas, Nev. He taught history and retired from Academic Affairs in 1993, after 35 years of service.
W. Anthony (Tony) Oertling, PhD 1954-2009 Tony Oertling was finishing up his first year as chair of Eastern Washington University’s Chemistry and Biochemistry Department when he died in a kayaking accident on May 29, on north Idaho’s Marble Creek. Oertling began teaching at Eastern in 1992, after serving in a post-doctorate position at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Born in Louisiana of Cajun heritage, he earned his BS at Texas A&M and his doctorate degree from Michigan State University in 1987. At a memorial service held on the Eastern campus in June, Judd Case, dean of the College of Science, Health and Engineering, described Oertling as a southern gentleman, and as a phenomenal professor in the classroom and in the laboratory. Friends and colleagues remembered Oertling as a fun guy with an incredible zest for life. He had a knack of explaining very complicated things and he was truly committed to his students, their futures and their goals.
Rubén Trejo 1937-2009 Eastern Washington University and the art world will miss Rubén Trejo, longtime professor of art at the University. Trejo, 72, died July 19, 2009, in Spokane from a blood disorder. Trejo was one of 11 children, born in a railroad boxcar in St. Paul, Minn. His father worked for the railroad and his mother and siblings worked the fields as migrant laborers. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Minnesota and came to Eastern in 1973. Trejo’s support was instrumental in starting Eastern’s Chicano Education Program. In 1987, Trejo received the EWU Trustees Medal, which is awarded for faculty achievement. He retired in 2003 as Professor Emeritus. Trejo was considered one of the premier artists in the country, and had more than 30 one-person exhibitions. His work is part of the permanent collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, N.M., and the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago. Trejo worked in a number of mediums – sculpture, mixed-media installations, painting and drawing, with a style that blended European modernism, American art and his Mexican heritage. The Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture in Spokane is planning a Trejo exhibition in 2010. Contributions in honor of Rubén Trejo may be made to the Rubén Trejo Hispanic Scholarship Fund, 102 Hargreaves Hall, Cheney, WA 99004.
Fall 09
33