In memoriam

Fall 2013

Charles Argersinger 1951–2013: Equilibrium

Charles Edward Argersinger, emeritus professor of music at Washington State University and a resident of the Palouse area since 1988, died April 16, 2013, in Pullman, after a long illness. He was 61.

Charles was born October 15, 1951, in Schenectady, New York, and his family traded snow for sun a few years later, moving to Phoenix, Arizona. After graduating from Central High School, he attended Arizona State University, earning his bachelor’s and then, in 1977, his master’s degree in music. During his college years, he played saxophone in a rock band called Christopher Blue. In 1977, Jana Jennison, who fell in love with him … » More …

Fall 2013

Eugene Rosa 1942–2013—Working for people and the planet

When you fill out a career pushing the limits of knowledge, rising to “pioneer in your field” status, things are bound to get pretty technical.

Gene Rosa, environmental sociologist, lived that reality, penning papers with terms like “biosociology,” “post-normal risk,” and acronym-rich analytical tools like STIRPAT. In spite of the technical thickets of his work, say friends and colleagues, Rosa kept his eye on the increasingly threatened natural environment and the people in it.

“Gene was not just interested in the environment for its own sake, but rather he had a deep desire to see a better world, one with greater quality of life and … » More …

Summer 2012

Donald Wayne Bushaw 1926–2012—A great teacher and a great learner

“Learning should be an unending process,” said Don Bushaw in an interview some years back. Anyone who knew him at all will know this was no idle observation. Bushaw, who first arrived at Washington State College in 1943 as a 17-year-old freshman and returned, a doctorate in mathematics from Princeton in hand, to teach and lead for a distinguished 43 years, passed away in Portland, Oregon, on January 15, 2012, surrounded by his wife and children.

Don Bushaw was born in Anacortes, Washington, on May 5, 1926, to Elmond and Ruth Bushaw. The family moved to Bremerton in 1930 when Elmond took a job at … » More …

Spring 2012

John R. Gorham 1922-2011—Veterinary pathologist

In the early 1940s, John Gorham ’46 DVM, MS ’47 left his family home in Sumner to attend Washington State College as an undergraduate. He found a life here, marrying fellow student Mary Ellen Martin and staying on to earn his doctorate in veterinary medicine, at the same time serving in the U.S. Army. In 1948, he was the first student to earn a graduate degree from the veterinary college.

He then took a position as a U.S. Department of Agriculture researcher in 1949 and the next year made his first big contribution to the field of animal disease research with his major professor Donald … » More …

Spring 2012

Hal Dengerink 1943-2011—Tribute to Hal

On September 14, 2011, the first chancellor of Washington State University Vancouver, Hal Dengerink, passed away at the age of 68.

I first met Hal Dengerink when he came to WSU Vancouver from WSU Pullman to oversee the programs that were offered at Bauer Hall on the Clark College campus. The process of selecting a site for the WSU Vancouver campus was underway when he joined the site recommendation task force that was appointed by WSU President Sam Smith. As members of the task force, we spent many months and endless weekends meeting regularly to complete our charge, which included visiting potential campus sites in … » More …

Summer 2011

Henry Grosshans—1921-2010

Henry Grosshans came to Washington State College in 1952, engaging in an active academic and intellectual life for three decades, after which he retired to Shoreline, Washington. Grosshans died last October, at the age of 89.

He was for many of those years editor of the University Press, raising its prestige and profile not only through the titles published, but through the journals he attracted to the press.

Before coming to WSC, Grosshans was a Rhodes Scholar, studying for two years at Oxford University between brief stints on the faculty at Kansas State and Bowling Green … » More …

Fall 2010

Edward Claplanhoo ’56—Bah-duk-too-ah: August 8, 1928–March 14, 2010

Ed Claplanhoo ’56 was chairman of the Makah Tribe in Neah Bay when a winter storm in 1970 eroded the bank above the beach at Cape Alava on the Olympic Peninsula coast, revealing the village of Ozette. The village, ancestral home to many Makahs, had been buried in a mudslide in the 1700s.

Once he realized what the storm had exposed, Claplanhoo called Richard Daugherty, an archaeologist at WSU. Daugherty had been the freshman class advisor in the early 1950s, and Claplanhoo had been the class treasurer.

Claplanhoo and Daugherty worked closely together to explore and preserve what archaeological crews … » More …

Elegy: May 18, 1980

In memory of a friend and the geologic event that marked her passing. » More ...

Summer 2003

George E. Duvall, gentleman scholar

George E. Duval, 82, a pioneer of shock physics research and professor emeritus at Washington State University, died January 3, 2003 in Vancouver. He was internationally recognized as a founder and leader in studies related to shock wave propagation in solids and liquids. Many colleagues regarded him as the dean of U.S. shock wave science.

The Louisiana native spent his youth in Oregon. His studies at Oregon State University were interrupted in 1941 when he joined the University of California’s Division of War Research to work on underwater acoustics problems. He returned to OSU in 1945 to finish his bachelor’s degree and completed a doctorate … » More …

Summer 2003

White gave students and colleagues “a sense of hope and pride”

More than half of Washington State University’s living pharmacy alumni graduated during Allen I. White’s 39-year tenure (1940-1979) as professor and/or dean of the College of Pharmacy. He was appointed dean in 1960, a position he held until retirement 19 years later. Last June, he and his wife, Edith, moved from Pullman to Fountain Hills, Arizona, where he died December 23, 2002 at age 88.

The Silverton, Oregon native and son of a Lutheran minister completed three degrees from the University of Minnesota-a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy (1937) and both a master’s degree (1938) and a doctorate in pharmaceutical chemistry (1940). In 1983 he won … » More …