Don Wall
Lee Swedberg
Howard Hopf
Scott Finnie
Pam Parks

Don Wall
Professor of English (retired)

You're going to be a writer. You have been telling people this since you were eight, when you ran a newspaper from your basement and called your collection of comics a library. Now you're 18 and a freshman at EWU in the early 1980s. Your hair is feathered. You've been to discos.

In spite of a lackluster high school GPA, you've landed in the Honors English program. For a while, you coast the way you did in high school, writing essays on "The Opening Line of Hamlet" and "The Telling Beginning of Oedipus." Read a page; write an essay. TV beckons. Road trips are made. A week of classes is missed. You pretend you have mono.

At the end of each quarter you sell your textbooks and use the money to buy generic beer. The fast food industry eagerly awaits your graduation. Then, in the spring, you and your C-plus average drift into Don Wall's Honors English class. He's funny and engaging, a challenge to your slacker genius. He assigns a book a week with an essay on each. A book a week. You do the math. Ten weeks. Ten books. This is roughly ten more than you have read so far in your college career.

He sees through your first essay: "Imagery in the First Act of the Duchess of Malfi." You get a D. You consider faking mono again.

You meet with Dr. Wall and confess that you are going to be a writer. "You have to be a reader first," he says.

So you read. Dr. Wall helps, infusing discussions of literature with humor and an easy intelligence. He's no snob, blindly following the canon. Alongside classics, he assigns an early Michener and McMurtry's wonderful "All My Friends Are Going To Be Strangers."

He assigns "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," and you are proud to have picked up the Christ imagery in the twelve going to the water. But you missed the unreliable narrator, Dr. Wall gently chides.

So you read it again. On your own! It's amazing, the layers of meaning. You can't stop thinking about it; a whole new world has suddenly appeared and Dr. Wall is the only other person who sees it.

You get an A-minus in his class, the hardest grade you've ever worked for. When the quarter ends, you keep your books.

Sixteen years later, your own novel is coming out and you have a chance to recognize a former professor. You remember a couple of journalism and creative writing professors who gave valuable instruction and inspiration.

But your infant son has recently torn the cover off your rat-eared copy of "All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers." You hold that book and remember how Dr. Wall woke you up, how he showed you what it takes to be a writer and the magic that can be made by stringing together a couple dozen letters in various orders and progressions.

You hold that coverless book and remember his patience, his enthusiasm for language and ideas. You sit at the keyboard and begin to write, the way you have almost every day since wandering into Dr. Wall's class. You're noodling around, not sure what to write, when this bit of literary magic occurs to you: Thank you so much.

Jess Walter
Writer
BA - 1987

Lee Swedberg
Professor of Women's Studies

I first met Professor Lee Swedberg in the Fall of 1993. I was 43 years old and returning to school after a 20-year hiatus. This was a huge step for me and needless to say, I was nervous about it. Undecided about what classes to begin taking to supplement the huge amount of 7 credits I previously earned in the 1970's, I reviewed the downtown campus night-school listing. I settled on something that looked like a class I could apply to everyday life: Issues in Women's Studies.

Lee Swedberg was the professor teaching that course. The majority of the students taking this class were young or mid-twenties. I'm sure I was the oldest of the bunch.

However, Lee always went out of her way to make me feel included and comfortable. For example, our first assignment was to write a biography of our mother. Lee stated to the class "that should not be too hard, most of your mothers are still quite young. How many of you have mothers over 40?" A majority of students raised their hands. "Over 50?" Lee asked. A few more raised their hands. "Over 60?" The hands were getting less and less. "Over 70?" No hands. "Over 80?" I raised my hand. "Well," Lee stated, "Francine will have a little more work to do than the rest of us, that's for sure!" The class chuckled and so did I.

I went on to take 32 more credits in Women's Studies, thanks to the constant encouragement from Lee. In fact, my minor is Women's Studies. Lee encouraged me in a number of ways, including asking me to serve on the Women's Commission for EWU. Normally a one-year appointment, Lee requested that I stay on the Commission for two more years. I was very honored. Serving on the Women's Commission was a very rewarding experience and I was fortunate enough to meet a number of the women faculty from Eastern who believed in the same values as I do.

Finally, my high admiration for Lee stems not only for her feminist philosophy- ("I could never dislike men," she used to state in class. "I have a husband and two sons who I love very much.") but also for the fact that she is a biologist. Biology has always been the most fascinating subject to me, and Lee only helped to prove that. Taking the "Biology of Women" class from Lee was not only the hardest class I've probably ever taken, but one of the most interesting too.

Professor Lee Swedberg is a very unique, knowledgeable and caring woman educator. Currently, as the first woman Chief Executive Officer for Spokane County, I believe Lee's principles and philosophies taught me to be better prepared for this position I now hold. I'm thrilled she touched my life during the years I spent at Eastern.

Francine Boxer
Spokane County CEO
BA - 1997; MS - 1999

Howard Hopf
Professor of Journalism (deceased)

My first experience with Howard Hopf occurred before I'd even met him. I was going through freshman orientation with my friends Tom Holcomb and Frank Bayman. Our tour guide asked what we were majoring in and when we told him that we were with the School of Fine Arts-Department of Radio & Television, he looked at us and said,

"They have a pretty flamboyant chair." And, of course, if you were in that major, you really majored in Howard because he taught most of the courses. His big "mother" class was advertising; that guy had connections with everybody.

Dr. Boyd Devin, the chair of the Theatre Department, told of a time he walked in Howard's office when he was on the phone. Howard said, "Thank you, Walter, good-bye." He asked Howard who was on the phone and Howard said, "Walter Cronkite." When Devin looked skeptical, Howard picked up the phone, dialed, and said, "Walter, I want you to meet my friend."

He could be cross, but what was amazing is that he wouldn't accept anything but the best. His grading scale went from "Super" to "Excellent," "Good," "Fair," "Poor," to "Terrible-Rotten-Awful." He would stand in the front of the class and say ñThis is so and so's paper,î and rip it up, "T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E!"

If you go around radio and TV production in the Northwest, you'll run into a certain percentage of Howard's people. Mary Windishar, one of Howard's former students, was working in production in Baltimore. She was working with a young woman who was a talk show host. Mary felt she was very good, but Mary also was trying to help build her confidence. The woman she was talking about is Oprah. So, you could say Hopf's influence extends even to Oprah!

He was outrageous, mean, very tough and had very high standards. But if you understood his philosophy, you became one of the best.

Back in the 1970s, everyone was going to EWU. And Howard was a big influence on marketing with all the radio stations.

Tom Armitage
Drama & TV Production Instructor North Central High School
BA - 1977

Scott Finnie
Adjunct Professor, African American Studies

Scott Finnie was my mentor at EWU. I honestly would not have graduated without Scott's constant encouragement.

When I started to attend EWU, I wanted to be a teacher. But after taking education courses my first quarter, in the fall of 1993, I came to realize this wasn't the sort of career I wanted. I decided to attend school just through spring quarter, 1994, then quit.

During that quarter, I took one of Scott's Black Studies classes. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to go just one more quarter so I could take another one of Scott's classes. I enjoyed his classes so much that I "hung in there" and continued taking courses, graduating in 1997 with a bachelor's degree in liberal arts and a minor in Black Studies.

With Scott, I learned in my heart, not just my head. The things Scott taught, the videos he showed, I truly learned about the African-American experience and the Civil Rights struggle. I'm from an Oklahoma town where only Native Americans and whites live. To this day, there's an unspoken rule that blacks are not welcome there.

For several quarters, I was one of Scott's teaching assistants. It was a unique experience. Scott is a conservative but will say something outlandish now and then just to get his students thinking, and a discussion going. I enjoyed watching the students' reactions – some gasping in disbelief, others giggling, some trying to defend the conservative stance, and still others agreeing with Scott's supposed position. It was enjoyable to sit through Scott's lectures and watch and listen to the students try to deal with what Scott had said to them.

I have many positive memories of Scott, and I know that he is extremely popular with all his students. Professors like him make attending school an enjoyable experience.

Tami Leigh
BA - 1977, Liberal Arts Minor, Black Studies

Pam Parks
Professor of Physical Education

When I think of Pam Parks, the first thing that comes to mind is diamonds. She is a fanatic. Even now when I talk to her on the phone, she tells me who is engaged and "the size of the rock on her finger." Pam herself has indulged in the diamond industry. I remember a pre-game meal at Gatto's counting every diamond on her body and I think the grand total was over 30 (including the tennis bracelet that I believe she has left me in her will). It really is quite fitting because Pam (AKA Sparky) is a diamond herself. From the moment I met her when I was a shy high school senior, she has been nothing short of amazing. She saw something special in me right from the start and showed me everything special in her ever since.

As we all know, Pam is 5-foot-2, give or maybe just take a few inches. Don't let her size or her smile fool you, for she is the most competitive, competitive and competitive person around. She finds ways to win. Whether it is racquetball, cribbage, gambling, board games or even driving, she will win. If it's playing cards while she is driving (which is not at all uncommon).....she will still win.

She can walk into a place with only one slot machine, and she will walk out with the jackpot. Or we can be driving out of Burbank Airport and of course Pam will fly by the van at mach 8 waving and smiling until Mr. State Patrol turns his lights on. At this point, the van goes by her waving, and smiling but we find out later that she talked her way out of the ticket and managed to get directions for a short cut to the hotel. She always wins.

Aside from her competitiveness, she can come across as very serious and tough. If you are brave enough to dig deeper into that exterior, you'll find it is easy to break. Once you do, you will find a loyal, caring, irreplaceable person. Pam puts an element of fun in practice, camps and even games. I like to think that I know Pam very well. I spent summers with her doing camps and have seen a side of her that not a lot of people get to see.

She is very dedicated to volleyball, and the love that she gives to each one of her volley kids is so special. She's very well respected and successful and is a huge asset to EWU. Pam is a bonafide stud and the programs and people she is dedicated to are the ones who end up winning in the end.

Kim Exner
BS - 1999