Our village elders.
The phrase really is an echo from another time and another place. This community certainly hasn’t been a village for a while.
But we do continue to benefit from people who have transitioned into community leadership roles later in their lives. The energy, vision and organizational skills that made them successful in the working world can become valuable community resources.
Reporters run across these folks as we cover stories around our community. Every once in a while, it’s a story about a lifetime of achievement, thanks to the annual “First Citizen” recognition program.
At the most recent “First Citizen” event on Oct. 20, Nan Henriksen joined a list of community contributors that goes back to 1939. Looking back through that list, local reporters would recognize the names of many people they’ve written about over the last couple of decades.
We’ve reported on their public service, their leadership, their charitable work and — in some cases — their deaths.
Here are a few of those First Citizens:
ED LYNCH
Before Ed Lynch died on May 10, he led the Fort Vancouver National Trust’s purchase of The Academy.
That was only one of the philanthropic efforts Ed and Dollie Lynch, who died in 2010, were part of. Together, they were named First Citizen in 1992.
Community members had a chance to learn a few more things about Lynch after his death during a community reception at the Lynches’ house. One of the first things you’d notice was all his books: tens of thousands of them. And all of them were nonfiction. According to a neighbor, Lynch said you learned a lot more by reading a biography than by reading fiction.
Another unique viewpoint came from James Howell, who was Lynch’s barber … although it didn’t start out so well. Howell said the first time he cut Lynch’s hair, another barber warned him that Ed liked his hair long on top. Turns out that he wanted it long because his hair spiked up when it was too short.
But Howell wanted Lynch to get his money’s worth and clipped it pretty short. “Sure enough, it stood straight up,” Howell said.
Three or four weeks later, he came again. Lynch shot Howell a smile and went right over to the other barber.
“I felt terrible, because I knew what I had done.”
The third time Lynch came back, he sat in Howell’s chair. He told him, “Someone gave me a second chance, and I’ll give you a second chance.”
MARY GRANGER
Mary Granger was named First Citizen in 1987, and that was eight years before she undertook one of her most notable community projects.
At her memorial service in 2010, Rick Melching, who was president of the Community Foundation then, said that Granger “was a key founder of the Community Foundation in 1984. It was the midst of a recession, and few people thought that such bold dreams would be realized.
“The foundation raised $1 million in the first three years,” Melching said. “After 26 years, it distributed $90 million throughout Southwest Washington.”
That’s not bad. But in 1995, Granger started the local I Have a Dream program. The challenge was to help kids in low-income neighborhoods. About 330 Dreamers in five schools were tapped. Their on-time high-school graduation rate was 89 percent (the national average is 66 percent). About 79 percent completed their post-high school educations, whether it was college or career training.
It wasn’t just academics, said Deanna Green, a project coordinator. When she mentioned that a family’s power had been turned off, Granger handed Green a $100 bill. When a student had a dental problem, the Dreamer was connected with Granger’s dentist.
VAL OGDEN
While Dan Ogden held several high-level government positions with the Department of the Interior and Department of Energy, Val Ogden was involved with nonprofit agencies such as Camp Fire USA, the United Way and the YWCA.
The two moved to Clark County in 1985, and Ogden served as the executive director of the Clark County YWCA from 1985 to 1989 before deciding to run for a seat in the Washington Legislature. She served 12 years in the House, from 1990 to 2002.
Ogden, who died on April 9, 2014, was named First Citizen in 2006. Other tributes include the Ogden Resource Center, named in her honor at Washington State School for the Blind in Vancouver.
Dan Ogden noted that his wife picked up an interesting specialty during her tenure as a nonprofit executive: She was a trouble-shooter.
“She did national consulting for Camp Fire Girls,” Dan Ogden recalled. She was acting director in half a dozen cities, including Baltimore, Minneapolis-St. Paul, San Francisco and San Diego.
“San Francisco had to dismiss their executive director and Val was there for three months, getting their Camp Fire office straightened out.”
AL BAUER
Al Bauer, who dropped out of high school, became known as the education senator during his 20 years in the state Senate. He led statewide initiatives to reduce class sizes, increase support for rural school districts and to create a school telecommunications network.
He helped establish a college program that became Washington State University Vancouver, and Bauer Hall on the Clark College campus is named after him. He was named First Citizen in 2001.
This is a man who left high school after his junior year to go to work.
He went on to get a master’s degree and became a teacher, and in the process eventually wound up with four high school diplomas: two from high schools he never attended, a GED certificate that didn’t count and a correspondence-school diploma that nobody would honor.
Bauer said that he learned the most about how to learn through the correspondence school. “You had to do your work all alone. There was nobody to go to if you were stuck in Economics 101. You got a dictionary and an encyclopedia and figured it out.”
HAL DENGERINK
Hal Dengerink came here in 1989 to head up Washington State University’s Vancouver branch campus.
He also was involved with the Chamber of Commerce, and served on the board of directors of what was then Southwest Washington Medical Center.
When Hal was named First Citizen in 2011, former Vancouver Mayor Royce Pollard recalled another one of Dengerink’s projects. Pollard said he invited him to co-chair a Columbia River Crossing task force that would be part of replacing the Interstate 5 Bridge.
“I told Hal it was an easy assignment and wouldn’t take long,” Pollard said.
After he died in 2011, a WSU Vancouver official shared a story about another aspect of his life.
Lynn Valenter, who became interim WSUV chancellor after Dengerink died, said that Dengerink’s daughter bought a home near the campus, and Dengerink couldn’t wait to help fix it up.
It was a rainy spring day when Dengerink and a few of his grandsons were replacing the front deck. As he worked in the mud, two WSUV students passed by, Valenter said.
One student said to the other, “See that old man working in the rain? That’s why I’M going to school.”
GEORGE PROPSTRA
George Propstra’s career as head of Burgerville got a great telling recently when Jack Graves spoke at the Clark County Historical Museum. Graves, the chief cultural officer at Burgerville, went back to when Propstra was working at The Holland Restaurant, which was the Propstras’ flagship operation then.
Jack said that Propstra got interested in baking, so he’d go to Portland and work all night in a bakery.
“George was not afraid of putting in the hours.” His philosophy was that employees will respond if they see you’re working, too.
Propstra, who was named First Citizen in 1991, paid attention to details. Propstra once gave Graves a can of WD-40 and a $10 bill for his troubles. Every time Graves went into a Burgerville, he listened to the door. If it squeaked, Graves hit it with a dose of WD-40.
But the revealing story showed how Propstra built his business on relationships. Graves talked about when Propstra and his meat supplier did a $4.5 million beef deal on a handshake.
The business office wanted something more substantial and asked Propstra for something on paper. So he and the rancher got a napkin and wrote down: “Beef: $1.92 a pound.”
The next year, they made the same handshake deal, and the business office, once again, asked for documentation. Propstra said, “Got that napkin?” And they wrote: “Same as last year.”
PAT JOLLOTA
Pat Jollota has been long recognized as a voice for local history and heritage. But when she was honored as 2012 First Citizen, one of the things people cited was her work on behalf of abused children. There is a center near the courthouse that responds to felony child abuse cases. Jollota was one of the founders, and she was on the board from the start.
Jollota also had a long tenure in public service. She spent 20 years on the Vancouver City Council, and last year, she was one of 15 freeholders who wrote the county’s home rule charter.
She had a chance to talk about her city council career a few months ago during another museum presentation. That program focused on women in the political process.
Jollota said that her first winning campaign, which riffed on her last name, came up with what she called the worst radio commercial EVER!
The hook was: “We think a whole lotta Jollota.”
“Absolutely awful,” Jollota said.
Still … It turned into a 20-year council stint.
FLORENCE WAGER
When Florence Wager retired in 1990, she bought a set of golf clubs. It sounded like a good way to fill some of her free time.
“I still haven’t used them,” Wager said in 2009, after being honored as First Citizen.
Wager, who died in 2012, found other ways to spend her retirement. Wager invested her time in providing recreational opportunities and supporting healthy living for other people in the community.
Wager co-chaired the community design committee to plan the renovation of Esther Short Park, the state’s oldest public square. It was a project dear to her heart. When Wager was a child, she would play in the park’s wading pool, she said.
“It was sad to see it turn into a trash heap.”
So it was interesting to hear Wager explain how being outdoors was not always an absolute joy.
“I have a love-hate relationship with spring,” she told The Columbian a few years ago. “I have allergies.”
She added: “I never let it stand in the way.”
