Hester Turner ’56 EdD

Hester jumps right in, “I was born in San Antonio, Texas, in the King William Historic District. My great-grandfather’s house was right down the street and is still standing, and so is my grandmother’s house, not too far away. I remember learning to swim in the San Antonio River, ‘course it was much clearer then.”

When Hester was nearly two, her mother died. Hester was raised by her father, a physician, to be independent and self-sufficient, attributes which served her well all her life. She eventually married an Air Force officer, and when he went off to serve his country, Hester decided to go back to school, earning her JD from the University of Arizona. They moved to Oregon when he retired from the service.

Deciding that “teaching worked much better for me than law,” Hester started teaching physical education at Lewis and Clark University in Portland, Oregon. In 1955, she enrolled at OSU where she earned her EdD. “It was fun and really hard work to go to school as an adult, especially since I was raising my four children at the same time,” says Hester. After a stint as Director of Professional Services with the Oregon Education Association, Hester became Dean of Women at Lewis and Clark in 1961 and Dean of Students soon after.

After her children had grown and gone, Hester wanted “a chance to do something with a larger audience,” so she signed on as National Executive Director of the Campfire Girls (now Campfire Boys and Girls), which had a membership of over 600,000, and moved to New York City. “I love living in New York; I’ve been here for over 40 years,” she says. “I can see four out of the five boroughs and the Chrysler Building from my apartment.”

Never one to sit still, she volunteers at Beth Israel Hospital, calling homebound patients to cheer them up, and goes to opera, theatre, and musical performances. And until just recently, she rode tandem bicycle with her son

Dennis Nelson ’86 EdD

Growing up in northern Utah farm country influenced the direction and nature of Dennis Nelson’s life. With 600 acres of family farm as his playground, dairy cows to tend with his dad, and wide-open spaces in Utah’s Wasatch Range as a hunting and fishing paradise for him and his grandpa, Dennis was destined to be interested in recreation management. He earned his BS in recreation at Utah State in 1976, a Master’s at BYU the following year, then worked for the Boy Scouts of America for several years in Idaho Falls. Dennis and his young family moved to Salt Lake City where he directed a “community school” offering recreation opportunities and adult education.

A big leap came in 1982 when Dennis and his wife packed up the three kids and moved to Corvallis, Oregon, so Dennis could pursue his doctorate. At that time, OSU was one of the few higher ed institutions offering a doctorate in education. He resigned from his full-time job in Salt Lake and trusted that somehow he would find a way to finance his graduate degree. Dennis relaxed a little when he became the director of the teacher placement program in the College of Education and his wife found a job in the Geography Department.

After earning his EdD in 1986, Dennis moved back to Utah where he joined Utah State University’s College of Education Health and Physical Education Recreation Department. Twenty years later, Dennis still loves his job. “I can’t find anything else I’d rather do,“ he says, “but the field of recreation has changed over the last two decades. We have less space, more people, multiple uses of the land. And in this technological society, we’ve lost sight of non-competitive, imaginative activities.”

Dennis never forgets this basic tenet of recreation: play is healthy. When he needs to refresh his spirits, he goes back to the family farm. “Going out to the home place is a tremendous break for me. I love sitting on the tractor and just watching the deer,” he says softly.

Kenny Kent ’87 BS, ’91 MA

For Kenny, the path to being an educator was a bit circuitous. He was born in Roseburg and lived for most of his childhood in Reedsport, Oregon. In 1965, Kenny enrolled in OSU and promptly flunked out. ”I just wasn’t mature enough. I still needed to experience life.” For the next twenty years, Kenny built businesses: a sportfishing charter service, a commercial crab/shrimp fishing operation out of Winchester Bay, and a construction contracting firm.

When he was 38 and the hard physical work started to take a toll, Kenny decided to go back to school to be a teacher. “My wife is a teacher, and we thought we would have our summers together.” He signed on again at OSU, earning his BA in industrial arts education in 1987, started teaching in Reedsport, Oregon, at age 41, and earned a Master’s in education in 1991, pulling a 4.0 GPA the entire time. He went on to get his administrative certificate from Lewis and Clark College in 2000.

When Kenny went back to school as an “older-than-average” student, it had a huge impact on his children. “I studied on the weekends alongside my son, who was in high school at the time. My son now has a PhD and two Master’s degrees, and my daughter is in grad school.”

Kenny was hired as superintendent of the Bandon School District on the southern Oregon coast seven years ago. “We have had incredible growth in this area. We are getting lots of retirees moving into town, and our student population is declining. The biggest industries around here are golf, cranberries, visitor services, and health care.” He continues, “I love my job. I plan to retire this June, and we’re going to stay in the area. Finally, I’ll have my summers with my wife Susan.”

Jackie Balzer ’92 EdM

Right next to Jackie Balzer’s office, there is a large room with a receptionist, the usual array of functional office furniture, and right in the middle, some overstuffed sofas and chairs. An assortment of students, draped over the arms, backs, and seats of the comfortable furniture, are huddled together, talking, laughing, clearly, at home. There isn’t a better illustration of the connection and comfort OSU students feel with Jackie than this. The Office of Student Life is a safe place to be. And Jackie, the Dean of Student Life, is there when they need her.

“I feel honored to work in an environment that is about preparing students to find their potential,” says Jackie. “OSU students have lives outside the classroom as well as in the classroom, and I want them to flourish wherever they are.” Jackie is well prepared for her job: her undergraduate degree is in sociology, she earned a Master’s of education in College Students Services Administration (CSSA) from OSU’s College of Education, and she is close to completing her doctorate in the OSU Community College Leadership Program.

“I came to OSU because of CSSA’s reputation. It’s a unique program with scholars and student affairs professional practitioners on the faculty,“ says Jackie. “Joanne Trow and Roger Penn were huge influences on me. When I decided to enter the doctoral program in the College of Education, I was attracted to the Community College Leadership Program where we gather off-campus once a month to learn together and encourage each other.”

In her role as Dean of Student Life, Jackie supports students’ intellectual, ethical, and social development and works “to stimulate a dynamic and engaging student life.” Her tremendous commitment to OSU students’ quality of life was recognized in January 2006 when she was awarded the McKay-Wight award by the OSU chapter of Phi Delta Theta. The award is given once a year to a faculty or staff member who has made a difference in the lives of students.

Susan Wolff ’01 EdD

Susan owns her own educational facilities design firm, working with schools, colleges, universities, and architecture firms; travels all over the planet teaching about innovative design and how it affects learning; and is Dean of Instruction at Columbia Gorge Community College in Hood River, Oregon.

In 1975, Susan moved to Oregon from her home state of Montana, armed with a home economics degree and a desire to teach sewing. She found a teaching job at Linn-Benton Community College (LBCC) in 1976, then made an important personal leap into higher education administration. For the next decade or so, Susan took on a variety of administrative roles at OSU and LBCC while earning her Master’s in education.

A convergence of sorts happened in the late 1990s: Susan entered the Community College Leadership Program (CCLP) at OSU, and George Copa, one of her CCLP professors, asked her to attend a workshop in Minneapolis. Susan describes her CCLP years as the “most incredible thing I’ve ever done.”

The workshop in Minneapolis was a pivotal experience when she visited schools George had designed to encourage project-based learning. Susan was struck when she saw George’s innovations fostering collaboration, creativity, and the development of new skill sets. After working closely with George and other national leaders in facility design and completing her doctorate in 2001, Susan founded her own firm specializing in an interdisciplinary approach to creating educational facilities. She says, “If changes to learning facilities are to happen, there have to be strong leadership, community involvement, and architectural firms that understand that learning is the desired outcome.”