This story was posted Dec. 21, 2010.What former U.S. governor, who will become governor again in January, has connections to Washington State University and Whitman County?
Answer: John Kitzhaber, M.D.
He served as the state of Oregon governor 1995-2003 and was reelected in November. On Jan. 10, 2011, he will be sworn-in for his third Oregon gubernatorial term.
John Albert Kitzhaber was born March 5, 1947, at St. Ignatius Hospital in Colfax.
His parents, Annabel and Albert Kitzhaber, lived in Pullman. Earlier in the 1940s, both earned master’s degrees in English at what was then Washington State College, where they met.
John was born in Colfax during a time Pullman did not have a hospital in which babies were delivered.
The late Ruth Slonim, WSU English professor emeritus, recalled holding new-born baby John while visiting the Kitzhabers in their South Fairway Road student housing home.
The WSC 1947-48 Fusser’s Guide lists Albert as a WSC instructor of English and Russian.
Annabel Reed Kitzhaber was born in Joseph, Ore., and grew up in Lewiston, Idaho. She graduated cum laude in English from the University of Idaho in 1938 and earned her English master’s degree in 1940 from WSC. Her master’s thesis was “David Hartley in Christabel.”Her background included teaching English at WSC, Iowa State University and at the University of Oregon as a member of its English faculty, 1963-1973.
She received a UO Distinguished Service Award honoring her public service including as an Oregon League of Women Voters president and for being a citizen advocate for good government. She died in 2005.
Albert Raymond Kitzhaber was an Iowa native. He graduated from Iowa’s Coe College in 1939 and earned his WSC English master’s degree in 1941. His master’s thesis was “A survey of the Coleridge-Wordsworth dispute concerning poetic diction.”He was an instructor at Iowa State University before resigning and entering a 26-week intensive course in Russian. A member of the U.S. Army in World War II, he fought in Europe with Patton’s army. His military service, which ended in 1945, included being a Russian translator.
After Albert taught at WSU, 1947-1948, the Kitzhabers moved to Seattle. Beginning in the fall of 1948, he was a University of Washington graduate student. While working on his UW Ph.D. dissertation, he taught and directed freshman composition at Utah State University, Logan, Utah, 1950-1952. He earned his UW doctoral degree in English in the spring of 1953.
A member of the English department of the University of Oregon, 1961-1980, he has been called “one of the nation's foremost proponents of progressive methods of teaching college writing during the 1950s and 1960s.” He died in 2006.
John Kitzhaber graduated from high school in Eugene, Ore., with a biology undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College and earned his doctor of medicine degree from what is now the School of Medicine of the Oregon Health & Science University in Portland.
This story is based on research using a variety of sources.
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http://lmtribune.com/northwest/article_4f7b04a2-52d2-55a6-a86f-a083af52ab4c.html
Up Front/Commentary: Two Northwest governors share a Colfax connection
By William L. Spence Lewiston, Idaho, Tribune Dec 12, 2013
What are the odds two liberal Democrats from Whitman County, whose birthdays are just three days apart, would be elected to the same office at the same time - and not just any office, but the highest office in two neighboring states?
It sounds too improbable to be true, even ignoring the county's strong Republican leaning. Yet it happened nearly 20 years ago, when John Kitzhaber became governor of Oregon while Mike Lowry was governor of Washington.
Kitzhaber, 66, announced this week that he'll run next year for an unprecedented fourth term as Oregon's governor.
He was born March 5, 1947. His parents lived in Pullman at the time, but according to a 2011 story in Washington State Magazine, he was delivered at St. Ignatius Hospital in Colfax because that was the only place in the county with a maternity ward at the time. The family moved to Oregon when Kitzhaber was 11.
Lowry, 74, was born March 8, 1939, in St. John. He currently lives in Renton, Wash., where he serves as co-chairman of the National Alliance to End Homelessness and heads up the Washington Agriculture Families Assistance, an organization that helps farm workers become homeowners.
"A lot of people were born in Colfax," recalled Lowry, whose family moved from St. John to Endicott when he was in the second grade.
"My sister, who's 14 years younger than me, was born in the same hospital as John," he said. "She was the first person in our family who wasn't born at home. Prior to that, Doc MacIntyre came over and delivered us. I think he charged $50. So sometime between when I was born and when John was born, they started delivering kids in the hospital."
Whitman County was a Republican stronghold even back in those days, Lowry said, but his father was a staunch supporter of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal policies.
"My mother's father was president of a bank in St. John during the Depression," Lowry said. "The bank stayed open, but it lost a lot of money. Her family lost just about everything. We grew up sitting at the kitchen table hearing how FDR saved us."
The primary difference between Republicans and Democrats in those days was their position on union labor, he said. Democrats were more closely aligned with the labor movement, but even conservative Republicans were socially conscious.
"They weren't into the Tea Party type of things you see now," Lowry said. "I think a lot of Whitman County Republicans today yearn for the good old days, when they stood on good principles."
After earning a political science degree at Washington State University, Lowry spent a few years as a traveling salesman before landing a staff job with state Sen. Martin Durkan Sr. of Seattle, the chairman of the powerful Senate Ways and Means Committee.
He eventually sought political office himself, serving three years on the King County Council and six terms in Congress, representing the 7th Congressional District.
Following a failed bid for the U.S. Senate, Lowry was elected governor in 1992. He served one term, choosing not to seek re-election when a former deputy press secretary accused him of sexual harassment.
Described by colleagues as a "vociferous, table-pounding liberal" and a "liberal maverick," Lowry focused on a variety of social issues, including access to health care.
For example, he greatly expanded participation in Washington's Basic Health Plan while he was governor, from about 18,000 people to more than 200,000. Because of that, he's paid close attention to the Affordable Care Act and the implementation of the state-based health insurance exchanges.
"I think they oversold it - they didn't realize there would be so many computer problems," Lowry said. "But I think it will ultimately be a success and its success is a very important thing. There's going to be 22 million with access to health care who currently don't have that."
As for the improbability of two Whitman County boys serving as governor at the same time, Lowry said he and Kitzhaber never discussed it.
"I didn't know it (that Kitzhaber was born in Colfax)," he said. "I was just darn lucky to be governor. I don't know what John attributes his success to. But the people of Whitman County are just so solid, and they have a feeling of participation, that it's their duty to participate in government."
Lowry still keeps in touch with people in the area, and enjoys coming back to visit.
"I was down there for Endicott Days this year," he said. "They're just genuinely good people. It always feels good to get back."
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Kitzhaber Colfax and Pullman mention in Oct. 19, 2014, Portland, Ore., Oregonian
http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/10/john_kitzhaber_the_governor_ca.html
"John Kitzhaber: Scandals may not derail him but could cast shadow on fourth term" -- headline in online edition, Oregonian, Oct. 19, 2014
"CHOPPY WATERS A smooth ride to a fourth term in ofice seemed probable for Gov. John Kitzhaber until recent revelations involving his fiancée, Cylvia Hayes, muddied the route" -- headline in print edition, Sunday Oregonian, Oct. 19, 2014
Text includes:
"Kitzhaber was born in Colfax, Washington, near Washington State University in Pullman, where his father taught. His parents, both college professors, moved around the country before landing in Eugene, where Kitzhaber fell in love with Oregon's forests and rivers during his high school years."
Answer: John Kitzhaber, M.D.
He served as the state of Oregon governor 1995-2003 and was reelected in November. On Jan. 10, 2011, he will be sworn-in for his third Oregon gubernatorial term.
John Albert Kitzhaber was born March 5, 1947, at St. Ignatius Hospital in Colfax.
His parents, Annabel and Albert Kitzhaber, lived in Pullman. Earlier in the 1940s, both earned master’s degrees in English at what was then Washington State College, where they met.
John was born in Colfax during a time Pullman did not have a hospital in which babies were delivered.
The late Ruth Slonim, WSU English professor emeritus, recalled holding new-born baby John while visiting the Kitzhabers in their South Fairway Road student housing home.
The WSC 1947-48 Fusser’s Guide lists Albert as a WSC instructor of English and Russian.
Annabel Reed Kitzhaber was born in Joseph, Ore., and grew up in Lewiston, Idaho. She graduated cum laude in English from the University of Idaho in 1938 and earned her English master’s degree in 1940 from WSC. Her master’s thesis was “David Hartley in Christabel.”Her background included teaching English at WSC, Iowa State University and at the University of Oregon as a member of its English faculty, 1963-1973.
She received a UO Distinguished Service Award honoring her public service including as an Oregon League of Women Voters president and for being a citizen advocate for good government. She died in 2005.
Albert Raymond Kitzhaber was an Iowa native. He graduated from Iowa’s Coe College in 1939 and earned his WSC English master’s degree in 1941. His master’s thesis was “A survey of the Coleridge-Wordsworth dispute concerning poetic diction.”He was an instructor at Iowa State University before resigning and entering a 26-week intensive course in Russian. A member of the U.S. Army in World War II, he fought in Europe with Patton’s army. His military service, which ended in 1945, included being a Russian translator.
After Albert taught at WSU, 1947-1948, the Kitzhabers moved to Seattle. Beginning in the fall of 1948, he was a University of Washington graduate student. While working on his UW Ph.D. dissertation, he taught and directed freshman composition at Utah State University, Logan, Utah, 1950-1952. He earned his UW doctoral degree in English in the spring of 1953.
A member of the English department of the University of Oregon, 1961-1980, he has been called “one of the nation's foremost proponents of progressive methods of teaching college writing during the 1950s and 1960s.” He died in 2006.
John Kitzhaber graduated from high school in Eugene, Ore., with a biology undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College and earned his doctor of medicine degree from what is now the School of Medicine of the Oregon Health & Science University in Portland.
This story is based on research using a variety of sources.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
http://lmtribune.com/northwest/article_4f7b04a2-52d2-55a6-a86f-a083af52ab4c.html
Up Front/Commentary: Two Northwest governors share a Colfax connection
By William L. Spence Lewiston, Idaho, Tribune Dec 12, 2013
What are the odds two liberal Democrats from Whitman County, whose birthdays are just three days apart, would be elected to the same office at the same time - and not just any office, but the highest office in two neighboring states?
It sounds too improbable to be true, even ignoring the county's strong Republican leaning. Yet it happened nearly 20 years ago, when John Kitzhaber became governor of Oregon while Mike Lowry was governor of Washington.
Kitzhaber, 66, announced this week that he'll run next year for an unprecedented fourth term as Oregon's governor.
He was born March 5, 1947. His parents lived in Pullman at the time, but according to a 2011 story in Washington State Magazine, he was delivered at St. Ignatius Hospital in Colfax because that was the only place in the county with a maternity ward at the time. The family moved to Oregon when Kitzhaber was 11.
Lowry, 74, was born March 8, 1939, in St. John. He currently lives in Renton, Wash., where he serves as co-chairman of the National Alliance to End Homelessness and heads up the Washington Agriculture Families Assistance, an organization that helps farm workers become homeowners.
"A lot of people were born in Colfax," recalled Lowry, whose family moved from St. John to Endicott when he was in the second grade.
"My sister, who's 14 years younger than me, was born in the same hospital as John," he said. "She was the first person in our family who wasn't born at home. Prior to that, Doc MacIntyre came over and delivered us. I think he charged $50. So sometime between when I was born and when John was born, they started delivering kids in the hospital."
Whitman County was a Republican stronghold even back in those days, Lowry said, but his father was a staunch supporter of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal policies.
"My mother's father was president of a bank in St. John during the Depression," Lowry said. "The bank stayed open, but it lost a lot of money. Her family lost just about everything. We grew up sitting at the kitchen table hearing how FDR saved us."
The primary difference between Republicans and Democrats in those days was their position on union labor, he said. Democrats were more closely aligned with the labor movement, but even conservative Republicans were socially conscious.
"They weren't into the Tea Party type of things you see now," Lowry said. "I think a lot of Whitman County Republicans today yearn for the good old days, when they stood on good principles."
After earning a political science degree at Washington State University, Lowry spent a few years as a traveling salesman before landing a staff job with state Sen. Martin Durkan Sr. of Seattle, the chairman of the powerful Senate Ways and Means Committee.
He eventually sought political office himself, serving three years on the King County Council and six terms in Congress, representing the 7th Congressional District.
Following a failed bid for the U.S. Senate, Lowry was elected governor in 1992. He served one term, choosing not to seek re-election when a former deputy press secretary accused him of sexual harassment.
Described by colleagues as a "vociferous, table-pounding liberal" and a "liberal maverick," Lowry focused on a variety of social issues, including access to health care.
For example, he greatly expanded participation in Washington's Basic Health Plan while he was governor, from about 18,000 people to more than 200,000. Because of that, he's paid close attention to the Affordable Care Act and the implementation of the state-based health insurance exchanges.
"I think they oversold it - they didn't realize there would be so many computer problems," Lowry said. "But I think it will ultimately be a success and its success is a very important thing. There's going to be 22 million with access to health care who currently don't have that."
As for the improbability of two Whitman County boys serving as governor at the same time, Lowry said he and Kitzhaber never discussed it.
"I didn't know it (that Kitzhaber was born in Colfax)," he said. "I was just darn lucky to be governor. I don't know what John attributes his success to. But the people of Whitman County are just so solid, and they have a feeling of participation, that it's their duty to participate in government."
Lowry still keeps in touch with people in the area, and enjoys coming back to visit.
"I was down there for Endicott Days this year," he said. "They're just genuinely good people. It always feels good to get back."
-----------------
Kitzhaber Colfax and Pullman mention in Oct. 19, 2014, Portland, Ore., Oregonian
http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/10/john_kitzhaber_the_governor_ca.html
"John Kitzhaber: Scandals may not derail him but could cast shadow on fourth term" -- headline in online edition, Oregonian, Oct. 19, 2014
"CHOPPY WATERS A smooth ride to a fourth term in ofice seemed probable for Gov. John Kitzhaber until recent revelations involving his fiancée, Cylvia Hayes, muddied the route" -- headline in print edition, Sunday Oregonian, Oct. 19, 2014
Text includes:
"Kitzhaber was born in Colfax, Washington, near Washington State University in Pullman, where his father taught. His parents, both college professors, moved around the country before landing in Eugene, where Kitzhaber fell in love with Oregon's forests and rivers during his high school years."