The Trail Less Traveled

Fifty years ago this week, I was hired by the U.S. Forest Service on the Prairie City Ranger District of the Malheur National Forest, initiating a decade-long career to finance my college education at the University of Oregon School of Journalism. The schedule worked extremely well: two quarters in school and two quarters in the backcountry of the beautiful Northwest.

For the next decade, I worked as a trail dog, wilderness ranger, firefighter, lookout, helitack crew member, tree planter and timber marker for the Malheur National Forest in Oregon and the Wenatchee National Forest in Washington while studying journalism and public relations. For me, it was an ideal way to fund my collegiate endeavors wile exploring the wilds.

Seattle Soiree

For the second year in a row following a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, the University of Oregon Chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America ventured north to Seattle for a professional development tour June 19-22. We visited three leading public relations agencies, Edelman, The Fearey Group and Raffetto Herman Communications Strategies.

We also toured two popular local enterprises, Starbucks and the Seattle Kraken. The photo above is what Starbucks looked like when I first wandered into the little shop in the early 1970s looking for orange spice tea, which was quite popular at the time. I also purchased some of their coffee beans. Today, Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse chain in the world.

The first stop on our whirlwind tours: Edelman Public Relations, a global firm with over 6,000 employees in 60 countries. Since the company's founding in 1952, Edelman remains an independent family-run agency. The firm's Seattle office sits atop the 24th floor of the Westlake Tower with stunning views of the waterfront skyline and Elliott Bay (below).

Next was a familiar stop for some of us, The Fearey Group, one of the top public relations firms based in Seattle. CEO/President Aaron Blank has been a great friend of UO PRSSA, hosting our group three times in the last seven years. Executive Vice-President Regan Sheehy and Account Coordinator Ryan Mudgett provide an overview of the agency and fielded questions.

For our final stop of the day, we visited Raffetto Herman Strategic Public Relations, located adjacent to Union Square near the Seattle Convention Center, where we saw UO SOJC grads Kristin Peixotto and Ruby Lewis, both loyal Ducks. Raffetto Herman Strategic Communications focuses primarily on clients in the fields of technology, healthcare and government.

Now four years out from the pandemic, when many started working remotely, all three agencies have reverted to a hybrid schedule of working in the office three days a week, and remotely the other two. The consensus: in the office, the human connection enhances mentoring, while remote schedules provide advantages for agencies spread across multiple time zones.

On Tuesday, UO PRSSA returned to Starbucks Headquarters after touring the facility in January, 2023. Starbucks' Jose Rivas provided a comprehensive tour of the facility, including a visit to the tasting room, where new brews are sampled and evaluated by their "tasting experts." Starbucks is widely acknowledged as initiating the "second wave of coffee culture" in this country.

As a student in the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication, I worked my way through college as a wilderness ranger for the U.S. Forest Service at Lake Wenatchee, about 100 miles from Seattle. We would venture to the Pike Place Market on occasion and visit Starbucks, which was basically a small shop tucked away in a corner.

In those days, Starbucks' biggest sellers were orange spice tea and coffee beans. At that time, they did not sell drinks. My, how times have changed. Today, Starbucks, a global enterprise with nearly 40,000 stores in 80 countries, sells hot and cold drinks, whole-bean coffee, expresso, caffe latte, full and loose tea leave, juices, frappuccino beverages and snacks.

Our final stop on the UO PRSSA professional development tour in Seattle was the offices and facility of the Seattle Kraken, the newest franchise in the National Hockey Association. The Kraken are wildly popular in this hockey-starved town, and became the first team to compete in Seattle since the Seattle Totems of the Western Hockey League played their last game in 1975.

Incredibly, the Seattle Kraken qualified for the Stanley Cup playoffs in only their second year of existence. In 2023, the Kraken faced off against the Colorado Avalanche, upsetting the defending Stanley Cup champions in seven games. Touring the Kraken complex, we met Doug (above, throwing the "O"), a proud graduate of the University of Oregon.

In addition to continuing to learn about the practice and profession of public relations from professionals in the Seattle market, it was an opportunity to see the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of the city for those in attendance. Highlights included a trip to the fabled Pike Place Market, Belltown and the Space Needle, built for the 1962 World Fair.

For me, it was also a chance to visit some of my old haunts when I worked in my first public relations position on the Alpine Lakes Planning team for the U.S. Forest Service. Another highlight was reconnecting with former UO PRSSA President Lily Gordon (below, left), now working in public relations for the American Heart Association in Seattle.

Celestial Sensation

An unusually strong solar storm blanketed the Earth in the early morning hours of Saturday, May 11, producing colorful light shows across the entire Northern Hemisphere. In the United States, the northern lights were visible as far south as Alabama and Northern California, as witnessed in this compelling photo taken by the National Park Service along the Rim Drive at Crater Lake National Park located in Southern Oregon.

The sun has produced strong solar flares since Wednesday, May 8, resulting in at least seven outbursts of plasma, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The flares seem to associated with a sunspot that's 16 times the diameter of the Earth, all part of solar activity ramping up as the sun approaches the peak of its 11-year cycle. The light show made great viewing for photographers and skywatchers alike.

Known as auroras, the northern lights (aurora borealis) and southern lights (aurora australia) are a natural lighting display of dynamic patterns of brilliant colors that appear as curtains, rays, spirals or flickers covering the entire sky. Most commonly seen in the Arctic and Antarctic regions, the recent geomagnetic storms have pushed to aurora borealis much farther south as the sun approaches its solar maximum.

This type of storm allows for even more opportunities for viewing as the sun reaches the peak of its cycle, which has been more active than experts had originally predicted, and it appears more of these impacts will extend into 2025 and 2026. The bottom photo, courtesy of Lake Wenatchee Fire and Rescue, shows the northern lights in Washington over Dirtyface Peak and Lake Wenatchee under a full moon setting in the west.

Stellar Moment

Scott Landsfield, longtime proprietor of Tsunami Books, called it a "stellar moment." On Saturday, May 11, the Eugene bookstore hosted a reading and discussion of my latest published work, Wilderness Strangers: Adventures in Shangri-La. The book describes the enduring friendship of the narrator, Joe, and the novel’s cynosure, Kerry, a wild man of the wilderness.

Skier, kayaker, backpacker, climber, sailor, backcountry gourmet, and lover of life, Kerry is the envy of many of his fellow U.S. Forest Service trail crew workers and wilderness rangers in the Cascades. The novel builds to a powerful denouement in which Joe learns about Kerry's life-long struggle with dysthymia, otherwise known as persistent depressive disorder.

Friends past and present joined us. Some I hadn't seen since before the pandemic: in a few cases, even longer. Though all scheduled speakers had scripted comments, the event morphed into a seamless and organic open discussion, with many poignant questions from the audience. Thanks to all who attended or sent best wishes. It was wonderful.

A Parliament Of Owls

Former Forest Service colleagues, all bonafide members of the Aldo Leopold Society, came from hither and yon to convene at the Owl Conservatory in Plain on April 6-9. Delegates gathered to reminisce and reflect on those halcyon days of wilderness and backcountry adventures, discuss and debate world affairs, view a lunar eclipse and hobnob with fellow owls.

This every-so-often parliament of owls, also known among wilderness aficionados as the Inter-Gallactic Legion Of Owls, spun tales of adventure and derring-do from their days as trail dogs, wilderness rangers, firefighters and lookouts on the Wenatchee National Forest. For more on the subject, check out Wilderness Strangers: Adventures in Shangri-La.

The Boss Abides

For three decades, I had the honor and privilege to share an office in the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication with the best, brightest and most talented professionals in the fields of journalism, advertising, public relations and media studies. Of that group of non-tenure track instructors, some considered Pete Peterson as our resident mensch. We called him: "The Boss."

Pete, who for many years coordinated the Charles Snowden Media Internship Program for the UO School of Journalism and Communication, passed away on December 3, 2023, of acute myeloid leukemia, a fast-growing cancer that was diagnosed only in November 2023. I first met Pete in 2006 when he was hired by the UO School of Journalism and Communication. We would come to share an office for more than 12 years.

Ralph (Pete) Peterson was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan on October 3, 1944, the fourth of five children to Evelyn M. Trepanier and Ralph G. Peterson. After graduation from Ann Arbor Pioneer High School, Pete attended Eastern Michigan University with the intention of becoming a high school English teacher. In 1966, he earned a BA in English and, as an ROTC graduate, a commission as second lieutenant in the U.S. Army.

Pete traveled to Oregon in 1968 to be near his high school sweetheart and enrolled at the University of Oregon, earning a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. Pete and his sweetheart, Chilton, married before he left for Vietnam in 1969 to serve as a Medical Service Officer in the 4th Medical Battalion. Following his honorable discharge in 1971, Pete joined the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW).

The newlyweds returned to Oregon from California in 1971, when he accepted a teaching position at Lane Community College, initially in speech and communication and later in journalism. The following year, Pete earned a second master's degree in journalism from the UO. At LCC, Pete developed a penchant for teaching media law. He loved teaching and serving as advisor to the student newspaper, The Torch.

After 32 years, Pete retired from LCC. But it wasn't long before he missed the student contact and accepted a position in 2006 coordinating the Charles Snowden Media Internship program at the UO School of Journalism and Communication before retiring a second time in 2014. Pete, a man of many talents, continued to pursue his passions as a writer and thespian, and participated in church choirs and the Eugene Concert Choir.

For over a decade, Pete and I shared an office with about a half-dozen j-school instructors in the UO SOJC. Dubbed "The Biullpen," our office was a lively, action-packed venue, with students coming and going at all times of the day. Because of Pete's seniority compared to the rest of us, we designated Pete as "The Boss." He loved it. Pete was one of the kindest, most respectful people I have ever met.

Pete was exceedingly polite in an old-school sort of way, yet he also had a wily sense of humor that everyone loved. When we all temporarily moved to the UO Annex during a major remodel of Allen Hall, Pete chose the desk farthest way from mine. "Sorry, John, but your voice projects to the back row," he quipped with a wry smile. Pete Peterson was a gentleman, a scholar and a classy individual. I will remember him fondly.

Kamikaze Krazies

Editor's note: This post is part of a continuing series of stories on the ongoing demise of the Pac-12 Conference.

Enrolling at the University of Oregon in the early 1970s, I immersed myself into campus culture. In those days, the Duck football team was in a major swoon, with more losses than wins. Coaches came and went frequently, and attendance was dismal. But long before the football team became a national brand, UO garnered notoriety for its crazy men's basketball program.

Unfortunately, student tickets to basketball games were distributed through a lottery. Because I had enrolled as a student at the beginning of a winter quarter, I missed out, and I was bummed. The UO basketball team -- known as the "Kamikaze Kids" for their dive-on-the-floor mentality inspired by their coach, Dick Harter -- was the hottest ticket in town.

In his book "Shooting Ducks," legendary Duck coach Howard Hobson described how the team acquired its nickname: "Wichita coach Harry Miller barked out the catchword that would characterize this era of Webfoot basketball. The veteran Miller's Wichita Shockers had just lost to the Ducks that opening week of the 1972-73 season, and by 20 points."

Hobson quoted Miller thusly: "They play more aggressively than kamikaze pilots did during World War II. I have never seen a basketball team go after you like that." The "kamikaze" label stuck, and these Ducks -- led by legendary Ronnie Lee (bottom photo) -- won. The team became so popular that students would camp out overnight at McArthur Court to see a game.

One day, an old girlfriend called. "I must go to home to Portland this weekend," she began. "Do you want my tickets to the Duck basketball game?" "Hell, yes!" I replied. "Who are we playing?" "UCLA," came her reply. "Oh, boy!" I thought to myself. Camping out with other students the night before the game, I had prime seats on the floor in the student section.

UCLA came into Mac Court coached by one of the very best of all time in any sport, John Wooden. The Bruins had defeated the Ducks the week before in Westwood, 84-66. After the game, local media noted that the Kamikaze Kids were "foolishly tenacious." Unfortunately for UCLA, they would be playing this game in a building full of loud, taunting Kamikaze Krazies.

The scene was intense. The crowd was deafening. The scoreboard swayed as the Kamikaze Kids overcame an early deficit to win 56-51 in a game that defied expectations. The experience left a deep impression of those in attendance, including yours truly. I became a true believer in Duck basketball and their rough-and-tumble style of play.