Envisioning the Future

Roger Minthorne was a George Fox University leader.

Except for my title as university president, Roger had just about every other leadership position and title possible at George Fox University. He helped guide and shape his alma mater for nearly three-fourths of a century.

He arrived on the campus of then-named Pacific College in the fall of 1943 and started his leadership while a student. As a junior, he was student body president in the 1945-46 school year and then the next year served as student body treasurer. He also was elected president of his senior class, the Class of 1947. These are just his “major” volunteer roles, in addition to being a religious studies major. He also found time to be advertising manager for The Crescent, the student newspaper; business manager for the L’Ami, the yearbook; and treasurer of the Student Christian Union. For all this, as a senior, he was named to “Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities.”

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Most everyone has heard the story of temperature change and frogs. If you place a frog in tepid water and slowly increase the temperature over time, it will simply be boiled to death without noticing the change. The funny thing is that the “story” in this case is not true scientifically. Apparently, a frog does notice when the temperature of the water changes. Nevertheless, the myth rings true to human experience, so it has been a metaphor that has been repeated thousands of times to illustrate how, in the midst of significant change, humans have a tendency to operate as if the environment remains the same!

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I suppose this may sound morbid, but when I travel abroad I enjoy visiting cemeteries. It is not because I am fond of death. Rather, I am interested in how cultures honor and think about death. The graveyards of England and Ireland are replete with Christian symbols and ancient Celtic themes. The Christian cross is ever present and communicates to the visitor the importance of the sacrifice of Christ in the redemption story. The places of the dead are almost always attached to a church (until recently), and the stones and monuments are rarely in perfect condition. Weeds, grasses and vines live amongst the tombs. I find them to be uniquely spiritual places.

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Almost 40 years ago (it’s difficult to think it has been that long), my brother, uncle and a few friends spent the night on the rim of the Grand Canyon, then headed out at 7 a.m. on the Kaibab Trail for Phantom Ranch. We had one goal in mind: get to the bottom of the canyon and back out as fast as we could. It started out as somewhat of a team adventure, but by the time we came out it was clearly a race to the top. The first of us did the hike in under 10 hours, and we ran the last mile. I remember very little about that day except that, at the top, we were exhausted, sweaty and dirty, but there was a feeling of accomplishment. We conquered the canyon trails in under 10 hours! What we did not do is get a sense of the grandeur of the space we had just traversed.

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My wife received a text from my daughter Tara: “You would be proud of Dad today. He was adaptable.” Of course, Tara did not send this text to me, and the only reason I saw it was because my wife chose to share it with me. Interesting. My first reaction was to think, “So I am not usually adaptable? What was so unique about this day? Which day is she talking about?!”

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We are at the end of January 2019, and I am almost three weeks into my sabbatical. I continue to represent the college at presidential gatherings, but I have begun my work on Levi Pennington’s papers and have completed one of the runs on my schedule (Maui 10K)!
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It is a privilege to serve at George Fox University. For generations, professors and staff have helped students prepare for a vocational calling and consistently introduced them to the life of Christ. We serve to impact students. It is what drives us to come to work each day. It is why I love what I do.
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Have you ever had one of those days? My future daughter-in-law, Erin Moriki, broke her foot a few weeks ago and is in a cast. She asked Ruth and me if we could take her to a special celebration her church was hosting at the Portland State University Pavilion with Francis Chan, and we agreed to do so. After picking her up in Beaverton, we drove up 99W and had a hard time getting the navigation going. It was also raining hard. I turned on Elwert Road and was fidgeting with the windshield wipers when I almost ran into a car coming the opposite direction. Ruth screamed and noted that I should keep my eyes on the road.
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I know you remember the lines from the famous Christmas song “Silver Bells”: “city sidewalks, busy sidewalks, dressed in holiday style, in the air there’s a feeling of Christmas!” Perhaps you can relate, but for me that “air” usually takes the form of panic as I try to get everything done before Christmas. There are events most every evening at the university, concerts to attend, church services to experience, and of course dozens of presents to purchase. During Christmas, the one thing I need more of is time.
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Willie on the sidelines with George Fox alumnus Jesus Garcia.

It was the fall of 2008. We welcomed new first-year students to our campus in the last week of August and among them was a young man named Willie Stoffer. The first weekend is a whirlwind for most of the university staff and I do not remember meeting Willie, but sometime during the first week of school that changed. I was sitting in my office on the third floor of the Stevens building on the George Fox University campus, and while I was looking out the windows to the quad I noticed a student riding a scooter at breakneck speed down one of the sidewalks, trying to get to class on time! My initial thought was that he had violated our sidewalk speed limit!
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