CNews asked readers to send their memories of Concordia University to share with the community at this time of grief about institution closing. Below are some of the submissions.
If you have any to share, post them on Facebook.com/groups/ConcordiaPDX.
Karen (Sasser) Wrye
Concordia University has been a part of my life for many years. My family moved to Portland in 1945. I grew up on 27th and walked past the campus on my way to Faubion to grade school.
We neighborhood kids also played on the campus. When it was time for college, I attended there to study to be a teacher.
After graduating, I lived out of state for eight years. In 1972, I moved back to Portland when my husband accepted a position to teach in the high school department at Concordia.
I have lived in the Concordia neighborhood since then. For 12 years, I was an adjunct instructor at Concordia University. Over the years I have witnessed the many changes and additions to the campus.
All my memories as neighbor, student and instructor are too many to list. A few of my favorites are singing in the Concordia College Choir, attending concerts and sporting events over the years, visiting the library and walking across campus on my treks through the neighborhood.
I live close enough to campus that, in recent years, I have enjoyed the music of the carillon.
I grieve the closing of Concordia University and wonder what will take its place as my neighbor.
Dick Wrye
The first five years I lived in the Concordia neighborhood of Portland, I taught in the high school department of Concordia College and High School. The high school then moved off the Concordia campus and became Lutheran High School.
At Concordia I taught music, primarily choir and band. Many of those students are still my friends. I am glad to have memories of the many years of teaching.
Georgina Sharadin Sievers
My parents, Don and Dolores Sharadin, built their house on 27th and Liberty in 1951 to send all their future children to Concordia High School — an all-boys high school, then a junior college, which later became a university.
They had five daughters, but fortunately the high school turned co-ed in 1968. Four of the five girls attended there, met their future husbands on the campus, and they were married in the chapel in Luther Hall.
After the girls left home, the Sharadins – who have seen tremendous changes to the campus – continued to support the growing university, and even rented bedrooms out to other students throughout the years.
Dolores received Concordia’s first Lux Christi Award, given to an outstanding educator for the Lutheran Church. Don couldn’t stay away from attending all the sporting events on campus. The Sharadins still maintain occupancy of the big yellow house. The landscape has changed immensely with the stadium, the library, the gym and campus apartments.
I taught swim classes as an adjunct professor, son-in-law Ken is the head of maintenance, granddaughter Karen is the campus nurse and great-granddaughter Atley is a freshman on the campus.
Sadly to say, we are all heartbroken. But we are thankful for the nearly 70 years our family has been a part of this Concordia community.
