100 years ago

Organization of a Umatilla county alumni association of University of Oregon will be perfected at a banquet to be held in Pendleton December 20, at 6:30 p.m. at the Elk’s club.

President P. L. Campbell with W. K. Newell and Lamar Tooze, officials for the ten million dollar gift campaign, will be here for the meeting. It is emphatically stated that alumni will not be solicited for gifts at the meeting. The sole purpose of the gathering is to outline the campaign; to obtain suggestions from the alumni; to have a reunion and perfect the alumni association.

Among local people who will be asked to speak at the banquet are Judge Gilbert W. Phelps, Fred Steiwer, Harold Warner, Mrs. James John, Jr., and Mrs. Fred Donert. Harry Kuck is in charge of this part of the program, while Bert Jerard is in charge of the musical numbers. This feature will include Oregon songs sung by a male trio.

Reservations for the banquet, which will cost $1, may be made by notifying Miss Elsie Fitzmaurice. Pendleton, Oregon, general chairman, not later than December 18

50 years ago

The base salary for Pendleton teachers in the 1973-74 school year will be increased about 3 ½ per cent.

Results of an agreement including the increase from $7,225 to $7,400 in base salary were reported this morning by John Kottkamp, representing the Pendleton School Board, and Steve Cary, representing the Pendleton Association of Teachers.

Kottkamp and Cary said the board and PAT had unanimously concurred in the agreement, reached after eight meetings totaling about 20 hours. Serving with Cary on the PAT negotiating committee were Jim Kullnat and Bob McMillian, Henry Stodard and Mike Boylen were other members of the board negotiating committee.

25 years ago

As a young girl, Sharon Smith would dream about the day she would be married.

“I used to think I would marry a dentist, that we would have a nice house and that we’d take a vacation to a nice place two weeks out of the year,” Smith said.

Home for the holiday weekend, Smith recalled her childhood fantasy while lounging in a chair in the den of the family’s Georgian-style manor that crests Pendleton’s North Hill.

Never in her childhood imaginings did she envision herself chatting casually about the world economy while dining with foreign diplomats at the White House. But as the wife of Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., Sharon often finds herself seated among some of the most politically elite people of the world.

“I never expected to find myself in this situation,” she admits with a humility that betrays her surroundings.

Her husband understands that Sharon would rather spend the evening home with the couple’s three kids than at a White House function.

“That’s true,” Sharon agreed.