A message from UO President Emeritus Dave Frohnmayer
Campaign Oregon: Transforming Lives is the most important
mission of my presidency. I wish I could spend a day or two
talking with each of you to tell you why.
I would like to walk with you through our campus, pointing
out what was, what is, and what can be, reminding you of the
dedicated men and women who truly have changed lives—changed
the world—from right here at the University of Oregon.
I would take you through the classrooms and laboratories
where students are acquiring knowledge for careers that may
not even have been invented yet, where talented professors
are inspiring eager students, where researchers are unlocking
the secrets of the human mind and the natural world.
This isn’t just CliffsNotes™ and coffee. It is
a transforming experience—for students and the world
they will shape.
I know I would be a very different person if it were not
for the University of Oregon. I think many of you would say
the same. The university transformed the lives of my parents,
whose values and interests shaped my life and greatly enriched
their community.
Because of his University of Oregon education, my father,
the newborn son of a German immigrant who settled in Portland
in 1906, was able to join a successful law firm in Medford
and make a good life for his family. Because of her University
of Oregon education, my mother was able to work as a music
and English teacher at small rural Oregon schools before her
marriage.
My parents instilled in me and my siblings not only a love
of literature, music, and law but also a strong public service
ethic. I grew up with a real sense that an individual can
make a difference, and that, if you can, you should.
That is why I regard this campaign—which will raise
$600 million or more in private gifts for the university—as
the most important legacy of my UO presidency. The university
is at a turning point. It is increasingly clear that, in the
years to come, philanthropy will be the source of investment
capital that will move us to new levels of distinction.
Transforming lives. I can think of no finer legacy that you
and I can establish for future generations.
Dave Frohnmayer
President, University of Oregon
1994-2009
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