A legacy of love
How two long-time UO community members honored their late partners' passions for education with endowments that will stand the test of time.
Neither Anne Laskaya nor Linda Long believed they would find a second chance at love. Though both have worked at the University of Oregon for decades—Laskaya as an Erstad award-winning English professor and Long as a special collections archivist—the two didn't meet until the Eugene Lesbian Oral History Project connected them in 2018. Long was doing an interview for the project when a woman with sandy blond hair, a warm smile, and a passion for medieval history and literature piqued her interest. That woman was Laskaya.
Laskaya and Long were surprised to discover that not only did they work on the same campus, but they also share another experience: both women lost partners to cancer. Now married, their common goal is making sure their late partners' legacies live on through faculty-endowed scholarships.
Suzanne Gerhardt—or Suzy, as she was known by her loved ones—was Laskaya’s late wife. She was charismatic and joyful, with an infectious sense of humor and a penchant for storytelling. Gerhardt used her gifts to inspire a love for US history in her students at the Thurston and Briggs middle schools in Springfield. Laskaya remembers Gerhardt as someone who made everyone feel special, like they were “surrounded by warm sunlight.”
“[Suzy] opened my life and taught me how to be a better teacher,” Laskaya says. “I learned a great deal about the affective components of teaching and how to cope with difficulties but also try to inspire joy in students. I have tried to carry that legacy forward in my own teaching.”
By contrast, Peggy Pascoe—Long's late partner—was thoughtful and earnest. An immensely talented researcher and writer, her books on the missionary work of women in the American West and on interracial marriage were groundbreaking at their time of publication. At the UO, Pascoe’s mentorship of graduate students and commitment to advancing the university’s mission earned her the title of Beekman Professor of Northwest and Pacific History from 1996 until her death in 2010.
Ellen Herman, former UO History department chair, said in an American Historical Association article about Pascoe: “Her calming presence was felt over the years where both her scholarship and her unmatched diplomatic skills were respected and much appreciated. She was a quintessential professional in the best sense of the word.”
The Suzanne Gerhardt PathwayOregon Scholarship and Peggy Pascoe Graduate Scholarship in US History immortalize Laskaya and Long’s late partners’ contributions to education. The Peggy Pascoe scholarship will be granted to graduate students in the History department where Pascoe taught for so many years, while the Suzanne Gerhardt PathwayOregon scholarship is open to any incoming freshman with qualifying financial need. Laskaya and Long’s hope for the scholarships are that students with working-class backgrounds can achieve their educational goals.
“I wanted to do something in my own lifetime that would honor Suzy. What she cared about was helping students, regardless of background, for whom going to college either was out of reach, or they were barely making it through. I still remember the Alexander Wiley Award that I received as an undergraduate. If there hadn't been people who had given to the universities we went to, we would never have had the careers we've had. It would be the right thing to pass it forward.”
— Anne Laskaya
A lasting tribute
At first, the idea to establish faculty endowments was just that—an idea. But Laskaya and Long were determined to see Gerhardt and Pascoe’s legacies continue, so they worked with Jenny Minniti-Shippey, associate director of development with University Advancement, to make that idea into a reality.
They were in luck. As it turns out, faculty endowments at the UO are special. Whereas the typical minimum for an endowment is $100,000, that threshold has been lowered for faculty. With only $25,000, faculty endowments can be established for any university program, creating a future revenue stream that lasts in perpetuity. The UO receives just six percent of its annual budget from the state, so philanthropy like Laskaya and Long’s individual gifts of $50,000 make a significant difference in UO’s mission toward creating affordable education for students.
“I’ve been so honored to work with Linda and Anne to create these scholarships,” says Minniti-Shippey. “The love the two of them have for each other, as well as for Peggy, Suzy, and the students of the UO, is truly inspirational. Faculty-level endowments are a great way to leave a permanent legacy at the university and I’m excited for them to see their impact.”
Laskaya and Long also want to raise awareness about this opportunity, which can help ensure that the names of loved ones and departed members of the UO community are remembered. The significance of the UO faculty and staff who have uplifted the university since its inception cannot be understated, and their stories deserve to live on in the public consciousness. So too do people like Gerhardt, who embodied Ducks pride.
“I wanted to do something in my own lifetime that would honor Suzy,” Laskaya says. “What she cared about was helping students, regardless of background, for whom going to college either was out of reach, or they were barely making it through. I still remember the Alexander Wiley Award that I received as an undergraduate. If there hadn't been people who had given to the universities we went to, we would never have had the careers we've had. It would be the right thing to pass it forward.”
“I bet so many faculty and staff on campus don't really know that they could do something like this. You would think you need $1,000,000? But no,” Long adds.
Paying it forward
Laskaya and Long may not have expected to find love in their later years, but one thing is for sure: their story is an inspiration to all who meet them.
“We pinch ourselves still and can't believe this whole new chapter of life that we never thought would be written like this actually has companionship and love within it. It's really lovely,” Laskaya says.
Now on the precipice of retirement, Laskaya and Long look fondly and with gratitude upon their time at the UO. As they ride their bicycles by the river together, they recall stories from their tenure and reminisce about their accomplishments.
“I have really loved and cherished my opportunities to work with donors to further develop the manuscript collections,” Long says. “Through my work here, I've been able to help develop those collections and make them available so researchers can advance scholarship in these topics.”
Advancing scholarship is as important to Laskaya and Long as it was to their late partners. Through the Suzanne Gerhardt PathwayOregon Scholarship and Peggy Pascoe Graduate Scholarship in US History, a world-class UO education is made more accessible to prospective students who will no doubt remember the names of strong and scholarly Pascoe and larger-than-life Gerhardt—the women whose memory supports student success to this day. Laskaya and Long believe that the next generation of incoming students is what makes their endowments meaningful, and they’re excited by what the future of education looks like.
“I feel so lucky that I'm able to keep teaching, because I recognize these students,” Laskaya says. “Even though we live across a technological divide, there's this incredible care for one another that I recognize from the late 60s and early 70s when we would go and protest. I'm so moved when I hear our students say things I think bode well for the future. Younger generations are the hope.”
Peggy Pascoe
Peggy Pascoe was born and raised in Butte, Montana, a former mining town that attracted a wide range of immigrants to its rolling hills in the late nineteenth century. It was this fact that sparked Pascoe’s interest in US history, an interest which garnered her degrees at both Montana State University and Sarah Lawrence College, the latter being where she met her partner, Linda Long, who was an archivist near the college at Consumers Union at the time. She later got her doctorate in US History from Stanford University. Pascoe taught at the University of Utah before settling down in Eugene as a professor of history and ethnic studies and co-parenting two adopted children with Long. At the UO, she was a dedicated researcher known for her work with graduate students, who appreciated her guidance and academic wisdom. Pascoe acted as the Beekman Professor of Northwest and Pacific History at the UO from 1996 until her death. She was the recipient of a Jensen Prize, an early adopter of critical race theory, and the author of two critically acclaimed books. What Comes Naturally, her book featuring two decades’ worth of research on the miscegenation law in the US won numerous awards including the W. Hawley Prize and the Lawrence W. Levine Award from the Organization of American Historians, the John H. Dunning Prize and the Joan Kelly Memorial Prize from the American Historical Association, and the J. Willard Hurst Prize from the Law and Society Association. In addition to teaching and mentoring, Pascoe was involved in professional and community organizations and was frequently invited to comment for newspapers and radio sources. She was honored with the Martin Luther King Jr. Award from the University of Oregon in 2009 and in the Journal of Women’s History after her death in 2010.
Suzanne Gerhardt
Suzanne Gerhardt—or Suzy, as she was known by her loved ones—was a long-time language arts and history teacher at the Briggs and Thurston middle schools in Springfield whose charisma and joyfulness captivated those around her. She was the first person in her family to attend a liberal arts college and earned her degree from Central Michigan University. She later took graduate courses at the University of Oregon. Gerhardt grew up the child of a military family based in different parts of the Midwest, New England, North Carolina, and Guam. In North Carolina, she witnessed Civil Rights struggles and experienced religious discrimination; on Guam, her parents sent her to a local CHamoru Catholic school which she attended as a minority. These formative experiences gave her glimpses into injustice, inspired her teaching style, and later led her to become a consummate teacher in Guam. She was intentional about teaching in working class communities and representing history holistically, with its record of human tragedies, injustices, triumphs, and hopes. In Michigan, where she began her teaching career, Gerhardt was honored with the designation of master teacher. She died in 2000, but her legacy is carried on by her students who have gone on to live fulfilling lives, including some who are UO alumni.