foundation
News articles
Sponsor Spotlight: Banner Bank
The Banner Bank Track became the first sponsor-named facility on campus this spring.
Donor Spotlight: James Gorham
Part of something bigger A new business in his old hometown inspired James Gorham, ’95, to get involved in the EOU Foundation. Now, more than 10 years later, the business is thriving and Gorham is a member of the EOU Foundation Board of Directors. After graduation, he earned his master’s in physical therapy and opened...
President’s Letter – Spring 2019
My Dear Fellow Alumni and Friends, It is my honor to write this issue’s opening letter. I am a 2011 and 2013 graduate of Eastern Oregon University, and the current President of the EOU Alumni Association Board of Directors. It has been my pleasure to work with the Alumni Association for the last six years,...
One step at a time
The iconic Grand Staircase at EOU has touched generations of students and community members as a link between campus and downtown La Grande. Anne (Hanford) Olson remembers when graduation and Evensong took place on the steps. As the ceremony concluded, graduates carried their lit candles (the light of knowledge) out into the community. Today, the...
Comfort in crisis
EOU Foundation funds keep students enrolled through life’s challenges Last year alone, 27 students benefited from EOU Foundation Crisis Awards. The funds support online and on-campus students who find themselves in difficult situations, where medical expenses, car trouble or childcare costs could threaten their progress toward earning a degree. These private funds close the gap...
Writing off the page
When Sandra (Ellston) Mason’s husband passed away in 2008, she decided to commemorate him with a gift to the EOU Foundation that would bear his name in perpetuity. The Carl and Sandra Ellston Ars Poetica Literary Lecture Series invites professional writers to visit campus in La Grande each term, where they read from published work,...
Donor Spotlight: Linda and Herb Jolliff
It all adds up One good teacher can make the difference between loving math or hating it. But for Herb and Linda Jolliff, ’66, a calculus professor at EOU taught them even more. The two met in Leroy Damewood’s class in 1963 and graduated together three years later. “We met and got to know one...
Crossing the finish line
For the first time in seven years, the Mountaineer track and field student-athletes competed at home in La Grande on March 16. The team’s home-opener christened EOU’s brand-new track surface and facilities, which were installed last fall with funding from the EOU Foundations’ Building Champions campaign. Head coach of track and cross-country Ben Welch cut...
New and Old Memories on the Grand Staircase
For nearly 100 years, the Grand Staircase at Eastern Oregon University has offered more than just a few steps between campus and town. Opened in 1929, the steps served as a highly visible landmark, a stage for musical performances, and a symbol of connection between the school and the community. Though time and weather eventually...
