About halfway through Soul Survivor, I realized that I HAD to look back at my life on those who impacted it significantly. I had no choice - nobody lives in a bubble and everyone that I encounter has some sort of influence on me. It's just the way humans work.
So who would be number 1? That question was answered very quickly in the memory of Dr. Ben Padrow.
I began my college career at the University of Oregon. Like most kids coming out of high school, I had some vague idea of where I wanted to go and what I wanted to be. In this case, the kid thought he wanted to be a lawyer. I guess I spent too many hours watching Perry Mason or something. That illusion evaporated before the end of my freshman year, however, and I then drifted off into various directions - political science (I bombed in an American Government class) journalism (couldn't pass the typing test) and some others that I have since completely forgotten. While attending school, I was working part time at a logging equipment junk yard. When I got laid off (this was the early 80's when we were still enduring the Nixon/Ford/Carter economy), I decided to take a year off school, find some work and then return.
To make a long story short, after my year off I ended up at Portland State University. In my first term, I happened to take a course in Public Speaking. It was there that I met Ben Padrow.
If someone were to look at Ben and I standing in the hall talking, they'd think it was a pretty odd combination indeed. I was a relatively large young man, standing 6'2" and built like a football lineman. Padrow, as I've always liked to describe him, was a "5 foot tall, half blind Jew". 5 foot might be a bit of an exaggeration, but not much - he couldn't have stood over 5'2". He wore glasses whose lenses seemed to be about an inch thick. While unabashedly Jewish, he wasn't orthodox and encouraged me a great deal as I embarked on my journey towards accepting Christ as my Savior.
I didn't realize it when I signed up for the class, but Ben Padrow was an icon around the Portland State Campus. Portland State (originally the Vanport Extension Center) was started up after World War II to help deal with all of the returning soldiers who were attending college on the GI Bill. The school gradually developed into Portland State College, but one event in 1965 propelled this school into national and state prominence, which led to accreditation as a university. That event was the 1965 College Bowl team.
In this day and age of Trivial Pursuit and non-stop glitz on TV, it is difficult to imagine something like the College Bowl. Teams of students from 2 different colleges would face off in, well, trivia contests, the winner advancing to the next round. Padrow took on the PSU team, and the article below shows the results.
http://media.www.dailyvanguard.com/media/storage/paper941/news/2005/03/08/News/They-Returned.Heroes-2614258.shtml?sourcedomain=www.dailyvanguard.com&MIIHost=media.collegepublisher.com
With that feather in his cap, Padrow started down a path of politics. Padrow coached Bob Packwood in his campaign against US Senator Wayne Morse in 1968. Packwood came across as the fresh young fighter while Morse stayed the stodgy old timer. Packwood took the seat and held it until his resignation years later.
Padrow then moved on to a position on the Multnomah County Commission for 4 years. Perhaps his biggest accomplishment in politics, however, was managing Bud Clark's campaign for mayor of Portland in 1982. Clark's victory was one of the biggest surprises in Oregon political history. Here's a brief article about that event.
http://www.wweek.com/html/25-1984.html
As I was researching I also found that Padrow was a central character in a movie about the life of Richard Pimentel. Here's a link for a brief description of "The Music Within"
The Music Within
http://www.melissageorge.co.uk/films/musicwithin.htm
Padrow had many other accomplishments and roles in his life, including Executive Director of the Lake Oswego Community Theater, of all things.
Ben Padrow was in many ways what you would consider the consumate "behind the scenes man". As the descriptions above show, he spent much of his life helping to shape other people's lives. In the 25 years since I graduated from Portland State, I've encountered several people that attended his classes. Every last one of them has stated at least a small amount of admiration for the man.
When I first landed in one of his classes, the man encouraged me. He told me that I was actually a good speaker. He also managed to convey to me just how important the concept of communication actually is. "You cannot not communicate" was one of his famous sayings. I met the woman who would become my wife in one of his classes. He inspired me to declare the study of communications as my major and helped develop a devotion to the art that continues to this day.
Perhaps the strongest contributions he made to my life, however, was to deliver wake up calls. As I said above , I met Linda in one of his classes, and at times it seemed like he was cheer leading our developing relationship. We met, however, in my third term of taking "speaking" classes from him.
As I said, he had told me that I was actually a good speaker. He encouraged me to keep taking speaking classes. The next term, however, Linda took her first speaking class from him. At the end of the term, Padrow was reviewing the class with her and told her "You're one of the best natural speakers I've ever heard. You don't need to take any more speaking classes." Talk about injecting a huge dose of humility directly into my veins!
The other wake up call was delivered as I was completing my final term prior to earning my degree. Suffering from a severe case of "senioritis", I was casting about looking for a direction to aim myself. At this point I sat down in Ben's office for a chat.
"I'm thinking about continuing the study of communications and studying for my Masters." I told him.
Padrow looked up at me through those thick glasses. He shook a yellowed finger at me and said "I think you need a kick in the ass and should get out there and find a job." He was right of course. This is something that you would expect a parent to say to someone, but it carried a lot of weight coming from him.
I did get out there and found a job. The jobs at first were menial, but they gradually improved. Somehow he helped to convey to me that studying communications and life in general had much more to do with experiencing it than it did reading it in books.
Ben Padrow helped to instill in Linda and I a love for the art of communication, and that art has become one of the key foundations of our marriage, second only to our faith in Christ. Since much of my life now - from teaching classes in using business systems to amateur acting - revolves around the concept, I can honestly say that I used much of what I learned in college.
I attended Ben's funeral a few years after I graduated. I was deeply saddened that from this point on, there would not be any more students at Portland State who would have the benefit of his insight and knowledge. As I looked around the room at the incredible crowd of people, however, I realized I was wrong. His legacy will undoubtedly live on at that school for years to come.
