Yearly Archives: 2014

In Memoriam Ron Anderson

Ron AndersonIt is with great sadness that we announce the recent passing of our long-time Board Member and Treasurer, Ron Anderson. Ron served on the Waluga Neighborhood Association Board for many years and was always a source of sage advice and level-headed thinking.

Ron was always ready to jump in and volunteer to pull ivy anywhere at a moments notice. He helped with picnic and meeting tasks and he served as Treasurer for many years, taking good care of our neighborhood funds. He also took great interest in community affairs. He regularly attended the Lake Grove Village Center Advisory meetings, trying to keep abreast of plans that would impact Waluga Neighborhood. His faithful attendance at monthly LO Neighborhood Action Coalition meetings left many LONAC members saddened by his loss.   

The Board has decided to honor Ron’s years of service with a plaque somewhere in our neighborhood. Details are still being worked out.

Fellow Board Member and Ron’s partner, Gene Parks, wrote the following tribute:

Who was Ron Anderson? He was a good and gentle man. He was born in Spokane, July 12, 1930 at Sacred Heart Hospital and was an only child. His father Wilfred, apparently a distant and hardworking man, was a WWI veteran. He worked for Washington Water Power, maintaining the generators, etc. He left the raising of his son to his wife.

Ron’s mother would have been better suited to having been a part of the late 20th and 21st century. She would have shattered corporate glass ceilings. As it was, she knew the IBM card sorters, a predecessor of the computer. During the war she traveled wherever her expertise was needed. She outranked generals and admirals and could bump them for travel.

Ron loved to relate the story of how his mother needed to get back to Spokane from Portland and got a ride in the back of the cockpit of a P38 fighter.

I met his mother shortly after Ron and I met and we became fast friends. She thoroughly vetted me one day when I had taken her to a doctor’s appointment.

Ron needed to go to Seattle on business, so we decided to bundle his mother into the 1953 Packard with us. We’d first go over to see my mother and sister at Shelton and then Ron and I would go on to Seattle. We returned to my mom’s to find my sister thoroughly disgruntled. She said those two hadn’t shut up one minute and she couldn’t get a word in edgewise. I wonder if they were even aware that we had gone to Seattle.

She had sold her house and was living in an apartment on the South Hill. Shortly after that she called us saying she thought she was having a heart attack. We rushed to her and got her into hospital. Then more medical problems required surgery and it was found that she had cancer.

When I met Ron, he had just gotten his divorce. He had three daughters, who I met when the youngest was getting ready to be married. I had come into Spokane from the ranch to continue my flight training. A few months prior, I had ended a bad relationship in San Francisco. When Ron and I met, we started talking and never did shut up.

Ron was an executive with the People to People World Exchange Program, which Eisenhower had set up to allow students to go to other countries and for foreign students to come and stay with American host families. This meant that he traveled a lot. He used to brag that the only continent that had never set foot on was Antarctica.

During our 43 years together, we became well off, went broke, and got back on our feet. We had a good life together but it ended all too soon.

-Gene Park

“Free the Trees!” in Waluga Park – Oct. 25, 2014

Our plan to help Waluga Park is well underway. We have stopped the attack on our trees in about half the acreage, but now we need to finish the rest of the park. English Ivy is creeping up most of the park’s majestic trees and without help, many of them will die.

Friends of Waluga Park is sponsoring regular work parties to “Free the Trees!” We will cut the ivy growing around the base of the trunks. This will give the trees a fighting chance until the City of Lake Oswego can properly treat the park.

Please come to the work party on Saturday, Oct. 25th from 9:30am to noon. You will need to wear sturdy shoes, long pants and long sleeves. Rubberized garden gloves are recommended.

Please bring the following tools if you have them:

  • Loppers
  • Clippers
  • Hand Saw (no power tools or herbicides)

We will meet in the East Waluga Park parking lot near the covered picnic shelter, rain or shine! See the difference that you can make in just a few hours!

Questions? Please contact Will Mahoney-Watson at will@waluganeighborhood.org.

Annual General Meeting – Oct. 8, 2014

You are cordially invited you to the Waluga Neighborhood annual general meeting!!

Please mark your calendars for Wednesday, October 8th at 7 p.m. for an hour and a half of neighborhood happenings and ice cream!

“Our Neighborhood Character is Changing”

Come and hear about the latest projects that will impact the livability of Waluga Neighborhood. Learn from representatives of the Boones Ferry Refinement project while trying to envision a more pedestrian friendly “main” street. We will also welcome our newest business neighbor, The Parkview Veterinarian Hospital, by hearing from it’s owner, Gregg Takashima.

A new slate of officers for the election of board members and board members-at-large for 2014-15 will be presented. Please consider getting more involved with your neighborhood association by serving on our board.

Our meeting will begin at 7 p.m. and will be held at Lake Grove Elementary School Library.     

Agenda 

Minutes

5th Annual Picnic – Aug. 3, 2014

Picnic in the Park

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The Waluga Neighborhood Association’s fifth annual neighborhood picnic was a lot of fun. Many volunteers came together to provide food and an opportunity to learn CPR anytime and get up-close with the Lake Oswego Fire Department. Many thanks to our sponsors and guests!