Files were photocopied, scanned, and ocr programs run. Any errors in the transcription are regretted.

ALICE HENSON ERNST 1880-1980

Alice Henson Ernst has been designated a "National Human Resource" by a Bicentennial research group, and in retrospect the honor seems, to our surprise, amply deserved. The honor could be documented in terms --- of catalogues--catalogues of books written, organizations joined, honors awarded--and these catalogues have been duly recorded in the public press. On this occasion let us rather consider what she ought to mean to the University of Oregon. We might think of her as linking us to worlds we know only as docUments. She comes close to linking us to the pioneer Northwest, for although she was born in Maine in 1880, she soon became, with her family, a member of the cooperative which founded Port Angeles, and she taught school in Alaska under what could hardly have been other than primitive conditions. She links us also to the world of the Native American, for she did a definitive work on the Wolf Ritual of the Northwest Coast, and was an honorary Indian princess.

She links us to our own educational past; her Washington M.A. was awarded in 1913, and in 1924 she joined a University of Oregon which we would now hardly recognize. Yet the important thing is that Alice Ernst never became a mere link or relic. It is true that after her retirement in 1952 most of us saw her only when she came yearly to campus to assist in awarding the dissertation fellowships which she donated in honor of her late husband, Rudolph Ernst. At the same time, her continuing interest in the theater led to Trooping in the Oregon Country(1961), and her earlier work on the Native Americans was attracting new interest. Her achievements go far into the past and yet extend nearly to the present. Given her regional importance, one wonders why she never received a Distinguished Service Award. The symbol for me is an anthology of plays in my library; it includes plays by Eugene O'Neill and Alice Ernst. -~ John Sherwood - Department of English

Web page spun on 25 June 2004 by Peter B Gilkey 202 Deady Hall, Department of Mathematics at the University of Oregon, Eugene OR 97403-1222, U.S.A. Phone 1-541-346-4717 Email:peter.gilkey.cc.67@aya.yale.edu of Deady Spider Enterprises