The University of Puget Sound has received a $1,050,000 gift from Richard N. Laurance ’74 to establish the Puget Sound Endowed Fund for the university’s crew program. The endowment will provide unrestricted support for the Loggers, helping sustain the school’s 60-plus-year tradition of competitive rowing.
Greater, We Ascend is a podcast from the University of Puget Sound about Loggers reaching to the heights. Subscribe today.
Greater, We Ascend is a podcast from the University of Puget Sound about Loggers reaching to the heights. Subscribe today.
It’s been 83 years since Executive Order 9066 led to the forcible removal of 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast to internment camps during World War II—including 36 students who were attending what was then the College of Puget Sound. But despite the passage of time, there are still many ways the campus community remembers and honors those whose educations and lives were interrupted by the mass forced removal and incarceration.
During the 1939–40 academic year, 16 students of Japanese ancestry formed the Japanese Students’ Club at what was then known as the College of Puget Sound and, as a gift to the school, planted 16 Japanese cherry trees in a “friendship circle” next to Anderson Hall.
Just two years later, on the heels of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government ordered that the 120,000 Japanese Americans living on the West Coast be removed and incarcerated in internment camps. That number included 36 students at Puget Sound.
As one of the students participating in the inaugural year of Puget Sound’s study-abroad program in Dijon, France, I was dropped into a gastronomically rich region—the heart of Burgundy wine country—for a semester. Of course I valued the academic courses, and being there definitely helped hone my language skills. But those months of exploring the region and having so many meals that demonstrated the melding of food and wine in French culture had a big impact on my future career path as well. That experience helped encourage my return to France to attend cooking school a few years later.
One of wine’s secret powers is that it stimulates all five physical senses. We look at its beautiful color in the glass. We appreciate its aromas, feel its texture and weight on the palate, and taste the miracle of fermentation that transforms grape juice into something that seldom tastes like a grape. Finally, we clink glasses in a toast, creating a bit of music to complete the experience.
Who can resist? Now even people who do not consume alcohol can share in the wine experience because of the rise of quality de-alcoholized wines in America and around the world.
Whether filled with milk crates and lava lamps or LED lights and laptops, residence rooms at Puget Sound have always been more than just places to sleep. It’s the place where you go to relax after class, where you learn to fold your own laundry, where you spend all night writing a term paper, and where friendships are forged that can last for a lifetime.
