George Austin, who taught in the Department of Rhetoric and Media Studies (formerly the Department of Communication), died in July 2023 at age 80.
Austin arrived as an instructor and coach of the forensics team in 1966 and taught as recently as 2014. He offered courses in L&C’s former graduate program in public administration and led five overseas and off-campus programs, including excursions to Australia, India, and Washington, D.C. (2010–12). Austin held a BS in history and political science and an MS in speech communication from the University of Oregon.
Austin’s life and contributions extended into many areas and communities. In the mid-1960s, while pursuing doctoral coursework at the University of Oregon, he ran for a seat in the Oregon House of Representatives and chaired the Oregon New Party. He also brought to his classes his experience as owner of an organizational development training and consulting firm, George Austin Associates, which he founded in 1979.
Austin was a founding member and board president of the Association for the Promotion of Post-Colonial Education and Research in India, and he served on the board of directors of both Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Clark County Treatment Alternatives to Street Crime Program. For more than 20 years, he was a coach for the Oregon High School Model Presidential Nominating Convention.
“Without question, he was one of the most predictably excellent instructors we’ve ever had,” said Peter Christenson, professor emeritus of rhetoric and media studies. “He stayed current, related with students beautifully, and assigned meaningful and challenging work.”
Irene Hecht
Irene Hecht, former associate professor of history and associate dean of faculty, died on July 31, 2023, at age 90.
Hecht was born in the Philippines to American parents. After the Japanese invasion in December 1941, she spent nearly three years of her childhood as a prisoner in the Santo Tomas Internment Camp in Manila, an experience she documented in her 2018 book titled Under Manila Sky: A Memoir on the Art of Survival.
Hecht was a 1957 graduate of Radcliffe College (Phi Beta Kappa). As a student, she married Frederick Hecht, and the couple moved from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Rochester, New York, and then to Seattle. As Frederick pursued his medical studies, Irene pursued graduate work in history, earning her master’s degree at the University of Rochester in 1961 and her doctorate at the University of Washington in 1969. The couple settled in Portland with their four children, and in 1966 Irene began teaching at Lewis & Clark.
The 1960s and 1970s were a time of major growth at the college. Hecht played an important role in recruiting and mentoring faculty, program development, and student advising. She also was an early pioneer in faculty-student research.
In 1982, Hecht left Lewis & Clark to pursue new opportunities in academic administration. She served as academic dean at Mary Baldwin College and Sangamon State University (now the University of Illinois, Springfield) and as president of Wells College. She then became director of departmental leadership at the American Council on Education, a position she held until 2012.
Divorced in 1977, Hecht married Ron Saroff in 1980. The two were devoted companions, deeply committed to their combined family of seven children. Ron died in July 2018.
In 2012, a former student of Hecht’s, Dr. Joan Pearson BA ’69, established an endowed scholarship in her honor. Together they agreed that the fund would support a female Davis United World College Scholar from Africa.
“Irene Hecht was my Western Civ professor in the late ’60s,” says Pearson. “She transformed history from a dry and lifeless subject to one that was vibrant and compelling. History with Irene provided the scaffolding that helped me connect much of what I had learned before and my studies thereafter.
We remained friends for the rest of her life, and I never stopped learning from her.” Lewis & Clark held a special place in Irene’s heart. Two of her grandsons are alumni: Malcolm Hecht BA ’15 and Alexander Dennis JD ’22.
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