Document text
47 °F Forecast | Road Cams Wednesday, March 23, 2005 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Health Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley SHOP OUR VALLEY AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Classified Place an ad TOP JOBS EXTRA Ashland News NIE Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Moving here? eSouthernOregon CUSTOMER SERVICE FAQ's Advertise with us Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend February 8, 2005 Ashland remembers former SOU president James Sours By JOHN DARLING for the Mail Tribune ASHLAND — They remembered his many visionary innovations, but James K. Sours was remembered mostly as a cigar-chomping Harvard-educated champion of liberal education and free speech who talked to you in your own language. About 200 friends, students and faculty members gathered at Southern Oregon University Monday for his memorial. They honored Sours — president of then-Southern Oregon State College — for an open management style that was grounded, in the words of retired Provost Ernest Ettlich, in an "active, passionate and honest debate that resulted in excellence in decision-making." "Jim promoted a lovely intellectual exchange on campus and in the community," said Ettlich. "He was a firm advocate of the liberal arts and was the best example of it — someone prepared for full and meaningful participation in the world." Sours, who died at 79 on Dec. 4, presided over SOSC from 1969 to 1979, the era of hippies, drugs and Vietnam War protests, but did it as "a real class gentleman who let administrators do their job and maintained a very mellow atmosphere, compared to what followed," said retired wrestling coach Bob Riehm. Following the 1970 killings of Kent State students by National Guard troops, students demanded the college’s American flag fly at half-staff, a move opposed by conservative students, recalled then-student body President Tom Dzieman and others. Advertisement The brewing clash between anti-war protesters who wanted the lower the flag and the pro-war faction aiming to prevent them was averted when the Churchill Hall janitor came out at 5 p.m. and removed the flag as he did every evening. Under Sours’ steady leadership, the school "stayed quiet and businesslike throughout most of the war,’' said former state Sen. Lynn Newbry of Talent. Newbry saluted Sours’ ability to get people together to solve problems, like creating a badly needed two-year nursing program, a step frowned upon by status-savvy universities. He also was instrumental in creating night classes for non-traditional students and helping boost the school’s tiny radio station into the present, expansive Jefferson Public Radio network. "Everyone felt comfortable with him," he said. "He never talked down to anyone."Retired journalism Prof. Tom Pyle, adviser to the student newspaper, The Siskiyou, during the Sours years, said "In any question about freedom of the press, Jim always sided with the students. He saved my job time and again, because The Siskiyou was so outspoken." "Jim stood by the students and said it was their right," he added. "I loved him." Dzieman drew laughs recalling radical student leaders would sometimes hold meetings in marijuana-smoke-filled rooms. When Sours wanted to contribute to the dialog — at which he was welcome — he would take a deep breath, speak his message through a crack in the door, then quickly close it, "so you could say he never inhaled." Sours’ son, David Sours of Medford, related family lore of Sours as a man dedicated to free inquiry. David, at age 6, had long begged his dad for a cigar. Sours finally relented, but on the condition that the boy smoke the whole stogie. After one puff, the boy threw up — and has never been tempted to smoke again. SOU President Elizabeth Zinser lauded Sours as the president who set the university on a course to greatness. "We stand on his shoulders," she said. In Sours’ memory, the SOU Foundation (552-6128) is accepting donations for the James K. Sours Student Leadership Fund. John Darling is a freelance writer living in Ashland. E-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback Student Loan Consolidation Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers home equity loans helzberg Slippers Student Loans afsa teleconferencing Memory Foam Mattress w2 forms Tatoo Advertisement s