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The Rev. Billy Graham, 1918-2018
Not a great man, but rather,
the great man. His graduation to Glory on the
21st was not a surprise to me for an unusual reason. In my
mind, earlier in the month, I had imagined it. Here was
the final entry in "my" SBGE Undergraduate eNews
on the 5th.
 A
Farewell and a Welcome
From your eNews
Editor, Dr. Dick Sleight:
Back in December 1983,
I sat in the Kansas City, MO, Bartle Hall Convention Center with
over 17,000 Christian college students and faculty. The Reverend
Billy Graham was speaking, and his primary message to us that
night was, “Life is short.”
Well, back in October 2008, I thought a regular newsletter to
our students would be a valuable publication, and now, ten years
later, I’m handing off the editorship of the SBGE
Undergraduate eNews to Jake Carlson, Associate
Director for Undergraduate Programs. This newsletter has been a
big part of my duties here, but “life is short,” and it’s time
to pass this task on to my younger colleague Jake who works most
closely with all of our SBGE undergraduates. Watch your email
inbox for the latest SBGE news and events.
And with each edition of the eNews, I
included thoughtful quotes. These are the two I included
in my final edition, sent on my 63rd birthday.
The greatest
legacy one can pass on to one's children and grandchildren is
not money or other material things accumulated in one's life,
but rather a legacy of character and faith.
When granted many
years of life, growing old in age is natural, but growing old
with grace is a choice. Growing older with grace is possible for
all who will set their hearts and minds on the Giver of grace,
the Lord Jesus Christ.
― Billy Graham
At the staff
meeting this month, Dr. Stewart and I got into a friendly debate
as to where the Billy Graham Crusade was held in the Puget Sound
region in 1991. I said the Tacoma Dome, because Nancy was
there singing in the choir, and I had Annie with me and 2-year
old Nathanael on my back. Ross said it was the Kingdome.
Mark Oppenlander looked it up to decide who was right. In
fact, it was two evenings at the Kingdome and two at the Tacoma
Dome!
That night back
in 1991, when the Reverend Graham gave the altar call, 4-year
old Annie asked me to the effect, "Is now the time I get to
accept Jesus?" Indeed it was. We were seated near
the choir, behind the podium. Annie got up and went down
to meet and pray with a counselor. Nancy got up from
the choir and followed her down. I watched my pride and
joy with pride and joy. And, as always, Nathanael enjoyed
the ride.
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Happy Birthday to Me!
 If others bought me presents, I
apologize if I've forgotten less than a month later. I
did some modest shopping on eBay. But the cake Jean baked
for me was awesome — my favorite, spice cake with Penuche
frosting. Just like Grandma Jean made. But this was
a double-decker with more frosting between the layers. (Mom's was always a sheet cake.)
Over a week's time, I
ate nearly all of it.
At SPU, I struggled with visions of my
future. The university is undergoing financial troubles
due to depressed enrollments. My dean must cut the
business school budget by about 5%. How that happens is
still a mystery to all. I even considered easing into
retirement by moving to four work days per week, even though my
first choice is still to retire in 2024.
But by the end of the month, I've made
some commitments to force me out of my funk. First, I
have committed to pursuing the Microsoft Office Specialist
Master certification. To that end, I began by taking the
basic
 Excel exam that my students take, MOS 77-727 (Excel 2016).
I'd scored an adequate 924 on the MOS 77-420 (Excel 2013) test back in
September 2015, but had yet to "officially" take the 2016
version. This time I scored a 977, meaning I missed a
single formula question. I was impatient and should have
flagged that particular question for review, since this time I finished
with 15 minutes to spare of the 50 available minutes.
I also added a second section of BUS
1700 for next quarter, to be taught on four Thursday nights in
long three-hour classes. This will also guarantee that I
can't fully return to my hobby as a Track & Field photographer,
even if I wanted to. Many meets are on Thursdays.
Classes don't start until March 26th, but today, February 28th,
I updated my syllabus, Canvas course web site, and even updated
the public BUS
1700 web page I maintain.
But the big surprise of the month came
when the UPS truck pulled up on Valentine's Day and the driver
had a box of chocolates to deliver to Jean from her "friend"
Andrew who she met at Shakespeare & Company in
Massachusetts in January. He'd already sent her a book of
Shakespeare's sonnets. When I included his picture
in the white shirt in last month's Journal,
it was clear something was up. How does one spell
twitterpation? He will fly here for a brief visit in
March. That shows more dedication even than taking the Greyhound
to Pullman. And I certainly understand the compulsion to
make the trip. More news than I'm ready for next month.
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  Charis
at Two (months)
For my birthday, I bought myself a
Nikon 35mm f1.8 lens. I got it used from Adorama, a great
deal at $119. I wanted something capable of getting low
light photos of Charis. I'd given Thomas my 50mm
f1.8 lens for Christmas for the same reason.
Charis seems especially alert and
inquisitive. She can certainly make her own interests well
known. I described her not-quite quiet breathing while she
napped, via a text to Annie, as "sawing twigs."
Also, and partly due to gentle
encouragement from Annie, I purchased another small gun safe.
I got it from eBay for $45, nearly identical to
the one I bought from
Amazon two years ago for $68. The first is under the
Foosball table in the basement and is full of ammunition.
The new one fits right beside it and holds most of my
handguns. An even smaller one (for only $19) will arrive
soon and go in my bedroom. Grandchildren and my hobby
won't mix. |
   
For a few more months only, I'm still
winning the "most hair" contest with Charis.
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 More
Silver
With tax cuts, market volatility, and an upward trend to
interest rates, some modest inflation is likely on the
horizon.
Precious metals are a hedge purchase, but I do not buy
silver as a long term investment. It's just a tiny bit of
diversification.
But when I made a silver purchase this month, I made a
happy mistake. I purchased 20 1 oz.
Silver American Eagle bullion coins (right, these all
dated 2008), and I thought
I'd purchased 10 1 oz. 2018 British silver "Queen’s
Beast Griffin" bullion coins. Moments later, I
discovered I'd ordered a single 10 oz. bullion coin
(left). It's huge and it is awesome!
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An Old
Gun Gift
When
I reviewed my gun collection recently, I realized I'd left
off one firearm. Back in the day, my friend and
best man Ed Haynes and I would occasionally go shooting.
Whether it was to the Cascades, or the Seattle Police
shooting range, we had a shared shooting
hobby.
I recall shooting his black powder rifle at
the range. At 50 yards, you could hear the slow,
heavy lead
ball strike the target with a thud down range.
The recoil was heavy but not sharp. Well, as a gift, Ed bought me a kit to build my own 50
cal. Colonial-style black powder pistol. Of
course, this was more his idea than mine, so I let him
assemble the gun and finish it. I
 have yet to fire
it, but look forward to learning to load and shoot a
black powder gun — but first, I need to track down
and
purchase a new ramrod.
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Bits and Pieces
 
♦
On Super Bowl Sunday, February 4th this year, we rooted (along with most
of the country) for the Philadelphia Eagles against the New England
Patriots. It
was an exciting 41-33 Philly win. My friend Dr. Jackie Miller even
let her son Michael, a sophomore in Political Science at SPU, fly back
to the celebratory parade in Philadelphia.
 ♦
Ed Sloan and I
went out for pizza and beer on the 26th. He seems an even better
friend now than when he coached, and I was his team photographer at BCS.
The false accusations that caused his departure from the school had a
huge emotional and financial impact on him. But he's making way
more than he did teaching, loves his job, is thinking of moving to Fall
City, and is doing OK. He keeps in touch with many of the coaches
and athletes that were his community for so many years. Once again, the Northlake Tavern pizza was fabulous. We had a
large Loggers Special. "A hearty pizza with real Canadian bacon,
Italian beef sausage, black olives, fresh cut green peppers and onions."
And it was still happy hour so we got a half-price pitcher of what may
well be my new favorite beer, Quilter’s Irish Death. It is the
flagship beer of the Iron Horse Brewery of Ellensburg, WA. ABV
7.8% and dark like Guinness but a smoother ale. Ed was driving so I
valiantly drained the pitcher. That was even a bigger buzz than I
had on Trump's election night. 'Boys Night Out' still ran to over $50.
It was my turn to pay. Oh for the good old days of burgers and beer at
Goldie's on 45th!
    ♦
Last year, Dr. Doug Downing announced his retirement at the end of this
coming spring. But it was a shock to learn that another of our
three Economics faculty members, Jennifer Meredith, Ph.C., had accepted
a position at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. Colby has a top
regional reputation, less than half the students of SPU, but has a
beautiful campus over sixteen times larger than SPU's. To
replace these two stellar faculty, we interviewed Dr. Richard Dadzie
(native of Ghana until his college years), and Mr. Hao Nguyen (of Viet
Nam) and soon to be awarded his Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame.
I'll have more to say if either of these candidates accepts our offer.
Both interviewed well and I'd love to work with both of them.
My Quote from
February
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“The world is a book
and those who do not
travel read only one
page.”
― Augustine of Hippo
“You can't control
the past, but you
can control where
you go next.”
―
Kirsten Hubbard
"You can’t use
up creativity.
The more you
use, the more
you have."
—Maya
Angelou
"I have been
impressed with
the urgency of
doing. Knowing
is not enough;
we must apply.
Being willing is
not enough; we
must do."
—Leonardo
da Vinci
"When one door
of happiness
closes, another
opens, but often
we look so long
at the closed
door that we do
not see the one
that has been
opened for us."
—Helen
Keller
What I will miss most
about my ten years as
editor of the SBGE
Undergraduate eNews will
be the thought provoking
quotes I included at the
bottom of each edition,
to encourage my readers
to continue on to the
last article. I
got more positive
comments on these than
the actual articles.
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