Foster-Scholz Club recognizes three alumni

The Foster-Scholz Club held its annual distinguished service awards luncheon on the Saturday of reunions weekend. To start the celebration Pat Pruyne ’83, president of the alumni association, presented president Colin Diver with the completed transcripts of twenty-two oral history interviews; three of the interviewees, Harold (Jim) Jambor ’35, George Joseph ’51, and Paul Wiseman ’33, were in the audience.

Moshe Lenske ’50, chair, recognized the three award recipients—Carl Cadonau ’ 43, Richard Havel ’46, and Patricia Brownwell Lee ’43—for their dedication to and involvement in Reed College and their communities.

Carl Cadonau ’43
Young people, education, and fun have been lifelong concerns for Carl Cadonau and his family.

Cadonau is president and co-owner of Alpenrose Dairy, which his family founded in 1916. The baseball diamonds at the 52-acre dairy have hosted numerous Little League World Series over the years. Alpenrose also has a velodrome (the steepest bicycle racing track in North America), a miniature Western village, a 600-seat opera house, and a museum that features musical instruments from the turn of the century. All of this is open to the public, free of charge.

At Portland Four Square Church, Cadonau and his wife, Virginia, led Sunday classes for college students for many years. Cadonau also serves on a scholarship committee at the church that helps young people pursue college educations. Cadonau’s own education was, of course, at Reed; he earned his degree in mathematics in 1943. Cadonau has been a consistent and generous donor to the college for over four decades. He has supported the annual fund as well as the library improvement fund.

Richard Havel ’46
Richard Havel’s decades of international distinction in the field of medicine have not dulled his interest in causes close to home, near his roots in Seattle and here at Reed, the birthplace of his early career aspirations.

Havel is professor emeritus of medicine at the University of California School of Medicine, San Francisco, where he also served as director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute for more than 20 years. He spent the early part of his career at the National Institutes of Health. His landmark research on lipoproteins and cholesterol has earned him international regard in the medical world. Havel graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Reed in 1946 with a B.A. in chemistry. He went on to complete his M.S. and M.D. at the University of Oregon Medical School.

His wife is Virginia Johnson Havel ’47, who holds a B.A. in biology and an M.A. in human and animal physiology from Reed. Their son Timothy, who earned his B.A. in chemistry from Reed and went on to lecture at the Harvard Medical School, is now a principal research scientist in nuclear engineering at MIT. Havel has been a loyal and consistent supporter of Reed, targeting his support for the annual fund and the student research fund.

Patricia Brownwell Lee ’43
Patricia Brownell Lee’s passion for children and family, health and education, and her community at large is best summarized by her own words of 10 years ago. She wrote that she “served on development committees, school committees, boards of directors, etc. Was elected president of the American Medical Association Auxiliary 1971. Named Oregon Journal Woman of Achievement 1972, Portland Chamber of Commerce Recognition Award 1971 and voted an honorary member of the Multnomah Medical Society 1972. . . . I was a member of the editorial committee appointed by the State Board of Health to write the Handbook on Organizing Volunteer Services in Nursing Homes for the Aged. . . . Served as president, chairman of the board, and was appointed to the Volunteer Services Working Committee of the Oregon Heart Association.”

At which point in her narrative, Lee went on to list even more activities of a decade ago, including serving as chairperson of the Foster-Scholz Club steering committee and Reed College reunions. Past Reed service has also included the alumni association and women’s committee.

Lee did graduate work at Portland State University after receiving her B.A. in education from Reed in 1943, and later studied parliamentary law at Portland Community College. During the second world war she enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve WAVES. Reed College got her back after her discharge, as assistant director of girls’ physical education. She married Gilbert Prentiss Lee, who earned his B.S. in biology from Reed in 1939. They have been longtime loyal supporters of Reed College.