While many University students and faculty may have arrived on campus Monday feeling excitement for the new term, a mood of sadness still hung over students and faculty in the Russian and East European Studies Center as they mourned the death of adjunct faculty member Oleg Kripkov.
At about 12:15 p.m. on Dec. 19, the 52-year-old Kripkov attempted to drive his 1982 Ford LTD around stopped traffic at the intersection of 30th Avenue and Eldon Schafer Drive and crashed into a metal traffic signal pole, police said. He died at the scene.
Sgt. Clint Riley of the Lane County Sheriff’s Office is still unsure why Kripkov failed to see the pole when he drove down 30th Avenue. He was not speeding, Riley said, but “he made no attempt slow down at all.”
Riley said the sheriff’s office still awaits autopsy results that may reveal a specific reason behind the accident.
University political science professor Jane Cramer, who was a friend of Kripkov’s, suspects the accident may have been a result of either heart failure or car trouble.
“It can’t have been drugs or alcohol,” said Cramer. “He had his life in order.”
Kripkov, a native of Russia, studied Russian language, literature and history at the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute and at Moscow State University before moving to the United States in the early 1990s. While working toward an M.A. in history at Oklahoma State University, he made ends meet with his accordion.
“He was quite an accomplished accordion player,” said Alan Kimball, a history professor in the Russian and East European Studies Center, who first heard him play at a department party. “He had to rely on that for money.”
In 1995, Kripkov and his wife Yelaina applied for positions as teaching instructors at the University. Although Kimball, who was director of the program at the time, hired Yelaina for the permanent faculty position, “I helped get Oleg some things to do here in the history department and the REESC,” he said.
Among the courses Kripkov taught was a Russian business class that explored the differences between business environments in the U.S. and in Russia.
“His classes were intense and very hands-on,” Kimball said. “He had a combination of a demanding and inspiring approach to teaching that was a very ardent, very serious example of the Russian intelligencia.”
Kripkov also had strong political convictions and was involved with several activist groups in Eugene. He created the Eugene Forum for Peace Education five years ago in an effort to “understand the long and short term hazards to our well-being and then based on this information, to act accordingly,” he told the Eugene Weekly on May 29, 2003.
“He worked very hard for peace, and I respected that about him,” said Cramer. “He wanted to help activists know what the issues are.”
Cramer remembered that, although Kripkov was ardent about certain causes, he didn’t know how to vote on local issues.
“He called us up to figure out how to vote, and he’d go down the ballot with my husband asking him what he thought,” Cramer said.
Teachers and students alike were greatly affected by the news of Kripkov’s death.
“It hit me hard,” said Cramer. “We were planning to have lunch soon.”
Kimball said word of the accident left him shocked and disoriented.
Student Sara Cowling said Kripkov was the reason she declared her Russian major. “Oleg was much more than just an instructor,” Cowling said. “His life experience gave him a truly unique perspective, which he always strove to share with his students.”
Yelaina Kripkov will still teach her third year Russian and Advanced Russian Grammar classes this term.
“It’s very hard for her, but I think she’s a strong person,” said Julie Hessler, a history professor in the REESC department.
A celebration of life for Kripkov will be held Jan. 12 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Core Star Cultural Center, 439 W. 2nd Ave.
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