Thursday’s Martin Luther King Jr. awards in the Gerlinger Lounge represented more than just a recognition of significant public service.
They were bestowed upon four University employees who are following in the footsteps and ideas of an African American leader who helped forge and forever change a nation’s attitudes about human unity. Like King, they have given hope and a voice to those seeking help, University President Dave Frohnmayer said.
“If he were here, and I have the humble arrogance to believe I can convey what he might say, he would want to be remembered not so much for his words, but for his deeds,” Frohnmayer said to open the noon ceremony.
Indeed, they the winners spoke before more than 100 people at the presentation about their actions, not their best intentions.
Michael Jefferis, a student records specialist in the registrar’s office, received the honor for helping students of all ethnicities gain foothold in a river of University regulations and policies. Jefferis has been at the University nearly two years.
“I want to thank my parents, because they created me and have shaped who I am as a person,” Jefferis said. “I’d like to quote a musician who’s one of my favorites, Ben Harper: ‘Good deeds and good intentions are as far apart as heaven and hell.’ I try to think of that in what I do everyday.”
For some of the recipients, a life of championing equality through public service didn’t seem so much a choice as an obligation.
“My mother was the first black president of the PTA in Oregon,” Office of Multicultural Affairs Director Carla Gary said. “She taught us to speak up for ourselves and to speak for those who can’t speak for themselves.”
Gary has advocated for and provided warm guidance to students of color from the OMA office since 1998 in her capacity as director. She has parted from the University twice and rejoined three times in 32 years. In 1979 and 1980, she served as a counseling coordinator, and from 1986 to 1989 she was associate director for OMA .
Her mother, Bobbi Gary, and sister, Daria Bradford, traveled Thursday morning from Portland to attend the ceremony.
“Our dad and I took she and her sisters on trips all over,” Bobbi Gary said. “Reading and seeing helped them get ready to be young ladies. We wanted them to see much more than just Tibbetts Street (in Portland, where they grew up).”
The University also honored international studies Professor Anita Weiss and business school academic programs Assistant Dean Wendy Mitchell with MLK awards. Weiss, for her willingness to share her sharp insights about Pakistan and Afghanistan with administrators, faculty and students after the tragedies of Sept. 11, and Mitchell, for her efforts to aid and oversee all undergraduate and graduate students in the business school.
The University has presented MLK awards annually since the early 1990s. Recipients are nominated by past recipients of the awards.
Weiss, who just returned from a four-day visit to Pakistan where she was the distinguished lecturer at the annual convention of the Pakistan Society of Development Economists, said she owed much to the award she was honored with.
“My hope is that I can live up to what this award really connotes.”