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Alumni
Profiles:
The Birth of Clark College
Former NMC Professor was the first student
by Roger Daniels
Fall
2003
Lawrence Rakestraw as a young NMC professor
in 1955 |
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Seventy
years ago, on October 1, 1933, Clark College opened its doors and
offered classes for the first time. In 1933, the United States and
the world were in the grips of a terrible depression and recovery
was not in site. At a time when communities and entire families
were facing economic despair a few progressive minded citizens thought
that Southwest Washington needed an institution of higher education
to provide access to knowledge for its citizens.
Larry
Rakestraw, is credited with being Clark Junior College's first
student. He would go on to fulfill the dreams and aspirations of
the institution's founders. Rakestraw would be a member of Clark's
first graduating class in 1935, and he would earn a BA and MA at
from the Universit of Wisconsin in history, and a Ph.D.
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from
the University of Washington. He would author several books and numerous
articles on forestry and serve as a college professor at Northern Montana
College, Michigan Technological University and as an adjunct professor
at Portland state University. He would also become a contract historian
for the Nation Park Service, US Forest Service and serve on the Alaska
Historical Commission. Professor Larry Rakestraw died on March 25, 1992,
shortly after learning that he had been inducted into Clark College's
r of Outstanding Alumni.
(Editors
Note: Lawrence Rakestraw was an assistant professor of Social Studies
at NMC in the mid 50's at the same time as Lou Hagener, Lyndon Pomeroy,
George Craig, Bob Siebrasse, Duane Taft Frank Yeager, and Bill Lisenby.)
About the
author: Roger Daniels is a graduate of Washougal High School, Clark College,
and holds a BA from the University of Washington and an MPA from Portland
State. He has been an admini trator at Clark College for 25 years and
is the co founder and immediate past president of the Washougal Schools
Foundation.
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