February 10th, 2006 at 5:41 pm (Life Changes)
“Somebody” ought to do a documentation project of homes and families in the “100 Acres.” I guess this might be a start for something like that. I took some pictures last month.
How about a photo calendar as a fund-raiser? It could be a 19-month 2006/2007, beginning June 1, 2006. Better get some shots of the Patio Club pretty quick.
For viewing Lee’s pix: http://geezerlee.livejournal.com/60649.html
Lee Agnew
January 31st, 2006 at 11:08 am (General, Life Changes, Stillwater Concern)
Good Old Town (for Stillwater, OK)
A Poem by Lee Agnew (Ted & Jeanne’s son)
Listen, have you heard the news
Oklahoma’s got the blues
Up there in Stillwater town
Funny things are going down
A University needs land
To build up their new Master Plan
Don’t care what the neighbors say
Four hundred homes are in the way
They got money if you play nice
Tell you it’s fair market price
If you argue or complain
They got Eminent Domain.
Good old town a long time gone.
Good old town a long time gone.
Good old town a long time gone.
Left me here to sing this song
Ted and LeRoy they were friends
At Oklahoma A&M
After the War they both came down
To teach in a land grant college town
Jeanne taught at the college too
She and Martha had lots to do
Their children walked to school together
In the Oklahoma weather
Good old town a long time gone
Good old town a long time gone
Good old town a long time gone
Left me here to sing this song
Now fast-forward fifty years
In the paper it appears
T. Boone Pickens gave some dough
And OSU has got to grow
An Athletic Village is
The way to be competitive
Training rooms and tennis courts
A practice field that’s all indoors
President says yes it’s true
They want Ted’s house and LeRoy’s too
Now I like to watch a game of ball
But this don’t make no sense at all
Good old town a long time gone
Good old town a long time gone
Good old town a long time gone
Left me here to sing this song
Long ago the Okies sang
Of Pretty Boy Floyd and the Dalton Gang
I think we’ve all learned since then
There’s lots of kinds of highwaymen
They say we can’t stop their game
So take the money and don’t complain
But Woody Guthrie called it then:
Robbery with a fountain pen
I can’t tell you what to do
But to yourself you must be true
Me, I gotta take this fight
Cause there’s some stuff that just ain’t right
All you people on Bellis Street
Now sing this song and sing it sweet
And all you folks down Washington,
Jump in with me and sing along
Good old town a long time gone
Good old town a long time gone
Good old town a long time gone
Left me here to sing this song
(Repeat chorus)
(This piece was inspired by the life and work of Woody Guthrie. It is not intended to infringe on any copyrighted material)
Listen to “Good Old Town” here.
If you have a slow Internet connection and are experiencing problms with the streaming version above you can download the entire file to your computer before playing. Download “Good Old Town. Note: This is a large file and may take 30 minutes or more to download with a dial-up connection.
November 17th, 2005 at 6:19 pm (Life Changes)
I grew up in this neighborhood my parents are 84 and 89 and my father planned to go from his home to Fairlawn. I am hurt also. We love our university. It is a very sad day.
December 6, 2005 at 10:13 am
When I walk thru my neighborhood of 38 years I always feel safe. So many friends call “hey”, old ones like me and students too.
Life is good here. We have rented houses on Bellis and Ramsey and in 1971 we bought one on West Knapp behind Will Rogers school. Just before my husband retired, he inherieted a little money and we rode around with a real estate agent.”gonna move up”. We even signed some papeers and we lost money when we realized we didn’t want to leave here. So we fixed up old 808.
I no longer feel secure. If the OSU master plan is implimented, I know our turn to leave will come. They will probably have to carry me out on a chair.
Somebody call 60 Minutes and please don’t watch cuz I will be bawling my head off. Beverly Kargel
January 20, 2006 at 12:50 pm
Poem/Rant, for 701 N. Bellis Street
By Lee Agnew
I want to buy our old home from Dad, and when the current tenants’ lease is up, I want to live there.
Maybe I could move in by June 1.
I would plant elms along the street, a juniper shrub by the front porch, and a Rose of Sharon beside the gas meter.
I would patch and paint all the trim, clean up the trash, and cut out the scrub from the spirea bushes and the back hedge.
I would re-seed and re-sod the lawn.
I would not be a “willing seller” to OSU under any circumstances.
If OSU wants to tear it down, they’d have to tear down the best darn looking house between McElroy and McGeorge.
(I say “McGeorge,” because “Hall of Fame” does not exist.)
I would use every obstructive and delaying tactic I can think of:
I would find some horny toads and re-establish a colony in the back yard as an endangered species habitat.
I would have the house certified as a Historic Site (I know some historians, I could make that happen.)
I would claim that the property actually belongs to the Cherokee Nation, since the Dawes Commission report was a fraud and the Run of 1889 was an illegal land grab.
And in the meantime, as the days shorten towards fall, I would sit in my lawn chair in my yard on Saturday afternoons, holding up a great big sign:
“NO FOOTBALL PARKING. EVER!”
January 20, 2006 at 1:43 pm
Would you have a swingset, and would you still bomb Amboy?
Would you keep turtles and, when they died, bury them in the front garden?
You could set up your aquarium in the family room, beside the TV
Where we watched Lawrence Welk on Saturday nights,
And Mommy would cut my fingernails and toenails (curved nail scissors,
Not clippers) after my bath. Sometimes I’d get
“Shampoo, shampoo, guess who, guess who” and sometimes
Susan’s Dairy Queen dip cone hair-do. (During the day,
Keeno watched TV there, too, and cried at “All My Children.”)
But when you set up the aquarium this time, would you
Please move the rocking chair so nobody
Nobody nobody accidentally shatters your aquarium?
The wrecking ball would not be an accident,
But the glass would splinter, just the same.
January 20, 2006 at 11:10 pm
On game day, I would play in the yard.
I could hear the spectators’ hubbub, like crashing surf,
and the announcer’s voice.
Because it was three blocks away
(which, it turns out, is not far enough)
the roar of the crowd preceded the boom of the cannon.
I would cheer, hoping it was OSU that had scored.
Little did I know that my home’s proximity
would be its Achilles’ heel.
January 21, 2006 at 7:48 am
I love your poem Mr, Agnew. I read it four times.
January 21, 2006 at 2:02 pm
What a lovely poem, it captured what it was like to grow up in our neighborhood. It took me back, we played softball and kickball in the Mcguillards’s field in front of Mom’s house, we skate boarded all day long on the sidewalks, we played hide and seek. Kay Miller and I would read our cherished books in the trees, and would bicycle until called in at dusk or for supper. Everyone knew everyone, and we always felt safe. It was and still is, a wonderful neighborhood.
January 22, 2006 at 11:13 pm
Dear Beverly and Tamara,
Thanks for the kind words, neighbors. Love also to my sisters for contributing their parts of the Story.
We need to plan the Fourth of July party. Whose backyard, this year?
January 24, 2006 at 8:13 pm
Lee, I want to thank you , your sisters and your family for all the hard work and hours spent on analyzing this monstrous project and helping the rest of us truly understand it from every viewpoint. I thank everyone who has helped out our neighbors and those who have kept this website so informative, I appreciate being able to keep up on the latest happenings. My brother Lynn says it is the “Good People Of the Community” and that is what you all are.
January 30, 2006 at 9:46 am
Once upon a time, a magician wearing an ill-fitting mortarboard came to town and went straight to a small house on Bellis Street. A young boy lived there with his mother, his father and his little sister. The boy just happened to be sitting on the front steps when the magician walked up the sidewalk.
“What are you doing?” the magician asked.
The boy looked up. What he saw was just a man, but magicians are like that – they like to look like real people. The man was carrying a pole on his shoulder, and at the end of the pole was a bag. “Sitting,” said the boy.
“I can see that,” the magician said. “Would you like a dog?”
“Sure,” the boy said. Boys are like that – they know what they want. “But I’ll have to ask my parents.”
“Fair enough,” the magician said. “Go get them.”
When the parents came outside, and the situation was explained to them, it was Mother who had the first question. “How much?” she asked.
“Dog’s free,” the magician said. “You don’t have to pay me a cent.”
“Well, I don’t know,” said Father. “What’s the catch?”
“No catch,” the magician said. “In fact, if you’ll let me, I’ll show you a little trick the dog does. It might help you make up your mind.” He put down the pole, reached into the bag and pulled out a very large dog – much larger, in fact, than the bag that had held it.
“Is that the trick?” Father asked.
“No, said the magician. “Go get a cookie, a bone and a piece of hamburger.” Father went inside the house and came back with everything the magician wanted. “Now, give the dog the cookie.” Father held the cookie in his hand and offered it to the dog. The dog sniffed, pawed the ground, barked once – but did not eat the cookie. “Try the bone,” suggested the magician. Father took the bone and, as before, offered it to the dog. Same result.
“Well, I’ll be . . .” said Father.
“Try the hamburger,” said Mother who had become much more interested than she wanted to let on.
Father put the hamburger right in front of the dog. It sniffed the hamburger, pawed the ground, and barked. “Pretty good trick,” Father said.
“That’s not the trick,” the magician corrected. “You got a dollar bill?”
“Yes,” said Father, and he reached into his wallet for a dollar.
“Money Pit!” the magician yelled, and the dog dug a small hole in the middle of the yard. When it was done, the dog barked once. “Put the dollar in the hole,” the magician commanded, and Father did. The dog promptly leaped into the hole and ate the dollar. Then it looked up, wagged its tail, dug a bit more and barked once. “Got another dollar?” the magician asked, and Father threw another bill into the hole. The dog pounced on it, devoured it, and looked up for more.
“Amazing,” said Father. “That’s all he eats?”
“Yes,” said the magician. “You want him?”
“Sure,” said Mother before Father could reply. Little Sister shook her head in dismay and stared at the hole in the lawn.
“But . . .” Father began.
“It’s win-win-win,” Mother said. “The boy gets the dog, we get to make money by charging admission to see him do the trick, and the magician . . . .” She stopped, and the magician just shrugged his shoulders.
“My name’s on the collar,” he said. “That’s enough for me.” And he threw the mortarboard into the hole, where it promptly vanished.
And so the story of the Amazing Dog spread through the city – indeed, through the country. People came from miles around to pay their admission and throw their money into the pit. But one day in a barbershop the following conversation took place.
“So,” said the barber to his customer, “seen the Amazing Dog yet?”
“Yup,” said the customer. “Fed him a hundred dollars yesterday. Ate it all like nobody’s business.”
“Hole’s gotten pretty big, I hear.”
“Hundred acres,” said the customer. “Dog’s got an appetite. Can’t figure out where the dirt goes, though. Lake Carl Blackwell, maybe, or Boomer.”
“Been in the Big Dog restaurant?”
“It closed down,” said the customer. “Not many people come to see the Dog eat their money anymore. Those that do don’t have much to spend in the restaurant. Folks that own the Dog are being sued by the children of people whose houses fell into the hole, so they’re not too happy, either. And I’m sure not going to stand at the edge of that pit and fold my paper money into airplanes for a dog to catch. That was the last time. Feel like a fool.”
And so it was not surprising that when a genie happened by the hole and offered the boy one wish, he wished the whole business about the dog had never happened. Little Sister smiled and nodded, Mother and Father breathed a very loud sigh of relief, the hole closed up, the dog vanished as did the genie, the neighborhood returned, and all the bad memories turned into a dream.
Twice upon a time, however, a magician came into town and sauntered past Bellis Street towards the University. When he got to the University he went straight to Whitehurst Hall, the administration building, and sat down on the lawn beside the University President. “So,” he said, “you want $165 millon?”
“What’s the catch?” the President asked.
“No catch,” the magician began, “the money’s in the bag. You just have to dig a hole.”
November 17th, 2005 at 7:15 am (Life Changes)
My home was built by my parents in 1950. After my mother passed away and my father moved to an assisted living facility, I returned to Stillwater in 2000 and remodeled my childhood home. In remodeling, I tried to retain, restore and preserve everything possible. Obviously, I love my home and our family history here.
I have spent an untold number of hours working in my yard and have been told by many that they truly appreciate its beauty. I am finding it close to impossible to continue maintaining my property for the purpose of bulldozing.
I do understand that only change and taxes remain constant…. and that change is necessary. There are, most often, difficult aspects in change as well as good aspects.
The OSU Expansion Plan is worthy of awe. However, extremely difficult decisions must be made by property owners in the expansion plan area, whether the owners live in the homes or utilize the property as rental property for their income. Do we stay in Stillwater, reinvest in another area? Do we move to another city? And if so where? Are we financially able to remain in a City in which taxes will increase to such a great level, due to the expansion.
I, obviously, tend to be a very sentimental person. I also believe I am a very fair minded person and fight for fairness for everyone in any situation in which I am involved. I am so saddened and hurt, probably to the greatest extent in all of this, by the insensitivity, unfairness, and lack of respect shown the property owners by MY university.
According to the “presenter” of the masterplan during the Nov. 10th meeting, this basic masterplan was approved in July of 2004. There was no consideration or discussion with any of the property owners, to my knoweldge until we read it in the newspaper.
I read the paper, and noted that the OSU Foundation was heading the project and that a meeting was to be held Nov. 10. On Monday I called the Foundation and talked with Gary Clark, to find out the time and date of the scheduled meeting. He did not know, however, did find out the time and later called to inform me of the meeting location. I, of course, am quite anxious to know the timeframe, etc. regarding the acquistion of my home.
I attended the meeting and learned that I could have some of my questions answered at the homeowners meetings taking place on Nov. 16 & 17. I read in a letter to the editor (Stillwater Newpress) that acquistion was to be completed by June 1 of 2006. Could that be correct, I wonder. I am still trying to remain “calm” and “reasonable” and wait too hear.
My point is simply that I am tremedously disappointed that my university did not see fit to inform property owners in a timely manner and give us an oppotunity to “adjust” and “consider our re-location options”, when the plan was first approved and known to “those in charge”. I feel this is not only insensitive, but bordering on cruelty.
I have loved my university. I am a Posse member and have held season tickets for football, wrestling, baseball, softball, women’s basketball, and am still on the waiting list for basketball. I go to the arena before basketball games and buy tickets from people selling tickets they are not using. I have attended women’s soccer events and equestrian events. I have been a loyal and dedicated fan of our athletics. I love to see us excel, yet still love them when they are down. Half my attire is Orange and Black and if it’s orange (from decor to wearing apparel) I buy it. My enthusiasm for OSU and its sports has been unlimited.
I did not like having to miss the wrestling ranking matches due to the masterplan meeting. I attended the women’s basketball game and the men’s basketball games on the 11th and the great football game on the 12th. I will have to admit that even though I was thrilled with the games, I found I had lost my voice for cheers and my heart was not as fully involved as it has been in the past.
Ironically, I have never attended a tennis match, although I do enjoy tennis, and now my home and property are to become the tennis courts.
November 18, 2005 at 12:06 pm
I realize that the current leaders of OSU do not have the historical perspective that our family and many others in the proposed expansion area have. Some of the current residents of this neighborhood and their ancestors were crucial to the growth of Stillwater and Oklahoma State University in the early 1900’s. Certainly though their contributions pale in comparison to Pickens’ multi-millions, they are no less important. In fact, OSU might not exist as it does today without their financial, emotional and political support in those critical early years.
One of the saddest things to me is that the planners intend for my grandfather’s orchard, with its cherry, peach, apple, pear, pecan and magnolia trees to become tennis courts. I remember my fascination and surprise as a 4 year old, watching my grandfather pick and eat an apple off his tree WITHOUT EVEN WASHING IT! One of my grandfather’s favorite things in the last years of his life was pickled peaches, which he pickled himself. My mother now cans and jellies much of the produce. The pecans have always been both a blessing and a curse; cracking and picking out pecans, an ongoing saga in our family. : ) There are many varieties of pecans on the property. The OSU agriculture faculty members sometimes used my grandfather’s trees for grafting.
I have to wonder if the planners ever walked down Washington and looked at the neighborhood they have designated to be razed? Or have they done all their planning based on satellite images?
November 23, 2005 at 4:13 pm
Fortunately, I am not a Stillwater homeowner, but I am an alumnus with two degrees. I am so incensed over the University’s use of eminent domain, and this “Athletic Village” that I won’t ever donate another dime to OSU, nor will I give my highschool senior son any money for college should he choose to go to OSU. This includes the campus on Portland in Oklahoma City.
November 25, 2005 at 11:14 pm
That’s a fine sentiment, to never donate another dime or not support OSU athletics — but you have to TELL people THAT you’re doing it and WHY. Send an email to the Alumni Association, the Athletic Department, and the Regents. Tell them you’re just one person and you’re not a bazillionaire (or maybe you are, Anonymous), but you’re horrified and incensed. Then write a short letter explaining this same thing, and send a copy to the Tulsa and Oklahoma City newspapers. Send a letter to ESPN and to the Big 12 Conference administrative office. They don’t like negative attention.
The people in power have to know that their actions have consequences, not just for the soon-to-be displaced students and homeowners, but for themselves. They’re charting a course for OSU that is short-sighted. Driving a wedge between Town and Gown isn’t in the long-term interest of either OSU or the city of Stillwater, never mind the students.
May 7, 2006 at 4:06 pm
This response is exactly why OSU has the second class University in this state. But I’m beginning to see that just maybe that is the way you like it.
May 14, 2006 at 1:16 am
>
Being a top-rated institution of higher learning was never decided over the size of said institution’s athletic department.
November 17th, 2005 at 7:06 am (Life Changes)
My family and I own six houses and an office building within the 100 ACRES
that the Foundation and OSU are going to try and take. I have several comments but the first one that I want to suggest is that as many of us as possible send an email to the Board of Regents which has it’s next meeting in Langston on December 2nd. There are over 40 home owners that have homestead exemption who will have their homes taken and have to relocate. The email address of the Board of Regents is “board@okstate.edu”. Please as many as possible do this. I am very worried that OSU may close Hall of Fame and also McElroy, which they will have the right to do by a law already on the books from 1939. OSU is not going to want any street going through their new ATHLETIC VILLAGE! So if they close these two streets, there will not an EAST WEST thouroughfare from 6th Street (Hwy 51) to Lakeview. That is TWO MILES without a street to handle all normal and football traffic!
I can’t believe that they are planning to tear down Allie Reynolds baseball
stadium and build a larger one at the corner of McElroy and Duck, just so
we can host a Regional Tournament when Allie Reynolds has never been full!
November 18, 2005 at 11:29 am
I thought Allie Reynolds WAS the new stadium. ; )
Writing the Board of Regents is a great idea. Some of the arguments against the takeover that I have considered:
If an Athletic Village is required is there another location that will not displace numerous people from their homes and negatively impact Stillwater’s tax base? Is the development of the Athletic Village in this location so important as to inflict great financial hardship and upheaval on long-time Stillwater residents some of whom are elderly?
I question the need for a 100 acre Athletic Village.
For many high school students, including athletes, the town where a university is located is an important factor in their choice of a school. To what extent can OSU cannibalize Stillwater and not ultimately hurt itself. Maybe the OSU master planners see the perfection of their plan as the elimination of the Stillwater community?
April 6, 2007 at 1:32 pm
There are several movements underway that are refuting the “personhood” of corporations (or universities?).
Ultimately, I don’t believe anyone can prevail against the “economic dominence” of the University in Stillwater. It’s a shame that with thousands of empty acres that OSU couldn’t have just purchased some land a mile or 2 from the campus.
I believe that average citizens will have to revolt against “corporate personhood” before legislators stop giving them rights (without the responsibilities) that far exceed what the avg citizen is granted. It is only at a local level that there is a chance to change this trend. It’s happening elsewhere, hopefully, some smart lawyer will catch on and find an application of this very sucessful tactic in this case.
“Chambersburg, Pennsylvania (December 7) – On December 6th, 2006, the Board of Supervisors for East Brunswick Township in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, unanimously passed a law declaring that sludge corporations possess no constitutional “rights” within the community. East Brunswick is the eighth local government in the country to abolish the illegitimate “rights” and legal privileges claimed by corporations, and the fourth community in the nation to recognize the rights of nature. The Ordinance takes the offense in challenging corporate managers in Pennsylvania and around the nation, who effortlessly wield those constitutional “rights” and legal privileges to dictate corporate values and nullify local laws.”
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Linda said,
April 3, 2007 at 10:47 am
This is to Lee and his siblings. My dad had your father as a professor. My sister and I both majored in mathematics and had your mom for Number Theory (late ’70’s and early 80’s). I stayed in touch with your mom for awhile and even got to go to an OSU football game once with your parents. I didn’t know that their house was part of OSU’s plans. I heard yesterday, from my dad, that he had heard that your dad became ill in Arizona. I just wanted to let you know that our hearts and prayers are with you.
Sue Agnew said,
April 10, 2007 at 11:36 pm
Thank you, Linda, for sharing your story. That’s how teachers attain immortality, through those whom they’ve influenced, who carry on the good work.
Daddy is in HealthSouth, a rehab hospital. He is becoming stronger each day, toward the goal of eventually returning to Stillwater. Rehab seems to be two steps forward/one step back, so it’s discouraging, but when we think that two weeks ago he was on a ventilator in the CCU, it’s amazing. He’s a tough 90-year-old, and he’s “fighting” with grace and dignity.
The address of HealthSouth is 2650 N. Wyatt Dr., Tucson, AZ 85712 (his name is Ted). Cards are appreciated! And hearts and prayers are really helping — all of us!
Lee Agnew said,
April 17, 2007 at 6:14 pm
As some of you already know, our father Dr. Theodore L. Agnew, Jr., passed away Sunday, April 15 in Tucson AZ.
Funeral services will be held Saturday, April 21, 11:00am at First United Methodist Church in Stillwater. A complete obituary will be published in the Stillwater News-Press.
Memorials may be directed to the Oklahoma United Methodist Foundation (Agnew Family Endowment Fund), 4201 Classen Blvd, Oklahoma City 73118, or to the First United Methodist Church, 400 West 7th Avenue, Stillwater 74074.
Condolences may be e-mailed to the family and an online obituary may be viewed by visiting http://www.strodefh.com.
Lloyd L. Wallisch II said,
April 18, 2007 at 6:21 am
“Back in the day”, Lee and I were tight friends politics and otherwise, then drifted apart.
I’ve been gone from S-water a quarter century now, but the entire Agnew family … I’ve always thought the highest of all of you.
So a terrible shock to open the Tulsa World this AM and see the death notice for Ted, esteemed historian and prince among us.
Sorry, I don’t know if Jeanne is still with us, but, if so, my profound regrets and sorrow, and same to the entire Agnew clan.
Time to go John Dunne: ‘Every death like this, diminishes all of us, but each of us is better, that one such as Ted sojourned so long among us.”
Lee Agnew said,
April 18, 2007 at 10:00 pm
Thanks for the kind words, Lloyd, and it’s good to hear from you again!
(Ah, those long conversations in the Wesley Foundation basement — we sure had the world figured out back then, didn’t we?)
Mom passed away back in May of 2000, after a struggle with Alzheimer’s. Both she and Dad set a high standard for the rest of us, and they are both sorely missed.
I will certainly pass your condolences on to my brothers and sisters. Thanks again.
Dee Ann Sanders said,
April 20, 2007 at 11:40 am
Hi, Lee,
I got to know your father well the past few years, since I returned to OSU as an engineering professor. I found your name in a family biography that Will Paine had prepared, and had a sudden flash of fond memories: you and I were in the OSU band the one year I was here as a student–working on my MS during the 1971-1972 school year. Band, especially the wonderful and wily French horn, helped me keep my sanity that year. And conversations with your dad; newspaper articles and letters to the editor by you, your dad and sister, and just being with your wonderful father, helped me keep my sanity at OSU the past few years. I shall miss him terribly, and I feel for your loss. Even 90 years isn’t enough for a man of your father’s stature.
Take care.
Dee Ann
Lee Agnew said,
April 29, 2007 at 10:04 pm
Hi, Dee Ann,
It’s good to hear from a fellow French hornist. Those were indeed some great times. And thank you so much for your kind words about Dad. He was an inspiration and example for all of us.
Best to you and yours,
Lee
Lee Agnew said,
November 17, 2007 at 11:40 pm
Update from the Agnew family:
Since our father Ted Agnew’s death this past April, my siblings and I have been hard at work dealing with all the physical, legal, and emotional matters involved with settling our parents’ estate. Those of you who have been down this road know what I’m talking about.
We have reached some significant milestones: The house in Washington Heights is on the market, and the dates are set for the estate sale. (December 7-8-9. For information contact JLK Antiques, 377-1805.) Dad’s papers and documents related to his work with the United Methodist Church have been donated to Oklahoma City University. His papers related to his OSU career have gone to the Special Collections of the OSU Library. Mom’s papers have gone to the Archives of American Mathematics in Austin TX. It is immensely gratifying to us that so many others are interested in our parents’ lives and their work.
The house at 701 N. Bellis Street that Dad donated to the Oklahoma United Methodist Foundation lives on through the endowment fund established by the proceeds from the house’s sale to OSU. The first year’s earnings from that endowment have gone back to our parents’ communities via the First United Methodist Church in Stillwater, and our mother’s home congregation, Trinity United Church in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
On November 2, 2007, at the annual Friends of the OSU Library Banquet, Ted and Jeanne Agnew were honored posthumously with the Edna Mae Phelps Award for their years of support of the Library and the University. Accepting on my parents’ behalf, I quoted some of my father’s words from his valedictorian’s speech before the graduating class of 1933, Ogden (IL) Community High School. (The handwritten draft of that speech was among the boxes of papers we had been sorting through the week before.):
“Have we learned … that courtesy ranks with courage? Do we know how to be good losers? Do we know the power of kindness, the joy of work? Do we appreciate the influence of example, the worth of character?”
Dad wrote that speech when he was 16 years old, but he lived the values expressed in it throughout his 90 years. As the year of his death draws to a close, we are grateful, not only to the example that he and Mom set for us, but for all our Stillwater and OSU friends who have shared our grief with us.
We would like to wish everyone who reads this a Blessed and Joyous Holiday Season, and a New Year filled with new and happy memories.
Sincerely,
Lee Agnew
Tamara Colbert Maschino said,
December 5, 2007 at 12:25 pm
Lee, our thoughts are with you and your family, it is so hard to finalize a family members estate, the jewels of wisdom you found from your father are priceless.
Kim Cox said,
January 3, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Lee & Susan:
You probably do not remember me but I will always remember you two. You befriended a frshman bassoonist who had never been to a large university and made him feel like he was pasrt of the band. I will never forget that. I am sorry to hear about Dr. Agnew. Although I never had him for a professor, I always heard a lot of good about him.
Actualy, I was googling for Lloyd Wallisch and happen to come across your name, Lee. Nice poem.