Category: In Memoriam

Brendon Merritt, an Eagle basketball great with an indomitable will to win, died on May 16, 2024.

Michael Finley, a former member of EWU’s Board of Trustees, was a champion of tribal rights and culture.   After a life spent in service to his Tribe and community, Michael Finley ’03, ’05, a noted historian, tribal-rights advocate and leader of the Colville people, died on Aug. 9. Finley, who held both bachelor’s and…

Bob Quinn, a geography professor with a passion for the weather, died on Oct. 10. In 1967, Robert “Bob” Quinn, a newly minted assistant professor of geography at Eastern Washington State College, arrived in Cheney to find himself confronted by the coldest, snowiest winter in the city’s recorded history. His new colleagues no doubt thought…

Raphael Guillory ’94, an EWU professor of psychology who made notable contributions as an Eastern scholar, athlete and advocate for Native rights, died on Nov. 29.   Guillory, who grew up on the Nez Perce Indian Reservation in Lapwai, Idaho, was a standout free safety for the Eagles’ 1993 Big Sky Conference championship team. After…

Sarah Keller, founder of the university’s anthropology program and one of Eastern’s longest serving faculty members, died on Dec. 24.   As a child growing up in Boston, Sarah Keller told Eastern magazine in a 2017 interview, she caught the anthropology bug from Digging in Yucatan by Ann Axtell Morris, an account of excavations of…

Pauline Flett, Salish language preservationist and scholar, helped lay the groundwork for Native language education programs across Washington state By Eastern Magazine In June 1998, Pauline Flett appeared on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion radio show. With the host translating at her side, Flett told the traditional story of the coming of the salmon…

H. George Frederickson, former EWU president, led dramatic advancements in academics, athletics and fundraising. By Eastern Magazine George Frederickson, the revered former president of Eastern Washington University who led dramatic advancements in academics, athletics and fundraising, died on July 24 in Lawrence, Kansas. He was 86. Over the university’s long history, few individuals have had…

For more than half a century, Hank Steiner created a lasting legacy of service. By Leilah Langley Henry-York “Hank” Steiner, a revered professor of English at EWU, passed away Sept. 6, 2019. He was 87. Professor Steiner was born in Chicago, but moved with his parents to Portland, Oregon as a child. After high school…

A social work instructor’s sudden passing inspires a heartfelt tribute. By Eastern Magazine LuAnn “Lu” Brown, died suddenly last October, the senior lecturer and associate director of EWU’s field social work education program left a huge void. Senior students whom she counseled, advised, challenged and empowered were particularly bereft, and wanted to publicly assert how…

George William Lotzenhiser, PhD, a long-time Eastern faculty member and administrator who played a key role in the academic restructuring of the institution, passed away January 26 in Spokane. He was 95. Professor Lotzenhiser was an EWU alumnus, a former dean of the university’s Division (College) of Fine Arts, and a veteran of World War…