Voices of Spencer Creek Valley
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By Ryan Ramon
Our corner of the world has its share of heroes and hellions
who have made the news lately. Heroes are people we admire for their special talents
or virtures. Hellions are people we don't want to admire but often do as they "raise
hell". Or money. Too much money we see as the short road to hell but it is social
and economic hell, also, not to have enough. What is enough? Heroes make us want
to aspire to their standards of vision and courage. Hellions make us want to clean
up while the going is good, appealing to our greed, not our greatness. Some people's
heroes are other people's hellions; like Bill Gates whose foresight and abilities
stacked the deck of technological marketing. Good enterprise or dirty game? Both
heroes and hellions take risks in their causes. Safe heroes know when to step back
from the ledge, my friends. While the United States Justice Department is wrangling
an anti-trust deal with one of our most famous Northwest citizens, Mr. Gates, our
attention has been focused on other Pacific Northwest heroes and hellions. I am thinking
about the sad and very different stories of Phil Knight, CEO of Nike, Inc. and major
benefactor or the University of Oregon and Kimball Lewis, former Executive Director
of Greenhill and Central Oregon Humane Societies, both fallen from their pedestals
to some of us folks' way of thinking here in Spencer Creek Valley.
Phil Knight's dramatic denouncement of the U of O's decision to join, on a conditional,
one year basis, the Workers Rights Consortium, an independent non-profit sweatshop
monitoring organization, after years of consensus building work, recent protests
by students and a vote by the Faculty Senate, resulted in his withdrawn pledge of
millions and millions of dollars for the new sports stadium. (Of course, we are not
talking about a new art or music complex or theater.) Many donors are following his
lead and deserting their public pledges. Phil Knight was the main contributor for
a remodeling and extension of the library, now named after him. He underwrote much
of the construction of the new law school, also named after the Knight family. Many
observers critical of this tendency to depend upon private bigwigs while public dollars
are shrinking for public institutions, started to call the University of Oregon "Nike
University". Phil Knight's company, Nike Inc., which gave him his millions in
profit is based on the labor of overseas, underpaid, overworked workers. And the
University, like a hungry dog, became dependent on his handouts. After all, this
fine school is struggling to retain faculty which are some of the worst paid in the
USA. People stay here because they love their work and this area, not because they
are very well-paid.
The history among the players of this drama, Phil Knight and his old school friend
and counterpart at the university, U of O President Dave Frohnmayer, Nike Inc. and
the legendary runner Steve Prefontaine and his coach Bill Bowerman, plays artfully
as a Mozart opera or cozy as a Disney film. Bowerman started making special, durable
shoes for the great U of O runner as Prefontain shredded regular running shoes every
few days. Borrowing his wife's waffle iron, Bill Bowerman took over the garage and
cooked up the world's first Nike running shoes, named after the Greek winged goddess
of victory. Pouring the rubber sole mixture on the waffle iron, Bowerman invented
a product which the savvy young friend and student Phil Knight bought into, developed
and promoted into a world wide web of industry and commerce. Like a digestible American
tragedy, our young hero who inspired the Nike shoe, Olympic contender Steve Prefontaine,
died in a car accident while Phil Knight, with Bill Bowerman as a partner, started
a company that shaped world shoe fashion, developed new sweatshops, and changed the
face of the U of O. Meanwhile, Frohnmayer became Oregon State Attorney General, then
Dean of the U of O Law School and now its president.
If Mr. Frohnmayer had consulted Nike's CEO Phil Knight before the process
of decision making by the University community, that would have been a conflict of
interest. That gesture would have put Mr. Phil Knight in a untenable position; that
of unofficial dictator of University wide policy to protect his personal interest.
U of O President Frohnmayer AND the students who led the recent protests were the
heroes in this case, taking a risk in order to do the right thing. I think Phil Knight
could not stand the idea that the student protests helped shape current policy development.
And even though we didn't care for the current state of Nike, we were proud it was
started here, eight miles from Spencer Creek Valley, by people from such a golden
moment in University history. Some of the heroes' glow rubbed off on us peasants.
Now Phil Knight has publicly shown himself to be a spoiled brat, taking home his
marbles because he doesn't like the way the game is going. We expected more of such
a capable individual. We expected him to be magnanimous, even great. To say, "Well,
even if the game isn't what I planned, I'll play out my commitment My interests in
the U of O are bigger than my personal preferences." And we need to ask ourselves
why is the fiscal future of our temple of higher learning in the fickle hands of
such a huge and temperamental donor and his novitiates?
Kimball Lewis rode into town on a white charger and quickly became the shining knight.
As the new Executive Director, he turned the Greenhill Humane Society around; he
brought new life, energy and public interest to a struggling non-profit, imbuing
it with hope and money and eventually, a new and much needed building. He also stepped
on many "toes" who had been comfortable in their old "shoes"
or attitudes. Lewis demanded employees be responsive to the public. Kimball Lewis
had a faithful sidekick and companion, Donner, a handsome, sweet, smart, young German
shepherd who went everywhere with Kimball. Many people listened faithfully to his
weekly radio show, "Lewis and Bark", and were proud of some connection:
his baby sitter, his neighbors, his grocer, the man who delivered his newspaper.
Lewis led the Greenhill Humane Society into many serious, and successful humane investigations
and prosecutions. Besides the poor nut cases, a few well-known, sane people were
very publicly embarrassed. His special love and knowledge was of horse welfare. Greenhill
cases made the newspapers and the courts. He was big, kind and a little larger than
life in these parts. A little ... showy. An unforgivable sin. Grudges grew. After
getting Greenhill on its feet, Lewis became Director to the Central Oregon Humane
Society in Bend, horse country, way on the other side of the Cascades. Greenhill
Humane Society carried on and many wished Lewis well.
This spring came the dreadful news that Lewis' dog Donner was murdered, shot and
hung on a tree in front of his house. Everyone who knew Donner and his person, Kimball
Lewis, were sad for them. Then came a series of odd news stories that were full of
accusations and innuendoes, first from employees at the Central Oregon Humane Society
and then from Greenhill. Accusations of financial mismanagement, sexual harassment,
Internet pornography use, etc. Things that could be true or false. How can one defended
oneself against such leaked stories? I know that when I worked as a humane investigator
and community educator in Seattle area, often many people I would meet "in the
field" would press a check into my hand for our organization. Sometimes I found
it a week later when I turned my coat pockets out. Withholding funds? Sometimes,
I would give a grieving or discouraged person a hug. If someone misinterpreted my
gesture of solidarity, could that be seen as sexual harassment? Someone suggested
to a reporter that it was even possible Lewis killed his own dog to get attention
off him. Unless Donner transmogrified onto a compulsive barker, I see that idea as
impossible.
Once you are smeared in the media, it is almost impossible to clear your name, even
in court. (Ask Oscar Wilde. Or Bill Clinton.) A few board members from Greenhill
wrote a letter to the local paper to defend their old friend and employee. Their
voices were swept away in the wildfire of press speculations and research (digging
up personal dirt) showing our shining knight was all too human with a very messy
past. It was reported he had exaggerated a resume. Very human. He had been recently
divorced from his second wife, one of life's major traumas. He had that marriage
without a proper divorce from the previous spouse in another state. Not smart. (There
may well have been circumstances not explained. Anyone who has dealt with a bureaucracy
knows the things and document that can go wrong, not be filed.) There was a child
somewhere. Sad. I did not follow all the details. It was too carrionous. The vultures
have descended.
I have worked with Kimball Lewis as an occasional volunteer at Greenhill Humane Society
and saw him as he worked at the shared computer and talked to donors on the phone.
I saw him encourage employees who were tired of the pain of the suffering animals
and the stupid, unthinking humans responsible. He spoke with me about the problems
and joys of working in the field. I saw a good man in an impossible job and doing
it well. I choose to believe Kimball Lewis is a decent human. Hubris and heroic work
may go together. My Knight may be another person's Bad Guy.
Lancelot and Guinevere also were too human for their heroic roles and we still find
the story of their fall fascinating.
