Portland student educator dies
PORTLAND, Ore. – Portland Community College's founder and first president, Dr. Amo DeBernardis, has died. He passed away Friday, Feb. 19 at the age of 96.
DeBernardis, or "Dr. De" as he was known at the college, served as PCC's president from 1961 up until 1979 when he retired.
"His strong vision helped establish PCC's footprint that the community knows today," said a prepared statement from PCC issued late Tuesday afternoon.
His parents, Bert and Maddalena, emigrated from Italy with his father having only a third-grade education. DeBernardis worked in the family's small wicker furniture business, speaking Italian at home and English outside of it. And he went to school.
He attended Kennedy Grade School, which now houses a McMenamins brew pub, in Northeast Portland. In PCC's historical book titled "They Just Did It," DeBernardis wrote that it was the Kennedy school principal that instilled the value of staying in class: "I'm sure that had it not been for our principal I would have never finished elementary school," he wrote. "I would have probably have dropped out and gone another route."
He also attended Benson High, Jefferson High School and Oregon State University (then Oregon State College), where he graduated with honors in industrial arts and vocational education. He completed his master's degree at OSU in audiovisual aids and education, later earning a doctorate in higher education, curriculum and education administration from the University of Oregon.
He also taught shop classes at Ockley Green Elementary School.
Portland Community College, or PCC, is the largest institution of higher learning in Oregon. Based in Portland, it has campuses stretching from Sylvania and Rock Creek to Southeast Center and Cascade in North Portland. DeBernardis spearheaded development for Sylvania, Rock Creek and Cascade.
Founded in the 1950s as an adult education program for the local public school system, the program became a college in 1961 after Oregon state government began allowing community colleges in Oregon. In 1968, Portland voters approved an independent district for PCC.
DeBernardis was there the whole way: first as assistant superintendent for Portland Public Schools, then as administrator of the newly founded Portland Community College, and finally, "when we finally incorporated into a separate entity," said PCC Communications Specialist James Hill, "he was made the president."
Starting in 1968, when DeBernardis and his administrators began planning for a campus on Portland's westside, DeBernardis reportedly sparred with the Washington County Planning Commission, Department of Environmental Quality, Columbia Region Association of Governments, Portland Area Metropolitan Boundary Commission, conservation groups, State Legislator Vera Katz, college faculty and even his own board member – Earl Blumenauer, who was elected to the PCC Board on the platform of stopping a Rock Creek campus.
According to PCC's statement, "This war of wills featured PCC pouring fresh concrete on a Rock Creek building one day before the use permit expired in 1974 and many subsequent battles in the Legislature punctuated by DeBernardis storming out of a Ways and Means Committee hearing when Katz threatened to block funding, yelling, 'We're going to build Rock Creek anyway!' Despite this, thanks to DeBernardis' determination, the committee voted to fund the campus construction."
In 1979, DeBernardis retired as president of PCC. In 1995, PCC's College Center Building at the Sylvania Campus was dedicated and renamed in his honor and the city of Portland proclaimed June 20, 1995, as "Amo DeBernardis Day."
Today, PCC serves around 87,200 full-time and part-time students over a geographic area "the size of Rhode Island" – the area of Multnomah, Washington, Yamhill, Clackamas and Columbia counties. PCC is a member of the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges, with its men's and women's basketball teams competing against those from the community colleges of Chemeketa, Clackamas, Mount Hood, Lane, Linn-Benton, Southwestern Oregon and Umpqua.
DeBernardis was an active donor to the PCC Foundation. A scholarship fund at the foundation has been started in Dr. Amo DeBernardis' name. His family members have suggested that those looking to honor DeBernardis can do so by making a donation to the scholarship fund.
- Jennifer Meacham contributed to this report.
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