‘Faith, grit & determination:’ Mills River marathoner, business owner outran cancer
Stephen Kindland, Times-News correspondent
For distance runner, business owner, single mother and cancer survivor Daphne Kirkwood, there is no finish line.
“I don’t want to waste any time because time is so precious,” said Kirkwood, whose event production company staged the inaugural Jump Off Rock Half Marathon and 10K on May 8. “I’m always like, OK, am I making the most of the day? I think it’s really important that people live, and keep living as long as you can.”
Kirkwood, of Mills River, has planned and directed scores of 5k and 10k races, triathlons and other outdoor competitions in the region through iDaph Events and Timing, a limited liability company she founded 10 years ago on a shoestring budget.
A former Umatilla superintendent and city councilor was honored in the Oregon House of Representatives recently.
The House voted unanimously to adopt House Concurrent Resolution 13, honoring George I. Fenton, who died in November 2019 at the age of 88. The resolution is headed to the Senate for a vote there.
Kristle Wyant, Fentonâs daughter, said it meant a lot to her to hear state legislators praise her fatherâs life work on the House floor.
âItâs nice knowing people held him in such great respect,â she said.
The resolution states Fenton âwill be forever remembered as a dedicated educator and a gentleman statesman who touched countless lives and made his community a better place.â
PENDLETON â As they look to reopen in the fall, colleges and universities are all trying to answer the question of whether to require their students to get their COVID-19 vaccinations before returning to the classroom.
Three of Oregonâs largest public universities answered affirmatively: Oregon State University, Portland State University and University of Oregon have all announced that students need to be fully vaccinated before returning to campus.
According to Casey White-Zollman, the communications director for the Oregon Community Colleges Association, none of the stateâs 17 community colleges have made a decision on vaccination requirements.
Although the decision isnât final, interim Blue Mountain Community College President Connie Green said BMCC is planning to let students return in the fall without their shots.
May 10, 2021
Valley City State University will hold a spring commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 15, to honor its graduating class during the 2021 spring semester. VCSU will recognize 318 graduates – 278 will receive bachelor’s degrees and 36 will receive master’s degrees. All graduates recognized at the Virtual Commencement Ceremonies in May 2020 and December 2020 are also invited back to participate in the face-to-face ceremony.
The in-person ceremony will also be live streamed on VCSU’s Youtube channel: www.youtube.com/vcsuvikings
President LaFave will preside over the commencement exercises. Graduating senior, Peyton Halverson, will deliver the undergraduate reflection, and the faculty reflection will be presented by Kevin Murphy, assistant professor of mathematics.
Kevin Morris
Isaac Updike ran the steeplechase for the first time in 2011, when he was a college freshman at Eastern Oregon University. When the team was doing hurdle mobility drills, his coach plucked out a few who looked at ease and steered them toward the steeple.
Updike was among them. In his first attempt at the event, at the Northwest Nazarene Open in Nampa, Idaho, he ran 9:46.05 an underwhelming result that would have put him about a lap behind the best runners in the NCAA.
A decade later, on April 24, Updike ran the steeplechase at the Oregon Relays at the new Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon. With the television cameras rolling for the meet broadcast on NBC Sports Network (NBCSN), he ran 8:17.74, including a final lap in 59.13 seconds, and won by a couple of steps over Mason Ferlic. It’s the fastest time in the world so far this year and under the Olympic standard (8:22.00).