Clyde Swisher would have been tickled to know that Susan Williams and Nancy Sisko spent a weekend driving to Nyssa, Oregon to piece together the story of his life. They had nothing to gain. No ulterior motive. They were simply too curious to stay away.
But that’s not where this story begins. It begins with correspondence sent to the UW Department of English, where Williams is administrator and Sisko is co-editor of the department newsletter. The correspondence was a copy of Swisher’s bequest, sent by an attorney following Swisher’s death in 2010 at age 76. It outlined the distribution of his assets, including a small percentage to the UW Department of English.
Williams was able to establish that Swisher had received a master’s degree from the department in 1962 and had been a high school English teacher in small-town Nyssa, Oregon for many years. But she was curious to learn more, especially after reading Swisher’s carefully worded bequest, which identified beneficiaries for everything from his car (the local library) to his airline miles (the Make-a-Wish Foundation) to his antiques (the Idaho Historical Society and Idaho Historical Museum).
Williams shared the bequest with Molly Purrington, the College of Arts and Sciences’ associate director for advancement in the Arts and Humanities. Purrington became equally fascinated. “I remember thinking, ‘Whoa! Who is this guy?’” she recalls. “We’d never seen such a careful philanthropic thrust.”
Most bequest donors have family who can provide information, but Swisher did not. So Purrington contacted the attorney who had sent the bequest. “We always like to learn more about donors so we can share that information with students supported through their gifts,” explains Purrington. “It makes the donor real to everyone. It makes them more than just a name and a dollar amount.”
Purrington was eventually put in touch with Reid Saito, a Nyssa farmer who was a student of Swisher’s. Saito spoke about the impact that Swisher had on him and others in Nyssa. “We’re farmers around here. I never would have known about Shakespeare or Ionesco if it weren’t for Clyde Swisher. I went to the University of Oregon and studied English because of Clyde Swisher. He had that impact on a lot of former students,” Purrington recalls Saito telling her over the phone.
Rather than satisfying Purrington’s curiosity, Saito’s comments stoked it further. “I teared up,” she admits. “It was just so moving. I said to Susan, ‘We’ve got to find out more about this man.’” So began plans for the trip to Nyssa. (Purrington, regrettably, was unable to join Williams and Sisko for the trip.)
Saito provided a long list of others who knew and loved Swisher. Sisko began calling them, asking if they’d be willing to meet and talk about their teacher, colleague, and friend. She and Williams scheduled at least half a dozen interviews and organized a three-hour drop-in opportunity at the Nyssa Library for anyone else wanting to share memories. “Some people were a bit hesitant at first, wondering why we were there,” recalls Williams. “But that didn’t last long. They opened up and just started talking.”
A few comments came up repeatedly, including Swisher’s belief that his students, despite living in a small farming community, would go to college. One former student, who went on to earn a master’s degree in English and teach at a community college, told Sisko, “Four of us in our family were educated by Clyde. Three became educators because of Clyde.”
Another nugget that emerged from the visit: Swisher loved the UW. “Several former students, at separate interviews, mentioned that,” says Sisko.
With his $15,000 bequest to the Department of English, Swisher’s legacy of inspiring students will live on at the UW. “The gift will go toward scholarships,” explains Williams. “We sensed that, as a teacher, Clyde would have wanted to support students.”
And if scholarship recipients ask about their generous donor? Now the department can tell them all about the remarkable Clyde Swisher, thanks to the residents of Nyssa and the UW staff who took a weekend road trip to unravel a mystery.