Mike Bogdan

My parents, Witold and Anna Bogdan, deserve credit for insisting that I learn to work hard at an early age! We had friends in the hardwood floor business in Portland where I was put to work loading piles of lumber into boxcars. Jefferson High School football and track coaches, Eric Waldorf and Tom DeSylvia took note and encouraged my participation in sports during my junior and senior years.

During high school I played violin with the school orchestra, but then was recruited to play the tuba in the Jefferson Marching Band. Apparently I was the only one who could actually play the tuba and also carry it while marching. Now our grandson, William is to continue the tradition by playing the tuba in his high school jazz band.

Thanks to good coaching and hard work, I was able attend OSU by earning an athletic scholarship. This lasted two years until I had a wake-up call. When lining up as a starting guard for the "OSU Rooks," Homer W. (weighing in at over 200#) looked down at me and said, "What are you still doing here, you are too small!" He was right, the next year I gave up the scholarship and worked my way through the last three years of college by loading more boxcars and logging in the woods—finally graduating from OSU in 1958 with a BS in Forestry (Forest Products).