Gaining a Foothold
It was Stephen Epler who proposed to establish a higher education extension center at Vanport, a city built for wartime shipyard workers, which, with the war's end, had a ready supply of housing.
Director Stephen Epler and student Don Newman approve of Irwin McFadden's birthday cake design for Vanport's first anniversary in 1947. (Oregon Historical Society, #694464.)
Epler's creativity, tenacity, and vision allowed the Vanport Extension Center to thrive-and then survive-to become Portland State University.
