Mary Lou Stewart, Board Director, reflects on community involvement and engagement
Mary Lou Stewart
Terwilliger Plaza Member and Board Director
What is your background?
I’m a fifth generation Oregonian on my father’s side. Growing up in McMinnville, I would come into Portland for ballet lessons, and while attending Oregon State University, I would attend Portland State for Summer School. Always involved in education, I taught Drama and English in Redmond and Oakridge, Oregon and then did graduate work at Portland State University where I was a TA in the ESL (English as a Second Language) program. I’ve always had an interest in Anglo Irish Studies. James Joyce and W.B. Yeats were my favorite authors, and so I ran a program for Portland State where I took grad students to the Yeats International Summer School in Sligo, Ireland over a 10-year period. I taught ESL and English in the Beaverton School District for 27 years before retiring in 2004 to take care of my mother.
When did you move to Terwilliger Plaza?
In July of 2013—approaching my eighth year.
Tell me about living at Terwilliger.
It’s wonderful. Best decision we ever made. My husband, Jim, who has passed, was older than I was. We’d known each other for eight years before we got married and celebrated our 25th Anniversary by moving into the Plaza. Jim was having some health issues, and sometime after we moved to Terwilliger, he fell and broke a hip. When he was in rehab there was a snowstorm, and I thought, “I don’t have to be concerned if the pipes freeze. I don’t have to get up my driveway and drive up the hill outside. I don’t have to worry if I have food in the refrigerator—or not. If I don’t have enough to cook myself, I can just go downstairs.” When Jim left rehab, he was able to move into The Metcalf where the staff did the heavy lifting, and we could spend much of the day together in our apartment. I could be a wife again and let the staff do the nursing. It was such a relief.
How do Members contribute to new programs and initiatives?
My first real understanding of this strong aspect of Terwilliger was when Jim needed care. He had always been my emotional support while I cared for other family members. Now he was the one I was caring for. I happened to mention this to our former CEO and asked if there could be a support group. She said, go ahead—and that was the beginning of Well Partners—how to keep ourselves healthy while taking care of a loved one. Both men and women came to that group. Seven years later, this Member generated support group is still going.
Another group to emerge was the Health Care Team which advises Terwilliger Plaza on health issues from memory care to aging. We have a lot of former doctors, nurses, hospital administrators, and interested Members in this building. This group meets once a month to learn about all the new things that are happening in the Plaza’s Health and Wellness programs. We serve as a well-informed internal focus group and often give support and feedback. These are only two of many examples of how the community at Terwilliger is engaged and supportive of each other.
You serve on the Board at Terwilliger. What is your role?
I chair the Governance committee. Currently, my role is reviewing the policies and bylaws of Terwilliger, suggesting revisions, and, like all Board Members, doing background research on the big discussions brought before the Board. It is important for the Board to be informed of the membership’s concerns and views. We are a very engaged community, and our bylaws ensure that our Board consists of a Member majority.
When I became a Board Member however, I learned the distinction between the responsibilities of the CEO and Administration vs. the role of the Board. I began to better understand that we engage in a representative self-governance style. While there are opportunities for Member input through our Resident Council, or smaller group discussions between Members and Board Directors, not everybody votes on every issue. The Board of Directors has governance responsibilities and fiduciary duties on behalf of Terwilliger Plaza and only Board Members vote on the resolutions that come before the Board.
What is the vision of Terwilliger Plaza?
To be the best continuing care retirement community in Portland, and the country.
What does that mean?
It takes good relationships between staff and Members; respect among Members, an openness to new ideas and a willingness to talk things out in our broad discussions. The Live Forward motto that we have requires that we don’t just think about what we need right now to make us comfortable, but what will we do to sustain into the future. Live Forward is a responsibility to the collective Members and to the continuance of Terwilliger Plaza. It’s both a governance philosophy and a descriptor of our Members who move in ready to move forward.
Can we talk about the community at Terwilliger?
The Members are a key aspect. It’s the breadth of the people’s level of interests and activities. There is a lot of wisdom in this building—a lot of life wisdom as well. For me, it’s the sense of community and companionship. I love being here because I can walk to the river. We’ve close access to the Portland Art Museum and the Oregon Historical Society. I can walk up Terwilliger Boulevard. I can walk downtown and catch the number eight bus if I get tired. To be around people who also care about classical music and jazz, and popular music, and people who have so many different interests. People who think. It’s a building full of people who know that learning doesn’t stop. A full spectrum of life, a community of people with fascinating histories.
It seems that people are actively involved and engaged, do you find that to be the case?
Absolutely. There is the Senior Adult Learning Center at Portland State, where you are able to audit classes for free. Many Members take advantage of this program. I was in the process of taking French classes before the pandemic put my studies on hold. We also have a lot of Members who volunteer in the grade school SMART program (Start Making a Reader Today), where they go into different schools and read with the kids.
Just recently many Members participated in the SOLVE Earth Day around the area of Terwilliger Plaza. I so appreciated the opportunity to go around and clean up the areas in our neighborhood. We go to Duniway Park all the time, walk the trails up through Terwilliger, spend time in the Lilac Garden or walk around the track. I thought that was a perfect opportunity for Terwilliger Members to give back to our community. Giving back to the community shows up in a myriad of ways. The volunteering and participatory engagement—it’s the Live Forward mindset.
Sounds like you’ve found the right place in the Terwilliger Community.
For so many reasons. There is a grace in growing old. The community and all that is going on at Terwilliger allows you to rediscover who you are on the inside rather than being defined by the work you did. I learn daily from the wealth and richness of the lives of the other people who are here and how they face the challenges we all have to face. I am in better health than I was when I walked in the door eight years ago.