Rodney and Sandi Page: A life immersed in service, faith, art, conversation and culture
Rodney and Sandi Page
A life immersed in service, faith, art, conversation and culture
Rodney, you first moved to Portland more than 60 years ago. What brought you here?
Originally I am from Des Moines, Iowa. After I received my undergraduate degree from Drake University in Religion and English, I moved down to Fort Worth, Texas to enroll in graduate studies at Texas Christian University. After receiving my Master of Divinity, I went on to Northwest Christian University for my Doctor of Divinity.
I first came to Portland in 1962 from Fort Worth to be the associate minister at First Christian Church and Campus Minister at Portland State University. I split my time equally between both positions. Interesting fact is that the reason First Christian Church was looking for an Associate Minister was because Arne Ramier had resigned to become the first director and general manager at Terwilliger Plaza. So, one could say that Terwilliger Plaza brought me to Oregon!
SP: Another anecdote to Rodney coming to Portland is that he flew in just after the famous October 12th storm of 1962. A massive storm with typhoon force winds of 100 miles per hour, knocking out miles of power lines and causing substantial damage throughout Portland, and the coast.
RP: I flew in the evening after the storm, and I remember that as I looked down upon the city I saw all the lights were out and thought, Oregonians go to bed awfully early. Then when I landed the minister informed me about the storm and that the city was without electricity.
SP: I was here for that storm. Originally, I’m from Portland and was studying at Portland State University when Rodney became the Campus Minister. I was a Presbyterian, and he shared the office with the Presbyterian minister. He had started a project called Faith and Life Community where he secured two houses on SW Broadway, one for men and one for women for students at Portland State to live in community.
RP: The students would live in community for one year, take a common meal and engage in common study together.
SP: I lived in the house for a year, and during this time Rodney and I became close and started dating. I graduated with a degree in mathematics, business, and education. Then I went back for my master’s degree in mathematics.
After you received your master’s in mathematics, you began teaching at Cleveland High School?
I was a teacher at Cleveland High School, which is the school I graduated from. In fact, there was a member here at Terwilliger Plaza for many years, Mrs. Smart. She was the attendance counselor at Cleveland High School when I was a student there. I skipped school only two times in my life. First in my freshman year and she caught me! Then again in my senior year when I was the editor of the paper. I used the excuse that I had to interview somebody and when the teacher checked with the journalism teacher – well, down to Mrs. Smart again.
RP: Eventually Sandi became the Vice Principal at Cleveland High School and was responsible for evaluating the teachers she once had as a student.
SP: I still called them by their formal names.
Rodney, during this time you had taken a new position with the Greater Portland Council of Churches.
I left Portland State in 1970 to become the Associate Director of the Greater Portland Council of Churches. Then they merged with the Oregon Council of Churches to form the Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon and I became the Associate Director of that agency and eventually, in 1981, I became the Director.
At the time we were the smallest ecumenical agency in the entire country, and I began to add programs such as the Northeast Emergency Food Program, which is still in existence today. We also established the HIV Day Center, programs for the chronically mentally ill, and a large program to support women and children during a women’s alcohol and drug recovery so women could focus on recovery without the fear of losing their children.
Other programs were the Old Town Medical Clinic to serve the homeless. Also, a program that facilitated shared housing with older adults who opened their homes to homeless families in exchange for daily life assistance from grocery shopping to transportation to medical appointments. That program is also still operational.
In time, we became the largest ecumenical agency in the United States, increasing the annual budget from $250,000 to $5 Million. During that time, we also increased our staff from nine to 150, expanding our efforts to provide direct service and advocacy for people whose way is hard in this life, while also promoting Christian unity through the churches working and serving together.
Can you define the term ecumenical ministry?
It comes from the Greek work, oikoumene, literally meaning “the whole household of God.” It represents some 17 denominations who work and serve together.
Sandi, after Cleveland High School serving both as a teacher and Vice Principal, you then went to Jefferson High School.
The administration of the Portland Public School system asked me to be the administrator in charge of the Performing Arts Program at Jefferson High School. Technically, I was called a Vice Principal, although it was a separate program, with its own budget and autonomy in the hiring and programming. I was able to hire such talented people and guest artists, including the lead dancers from the Beijing Ballet.
Then to Lincoln High School where you implemented an International Baccalaureate program.
In 1988, I went to Lincoln High School where I oversaw the International Studies program and then, was instrumental in implementing their International Baccalaureate program, which is an advanced studies program that is overseen by the IB national organization. Lincoln was the first high school to get an International Baccalaureate program in the City of Portland.
Can you explain what an International Baccalaureate program is and how it operates?
The International Baccalaureate has an international presence in countries and territories throughout the world. A school, such as Lincoln High School needs to take part in an authorization process to ensure that students fulfill the requirements and standards of an IB program. It is a program that is prevalent in foreign countries. American executives working in foreign countries often have their children go to an IB program because IB is geared to get students into American colleges. It’s very demanding.
Students who complete the program receive an IB certificate on their diploma. They must write a thesis, be tested, and be fluent in another foreign language. When I was at Lincoln, within our student IB group, we had eight foreign languages including Russian and Japanese.
Lincoln High School, however, was my last school. I retired in 1997. 30 years to the day when I first started teaching.
What was your decision to retire?
Rodney was elected to a position in Manhattan, and I wanted to join him. I retired on February 26, 1997, and moved to New York City on March 10th, 1997, to be with Rodney.
Rodney, what brought you to New York City?
After 15 years as the Director of the Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, in 1996, I was called to New York to become the Deputy General Secretary of the National Council of Churches and head of Church World Service, a humanitarian agency active in 80 countries around the world, with 1,000 employees.
During this time, I developed a program – the first to involve the U.S. government. It was the Work for Food program in Indonesia, where we went to the Indonesian churches and asked them to designate bridges, aquifers, schools, and other projects to build up the infrastructure and education of Indonesia. The agreement was that we would supply Louisiana long-grain rice, so that people could be paid in rice. The one stipulation was that they couldn’t just hire Christians, they had to hire Buddhists, Muslims, or people of no faith to work together on these projects. It’s a wonderful program and still running today.
It also set Church World Service on a trajectory with the federal government to do all kinds of programs throughout the world. During my tenure, the agency grew from its operating budget from $34 Million to $63 Million. Now, it is a $184 million dollar operation.
I made the decision to retire in 2000. Before coming back to Portland, you went to live in Texas, just north of Austin. Rodney had given a talk just outside of Austin in Lago Vista, Texas, and he was captured by the beautiful homes and engaging community. We decided to spend six months in Lago Vista during the winter, and six months a year in Portland where my mother lived in Terwilliger Plaza. It was wonderful. The cultural events, the opera, the food – everything about Lago Vista and Austin were exciting.
My mother however became ill, so I was spending more time flying back and forth and one day we made the decision to move to Portland full time.
When did you move into Terwilliger Plaza?
RP: January 6th, 2020, we moved into Terwilliger Plaza, just before Oregon shut down because of COVID on March 13, 2020.
SP: That was an interesting time. I became the leader of the Terwilliger Plaza newspaper delivery group. There was a group of us, who every morning delivered the newspapers to the doors of all the Members who had subscriptions from The Oregonian, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s. It was a great team effort.
You are both actively engaged, here at Terwilliger, as well in the community.
RP: Since we’ve lived here I’ve already spoken at the Saturday Forum five times. My last talk was on the rise of Aryan Nations, White Nationalism and Christian Nationalism in the United States and Oregon. I’m currently working on a different talk about Christian Nationalism and QAnon. I am also Chair of the Faith Exploration Committee here at Terwilliger Plaza and an elder at the First Christian Church, where I am also a member of the Social Justice Committee.
SP: I am a member of Urban Tour Group, where, before COVID, we toured approximately 5,000 third graders from the greater Portland area through the city. The intention of the program is to engage them in conversations about architecture, public art, history and how does a city begin. Now, we have developed a hybrid approach with some of the discussions on Zoom, and some in-person.
We are also very active in the arts and culture of Portland. Most evenings we are at the Oregon Symphony, or the Oregon Ballet Theater, Chamber Music Northwest, or the theater. And we are both in the Terwilliger Plaza Players, who perform a lot of plays written by Members.
RP: When Parkview opens, the first production of the Terwilliger Plaza Players in the new Parkview auditorium will be a play that I co-wrote with my neighbor here in The Tower, Barbara LaCombe. Its titled “A Persistent Woman”— (The Life of Abigail Scott Duniway).
Indeed, you are immersed in a life filled with service, faith, conversation, art, and culture.
We are urban people and all the opportunities it has to offer, which is why we love the location of Terwilliger Plaza and the community of people with whom we live amongst.