Memorial service planned for longtime Clackamas Community College president

Dr. John Hakanson was president of Clackamas Community College in the late-1960s when the school broke ground on its permanent campus. Hakanson, who died in March, retired as president of CCC in 1984. Photo courtesy of Clackamas Community College.

A memorial service will be held at Clackamas Community College this summer to honor the life of a longtime former president of the school, John Hakanson, who led and grew the institution in its early years, his family said Sunday.

Hakanson joined the college as its dean of instruction in 1967. Two years later, he assumed the role of college president, a position he held for 15 years until his retirement in 1984.

Hakanson's son, John Haakanson, described his father as a man of high character and morals who was a sharp observer and writer and masterful storyteller and speaker, known for wearing bow ties.

"He had a keen wit and a keen sense of humor," his son said.

"Just a giant of a guy."

Hakanson died of natural causes on March 3 while under hospice care, his son said. Sunday, May 21, would have marked his 97th birthday.

The memorial service will be held July 15 from 1:30-5 p.m., according to family. Further details about the location on campus are being finalized.

Hakanson grew up in towns in the southern part of the state, Haakanson said. He lived in Cottage Grove, Gold Beach and Port Orford before attending and graduating from Douglas County's Oakland High School. Before starting his career in education, Hakanson worked jobs as a logger, forest firefighter and roofer. He was drafted in the U.S. Army during World War II, his son said, and was stationed in New Guinea and the Philippines, earning military honors and the rank of captain.

While he was overseas, he exchanged hundreds of letters with the woman who would later become his wife, Helen Marie. The two, who met during high school, married in 1946 not long after Hakanson returned to Oregon.

Hakanson attended Willamette University and during his years at the college in the late 1940s helped create legislation that gave a permanent home to the then-Portland State Extension Center, leading the way for Portland State University, according to a 1991 story from The Oregonian. He wanted the state to have an urban, public college.

Hakanson earned a political science degree at Willamette before completing his master's degree at the University of Oregon. He worked for schools in Myrtle Creek, Canyonville and Harrisburg before leaving Oregon to earn his doctoral degree at the University of California, Berkeley.

He returned to Oregon and started at Clackamas Community College. During an interview with the Oregon Community College Association, Hakanson said he was the fifth employee hired at the school.

Hakanson saw community colleges as a needed alternative to four-year institutions, his son said. His father used to call community colleges, "a place you could take welding and Shakespeare," Haakanson said. Stories in The Oregonian from 1991 and 2007 quote him saying the same thing.

"A community college is a good thing educationally," Hakanson told The Oregonian in 1991. "Many high school graduates don't know yet what they want to do with life. At a community college, they get an opportunity to explore options."

Haakanson said his father was proud of the way the college's campus expanded under his leadership and of his ability to secure continued funding for the school.

After Hakanson's retirement, he served on state and county economic development committees and on various boards, including the Clackamas County Historical Society.

He is survived by his wife of 70 years, Helen; his four children, 11 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

-- Rebecca Woolington

503-294-4049; @rwoolington 

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