Shortly after my husband Ehren and I moved to Oregon for jobs in SWLF, our new colleague Lisa Ede and her husband Greg Pfarr hosted a welcome gathering for us at their house north of town. It was late summer, 2012. There’s a lot I’ve forgotten about that time with the stress of the move and the rush of so much newness, but some things stand out. I can recall the curve of Lisa and Greg’s driveway, the sunny front garden flush with growth, and Lisa at the doorway, ushering us in.
I was nervous and I think she sensed that, but Lisa had this way of putting you at ease. We stood together by a big, sunny window with sweeping views of the valley and chatted about the move, about teaching, about Oregon life. She loved living here. She loved her life. That came through to me so strongly.
And what a life it was.
Lisa taught rhetoric and writing at OSU for 33 years, from 1980-2013. She was a pillar in her field, a devoted partner to Greg, and a beloved fixture in her wide circles of family and friends. Her loss this past September was deeply felt across the SWLF community. It’s impossible to overstate the impact she had here, from the institutional to the personal.
Lisa directed the Communication Skills Center (now the Writing Studio and Graduate Writing Center); founded OSU’s Writing Intensive Curriculum; was fundamental in establishing our rhetoric and writing program; taught classes in composition, composition pedagogy, literacy, and rhetoric, among others; and mentored countless junior faculty members and students. Every year, an award in excellence in graduate teaching is given in her honor, and a fund she established after her retirement supports research in rhetoric and writing as well as a faculty development fund for our instructors, of which I am one.
While she and I didn’t cross paths often, I was glad whenever we did. She would always ask about the courses I was teaching, or the latest episode of a cooking show she remembered we both liked. There were few people who made me feel as seen and valued as Lisa. I share this personal remembrance of her not because it’s especially remarkable, but because it’s not. This is just how she was—warm, curious, brilliant, quick to smile and to offer support.
One need only scroll through the remembrances that flooded her Facebook page in the days following her passing to see that I was not the only one—not by a mile.
For those who want to read more about Lisa’s incredible life, I want to share links to several pieces written by the people who knew her best, including a lovely remembrance from her close colleagues here at OSU.
“The Last Time We Saw Lisa,” published in Peitho and written by OSU rhetoric and writing faculty members Vicky Tolar Burton, Tim Jensen, Kristy Kelly, Sarah Tinker Perrault, & Ehren Helmut Pflugfelder.
A post in memoriam to Lisa written by longtime collaborators and friends Cheryl Glenn and Andrea Lunsford.
Lisa frequently posted photographs of bouquets made from flowers grown in Greg’s garden. This was her last post on Facebook with the caption “The last bouquet of summer.”
by Kristin Griffin