(Welcome back to Thebeerchaser.  If you are seeing this through an e-mail, please visit the blog to see all of the photos and read the story by clicking on the title above so the post is not clipped or shortened.)

Well Beerchasers, I’m still waiting to get back to reviewing bars and breweries, but since that is on hold, I’m trying to provide some other insights.  My next post will be on a number of Montana watering holes that I visited last summer.  Due to the number visited (49) on a 15-day road trip, I’ve only written up several so far.   So stay tuned for some good history on Montana bars.

Beerchasers-of-the-Quarter – Update

Two of the past Beerchasers-of-the-Quarter, Craig-the Dude- Hanneman and Steve Lawrence should be recognized again for recent achievements and accolades.

While that may be hard to understand given their past exploits, it’s true.

So far, there are three BOQ’s in 2020, including a married couple – Jack and Jan McGowan who were co-recipients in February, for their outstanding and long-term commitment to SOLV (Stop Oregon Litter and Vandalism) from the ’90’s until their retirement in 2008.

Former Oregon State Beaver football wingback and receiver Billy Main, a member of the legendary 1967 Giant Killers Team, was named in May.

It took Thebeerchaser two posts to fully cover his football and Navy ROTC stories while in college and then his successful hospitality industry career.

And the most recent BOQ label was for a group – Lawyers.  That’s right – I relate my observations after working with them for forty years in three different organizations – the last twenty-five at a great law firm of 140 lawyers – Schwabe Williamson & Wyatt – where I retired in 2011.

I respect the members of this profession and enjoyed the interaction with this talented and competitive group. In future posts, I’ll continue this narrative as I have a great number of stories that I find very entertaining and think you might also.

https://thebeerchaser.com/2020/08/31/beerchasers-of-the-quarter-lawyers-part-1/

Update on Previous BOQ “Honorees”

Craig “The Dude” Hanneman

My SAE fraternity brother at Oregon State who graduated in 1971, was a Beerchaser-of-the-Quarter in 2012.   This former high school fullback who transitioned to defensive tackle at OSU, was voted captain and MVP of the Beaver team his senior year and named a Second-Team All-American and First-Team Pac-8 Team. 

He then played for four seasons in the NFL including two years for the Pittsburgh Steelers and two for the Patriots, when a catastrophic leg injury ended his NFL career.

After a successful career in the timber industry and local politics, Craig is now retired but when he was about 50, he either ignored or confirmed the assertion of singer, David Lee Roth:

“I guarantee you will find no reasonable man on top of big mountains.” 

He started mountain climbing in the late ’90’s, and in 2012, became the first former NFL or NBA player to successfully summit Mt. Everest.  Kerry Eggers, who has been named Oregon Sportswriter of the Year six times, wrote two wonderful articles on Crag’s story in the Portland Tribune in 2019.  https://pamplinmedia.com/pt/12-sports/446236-359995-mountaineer-craig-hanneman-takes-on-als

The next year (2013) Dude and four of his friends Ran with the Bulls in Pamplona (Below left to right Hanneman, Scott Freeburn, Mark Dippel, Jim Sherbert and Bob Jossis.)

But his sense of adventure was not stifled and even with significant injuries sustained when he fell into a crevasse and was buried in the snow for forty-five minutes before rescue on Mt. Jefferson in 2013, climbing continued.  In 2019 at age 70, he became one of only about 500 people in the world and probably the oldest of those, to have completed The Seven Summits – the highest mountain on each continent.

Oregon Sports Hall of Fame – To the surprise of no one who has followed athletics in Oregon, he was named to the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in August this year.  He will be formally inducted into the Multi-Sports category i.e. Football and Mountain Climbing.  This supplements his prior admission to the Oregon State University Sports Hall of Fame in 1992.

Besides Price’s Tavern in Corvallis during college days, Craig and our SAE brothers have been on many Beerchasing expeditions together in recent years including several at the Gemini Pub in Lake Oswego.

The Dude and I did a toast recently to retired Professor Dr. Edward G. McGrath, who died in March 2019 at the age of 101 in California.

In 1970, Dr. McGrath had an upper-division political science seminar in which Craig and teammate, Mark Dippel, a starting guard on the OSU Football Team and I, joined about seven other students.

The Dude, “Dip” and I sat in the first of two short rows and to the good professor’s astonishment, those two would chew tobacco while he lectured.

Professor McGrath, who was my advisor, always glared at me (rather than the two big lineman) because I walked into class with the “chewers” and they were about twice as big as he was.

At least he appreciated the fact that they used a pot-pie tin for the residue……..We laughed that he reached that ripe old age before passing – I was always convinced that he was going to have a heart attack during those classes.

Congratulations to Craig Hanneman.  He is without question one of the most outstanding human beings Thebeerchaser has had the privilege of meeting even with his somewhat morbid fascination with the word “ubiquitous” and Dean Martin tunes which I had to endure in college.  He is a man of great character, family values and humility.

Steve Lawrence – Lawyer, Mayor and Author

This 2014 Beerchaser-of-the-Quarter has also had several careers.  After college, he distinguished himself for his service as an Army officer in Viet Nam where he commanded an infantry platoon. 

He was subsequently awarded two Bronze Stars and a Silver Star in 1968 and 1969 for heroism during enemy action. (To  see the wording on the citations, click on the link above.)

After graduating from law school and passing the Oregon State Bar exam in 1978, he had a long career as a successful lawyer in private practice before retiring to his home town – The Dalles on the Columbia River.

Steve graduated from high school in the ’60’s and married his high school sweetheart, Donna — but not until 2008!   It’s an interesting story set forth in Thebeerchaser post you can see through the link above.

His next “career” was one of notable public service and little compensation.  Steve served as Mayor of The Dalles for two terms from 2012 to 2018.  The picture below is when Jud Blakely – another former Beerchaser-of-the-Quarter and also a Bronze Star winner for action in Viet Nam (along with receiving two Purple Hearts) and I joined him to visit some watering holes in The Dalles while Steve was successfully running a mayoral re-election campaign in 2015.

Steve’s insight and actions promoting economic development in The Dalles were notable.  He also served for twenty-five years on the Board of United Cerebral Palsy of Oregon and SW Washington including three terms as President.

But this man of many talents demonstrated those again.  He added “novelist” to the list in 2013 with the publication of his first book –  First Light – A Novel of Close Combat in Viet Nam  – that was forty-four years after he returned from Vietnam.

“Based on my own experience and notes kept in a journal, it literally took 44 years for me to know what I wanted to write. Over the years, I would write about singular events, put the writing into its own folder and stack it with others in my file cabinet. When I retired at age 62, determined to write, I gathered all those folders and finished the book.”

Steve was not done writing, however, and early this summer, he published a sequel entitled Amotan Field, which is now available at Amazon.

As Steve stated, in part:

“After First Light, I wanted to write a novel about a skeleton that was unearthed in The Dalles, Oregon by a sewer construction crew. Considering many possible stories, it occurred to me this was an opportunity to answer the question asked; what happened after First Light…..

The story is intended to be a story of redemption. Redemption for a returning soldier dealing with the aftermath of combat. Redemption for a WWII soldier who was denied a medal because the truth of his bravery was buried by a terrible accident. He was killed by friendly fire. He was a member of the Celilo/Wyam tribe.

The backstory of Amotan Field is the history of the Indian community, which had lived and thrived along the Columbia River for thousands of years, shoved aside in the 1850’s by pioneers, missionaries and the military, promises made and broken and complicit racism which has continued.”

So check out both of the Mayor’s books and if you get up to The Dalles, invite him to have a beer.  He knows some good establishments in his city and had a role in getting many of them up and running. (He might even buy your pint for coming to his city!)

The Next Honoree…

Followers of this blog will enjoy the story of my next Beerchaser-of-the-Quarter. 

In 2017, I told the story of Fr. Martin Grassel.  He’s a monk at the Mount Angel Abbey who also happens to be the Head Brewer at the wonderful Benedictine Brewery – one of three in the US owned and operated by Benedictine Monks.

And I will soon share the fascinating journey of another man of the cloth.

I have only known Fr. Chuck Wood for about eighteen months since I have had the pleasure of serving on the Abbey Foundation of Oregon Board with him

After studying at Mount Angel Seminary, Fr. Chuck went on to get his Master’s at the University of Notre Dame.  He is now the Pastor at St. Wencelaus Parish in Scapoose, Oregon and has a wonderful sense of humor and warm personality.  His story will captivate you.  Stay tuned.

 

Cheers!