Home Features Portraits

A friend to seniors, disabled adults

March 15, 2008 01:09 pm

FAREWELL gathering: Marty Falk, the retiring manager of three communities for seniors and disabled adults in Union County, shares some memories with Clover Glen resident Pat Asper during a party in Falkâ€™s honor March 7. - The Observer/Bill Rautenstrauch

After years of helping senior citizens and disabled adults in Union and Wallowa counties, Marty Falk recently decided to step down and take some time to enjoy her family.

In retirement, she plans to do some gardening, and some traveling with the her husband. And wherever she goes, she’ll take with her the memories of the many friends she’s made.

Man of many talents

February 02, 2008 01:02 pm

DEEP COVE ROOTS: Richard Thew, a man of many hats, practices hymns with his wife, Kathy, at their Cove home. - The Observer/Ethan Schowalter-Hay

Richard Thew, the venerable mayor of Cove, presides over city council meetings with a laidback air.

He’s likely to crack a joke during the proceedings with characteristic self-deprecation. When the issues demand it, he encourages lengthy discussion, valuing deliberation over rushed decision-making.

Such ease at City Hall isn’t all that surprising when one considers Thew’s been mayor for over two decades.

Clearing the way

January 19, 2008 11:59 am

MIGHTY CLOUDS: Bill Ficken's snowblower sends a plume of snow off to the side of the Tollgate Highway. When the winds aren't favorable, snowblower operators often find themselves contending with whiteouts. - The Observer/Bill Rautenstrauch

TOLLGATE — The next time you're driving in a winter storm and find yourself feeling safe — or at least safer — on highways that have been plowed, sanded, de-iced and groomed, don't take your comfort for granted.

Think about this: a lot of people put in a lot of grueling hours to make those roads passable.

Ahead of the wave

December 22, 2007 03:31 pm

Demonstrating Grande Ronde Hospital's new remote-presence robot, new mother Natasha Roba coos to her baby, Leonydis, from one room away. Besides consultations and training, an added benefit of the nearly real-time, two-way broadband connection will be the ability of local families to see those patients who have to be transferred to St. Alphonsus Hospital in Boise. - Observer photos/CHRIS BAXTER

State of the art robotic technology will be offered to area patients and nursing students as part of a partnership between Grande Ronde Hospital and St. Alphonsus Hospital in Boise.

InTouch Technologies Inc. is the California robotics technology company that designed the remote-presence robot, or RP-7, which has been "on staff" at GRH since last summer.

Life and times in the Great Depression and World War II

December 08, 2007 01:40 pm

Robert H. Wells, formerly of Union and now a resident of Los Angeles, recently published a two-volume set of remembrances of the Great Depression and World War II called "We All Have a Story to Tell." Wells solicited stories from a variety of relatives and friends, a number of whom also hail from Union. - Submitted photo

UNION — By age 24, Robert H. Wells had read nearly every book in the Union Carnegie library and held the district track record for the high hurdles for two years.

He had also spent 22 months in the Pacific Theater of World War II.

Through the eyes of grandma chipmunk

November 10, 2007 12:53 pm

HAPPY DAYS: Every day is a good day at the Chipmunk Ranch near Meacham. With the energetic and inquisitive Rowdy and Curly corralled, Charlene Davis — a.k.a. Grandma Chipmunk — poses near the entrance to the Chipmunk Ranch where they live with Charlene's husband, Walt. - The Observer/MARDI FORD

MEACHAM — Grandma Chipmunk stops on the trail in mid-stride. Stooping for a closer look, she says, "Well, look at that. That's the biggest spider I've ever seen."

Indeed. It is a big one. And fuzzy.

Her companion's obliging look-see ends with a step back and a shudder.

Caretaker by day, councilor by night

October 26, 2007 04:00 pm

UNION — It's a sunny October afternoon in Union, with ravens croaking in the cemetery trees, but Arlie Gordon, one of the town's prominent citizens, is recalling a childhood in the brushy mountains of Northern California.