Barbara Exner Vogelsang

Barbara was a doting and loving mom of Karen Sue Vogelsang, Suzanne Lee Vogelsang and Robert Jamie Vogelsang, grandmother to Robert and Teresa's Teagan Analiese and Kiri Isabella. She was a faculty wife for thirty-five years while her husband was teaching and working as an administrator. For over twenty-five years she was an expert editor and typist of theses and dissertations at Washington State University and Portland State University. She loved this work immensely until a medical misdiagnosis took most of her sight and she could no longer continue.

She was born August 8, 1935 in Seattle, WA. To Dr. Frederick Blythe Exner and Dorothy Jane Jaeger Exner. Her father was a pioneer in early radiology work and a world authority on the issue of fluoridation. He co-authored the first scientific book on the subject. Her mother Dorothy was an expert elementary teacher whose parents owned a fishing resort in Star Lake, MN. Her father’s parents lived in Northfield, MN where her grandfather taught at Carleton College and was chair of the Department of Physics and Chemistry. Her grandmother was Hannah Longstreet Exner, first cousin to the somewhat infamous General Longstreet of the Civil War era.

During her developing years, she attended elementary school in north Seattle and attended Roosevelt High School where she was active in school activities, especially drama work. She appeared in a number of school plays in the four years at Roosevelt under expert teaching. After graduating from high school she was enrolled to attend Washington State College but by chance, one afternoon a close family friend came by for a visit and mentioned she was going to Hawaii on a teaching exchange. The friend casually mentioned that Barbara ought to go with her and her daughters. Barbara laughed and said, "I can't, I'm enrolled at WSC." Nothing more was said of the invitation but several days later her mother said she and he father had discussed it and would she like to go to the University of Hawaii. In less than a month she was admitted to the university because she had a place to live off campus. They had few accommodations for students to live on campus.

In September, 1953 she arrived in Honolulu and began classes at the main campus of the university. Her favorite coursework was drama and English -- she was quite a good actor and writer. This was where she met her future husband, Robert, who was the graduate assistant in the Theatre Department responsible for teaching the technical course work, running the theatre shop, building the sets and staging the productions. She and Robert maintained contact with their friends in the theatre group all the 51 years of their marriage. They returned to the mainland in the summer of 1954 and went to work and teaching to enable them to be married in April 1955.

They lived and taught in Santa Paula, California through the l956 school year where Robert then was accepted in the graduate program at Washington State College (then) in Speech and Theatre. During the early years in Pullman Barbara became the receptionist/secretary and librarian where she organized the first central library for the School of Veterinary Medicine. Her husband finished his master's degree in theatre, joined the faculty full-time in the department and in 1962 was accepted into the doctoral program in education on a national fellowship and completed the degree in 1965. He returned to the Speech Department where he taught for five more years when he was recruited by Portland State to interview as department head of speech. He became head of the department in 1970 and served for nine years. Barbara continued her work as thesis and dissertation typist and editor. Her knowledge and expertise was greatly appreciated by the staff in the Graduate School at PSU. Robert retired in 1990.

Six weeks after he retired Barbara came down with a back infection that was not diagnosed properly by several doctors. After three months in the hospital including rehabilitation, she was relegated to a wheelchair and legally blind where Robert became her caregiver. She adapted to 16 years in a wheelchair with courage and tenacity that many people do not have. In the last year of her life, she developed kidney failure, became a dialysis patient and in the end developed a rare condition named calciphylaxis -- which happens mostly to female dialysis patients and only 1 to 4% of them. It is a terminal condition that shuts down your circulatory system starting in your lower limbs and progressing upward. She handled this verdict with great courage and grace -- much more than some of us have -- and decided to go to hospice and discontinue dialysis. She left us at 10:50 a.m., September 6, 2006, quietly, with family and loving friends at her bedside.

My Friend: A Lesson in Courage

Barbara Vogelsang was my friend. We shared family, fun, many milestones, and grievous losses. Barbara found humor in every event, however daunting. Through her courage, love, and grace, I learned to rely on my own strength. Her determination to overcome the barriers of illness, and to leave this life on her own terms, eased the pain of those who loved her.  Barbara taught us to: 

• Never whine; but complain vigorously when necessary.

• Never cry, when laughter is a choice.

• Cry if you must, quickly and hard; then get over it.

• Live life with, and for, those you love.

Sandy K. Bradley, Kennewick, WA

Locate on Walk:

• Stage Wall (Left Wall), 2-2