Patricia Swenson

Dr. Patricia Swenson, a recognized innovator in the field of communications, is a woman who has excelled in everything she has undertaken.  She has been a friend, mentor and motivator to students she has known, to people with whom she has worked and to friends she has made.

Her educational background includes degrees from Western Washington University in Bellingham, New York University and Columbia University. Her professional career spanned the decades when she was Supervisor of radio and television for the Portland public schools and station manager for forty-six years of KBPS AM, and after 1983, KBPS FM. 

Her KBPS AM station was the only AM radio station in the country owned and operated by a school district; under her direction, it grew from a five-hour to a 12-hour licensed broadcasting day, six days a week, 48 weeks a year.  KBPS was cited nationally not only for its unique AM license, but also for its in-school instructional resource series, its broad spectrum of community-interest-centered programs, and its role in preparing students for the broadcast industry. 

The station and its students received many local and national awards, but many people would state that these awards are only a reflection of the unusual gifts of Dr. Pat Swenson.  A simple listing of her honors would fill many radio programs; among those honors are:

• She was the first woman to receive a doctorate in mass media from the Department of Educational Communications at New York University.

• She was the first woman to receive the Oregon Association of Broadcasters’ “Award for long and distinguished Service to Broadcasting” in 1968.

• She was the first charter member of Community Television, Inc.  And she is credited with drafting the document for the Federal Communications Commission concerning Portland Community Television’s historic fight to save the Portland channel for education.

• She served on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s advisory Committee on instructional stations and as chair of the Public Relations Committee for the National Public Radio Board.

• She represented the United States at the first Asian-American Broadcasters’ Conference in Honolulu. 

• She was chosen to receive the 1970 Oregon Association of Broadcasters’ Citation of Excellence and Public Service.

• She accepted the award from the Portland Beautification Association for the Public Radio Stations KBPS AM and KBPS FM “Airwaves of Exceptional Education.”

Following her retirement from KBPS in 1994, she continued her active membership in many organizations including the American Association of University Women (AAUW), the Portland Art Museum, the Oregon Historical Society, the Sullivans’ Gulch Neighborhood Association, Green Peace, and the Nature Conservancy among others.  In recent years she has been able to contribute her skills and love to an organization near to her heart, the Oregon Humane Society.   It is here she is fully engaged in working for the animals of Oregon.

Yet it is through her students and friends that Dr. Swenson’s contributions are truly recognized.  Many students today remember their past participation in on-air math and spelling competitions that were part of the radio’s instructional programming.   Many students will also recall their participation in the radio station’s live drama presentations that were fairytale adaptations and original dramas as well as their participation in on-air interviews – all a part of the School District’s language arts learning resources emphasis.  Students also trained in broadcasting at KBPS AM, learning the skills necessary to move on into the commercial broadcasting arena.

Dr. Swenson also reached out to the community forming an Advisory Council to expand the community’s awareness of KBPS AM and KBPS FM.  This Council formed the basis for the KBPS Foundation and its Board that purchased KBPS FM from the Portland Public School District and is active and flourishing today.  Without her guidance, leadership and love of learning, we would not have this unique resource in our community today. 

And I, as the proposer of Dr. Patricia Swenson for Portland’s Walk of the Heroines, am honored to have been a friend and mentee of this remarkable woman.

Written by Bonnie Schlieman, with notes provided by Rebecca Lowe Warren