Story by Alison Lasher
Photo by Anna Shepherd
Ralph Erwin remembers the time a few years ago when he was making copies in the Grant High School office. It was late in the evening, but he wanted to get some of his volunteer duties taken care of.
The principal at the time popped her head in the door and was startled to see Erwin still at school. As they talked, the principal admitted that it had taken her six weeks to realize that Erwin wasn’t a school employee because he was always in classrooms, at sports and theater events, and at dances.
Ralph Erwin, 69, has been a regular face in the halls of Grant since the early 1990s. He is easily one of Grant’s most devoted volunteers, and he does it because he enjoys the company of young people.
Ask him if he has any grandchildren at the school and he’ll say: “1,600.”
As an adolescent, Erwin suffered from the usual teenage angst. “I didn’t have a lot of friends,” he recalls. “I was definitely not a socialite.”
Erwin often felt the pressure from his parents to be active in sports and do well in school. As a child growing up in New Mexico, he remembers tossing around a baseball with his dad and getting hit in the face with the ball. The bloody nose that ensued was just another reminder that Erwin was not an athlete. He was more interested in photography and music.
Just out of high school, Erwin considered becoming a teacher. He started taking classes at the local community college, but he never graduated because he had to work at his father’s race track. He later got a job at the El Paso electric company. He married and started a family.
When his sons, Ross and Rees, went to Coronado High School, Erwin got involved there. Rees Erwin was a member of the 230-person marching band. Ralph Erwin helped out as the “equipment chairman,” handling the instruments and marching behind the band in parades.
When Rees graduated in 1985, Erwin’s world began to unravel. His wife divorced him and a year later he was diagnosed with bladder and prostate cancer. He visited the Northwest, traveling to Seattle to visit Rees who was stationed in the U.S. Coast Guard. He loved the scenery and decided to make a move.
When he arrived in Portland, he missed having a connection with teens. On a whim, he attended a Grant Booster Club picnic. He met the school band director at the time and has volunteer ever since.
He’s been active in the PTA, music departments and the boosters. He has chaperoned at dances, sold tickets and acted as security at sports events. Occasionally, he helps out in classrooms.
Doree Jarboe, the school’s former choral director, swears that Erwin is “Grant’s biggest treasure. He gives of himself for the students, not for personal gain.”
These days, Erwin is not able to volunteer in the capacity that he once did due to health problems. Last year, Erwin had a valve replaced in his heart, and his doctors discouraged him from volunteering. He convinced his doctors to let him continue helping in the music department, but he had to give up many of his other commitments.
Being on the fringe when he was a teen helps Erwin connect with Grant students that he sees struggling in similar social situations. “I did have some growing up difficulties, so I can see the kids who are having troubles of their own,” he says.
Over the years, Erwin has used his photography skills and taken thousands of pictures of students.
Grant principal Vivian Orlen decided she wanted to use his photographs to create a tribute in center hall. At first, Erwin was hesitant, insisting that his pictures were probably not that good because he was not a professional.
“Ralph,” Orlen insisted, “I have a feeling that your photos are going to be beautiful.”
