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The Scott Fairley Memorial Scholarship Fund provides tuition for undergraduate students from Eastern Oregon University to participate in the Urban and Rural Ambassadors Summer Institute, a partnership of Portland State University and Eastern Oregon University.
The Urban Rural Ambassador’s Institute is a collaboration between Eastern Oregon University and Portland State University, in partnership with the National Policy Consensus Center and the Rural Engagement and Vitality Center. In 2024, the class will include a weekend-long residential field trip to La Grande and a weekend-long residential field trip to Portland as well as several online sessions with guest speakers and activities to complement the field outings.
Scott Fairley was a long-time resident of Pendleton, Oregon. He graduated from Pendleton High School before attending the University of Oregon. For more than twenty years, he was a dedicated public servant, and as a Pendleton City Councilor, he was a strong advocate for establishing goals to drive and measure progress and improvement. He had a reputation for being energetic, committed, forward-thinking, and unafraid to take on hard issues. He died unexpectedly on January 7, 2020, at the age of 53.
At the time of his death, Fairley was serving the fourth year of his first term on the Pendleton City Council and was regional development officer for Business Oregon. Before that he did public affairs work for the Oregon Department of Transportation, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and later for the Governor’s Office as eastern region coordinator. Fairley had also served on several public and community committees over the years including the Planning Commission, Airport Commission, Budget Committee, Farmers Market, and Youth Soccer Association.
Those who worked closely with Fairley knew well his advocacy for eastern Oregon, whether it was through his work as a state employee or his time on the city council. He was known as a collaborator with an uncommon ability to bring people together on divisive issues. He took his positivity, combined with his breadth of knowledge, to bridge discussions in Salem often for the good of communities of Eastern Oregon.
As a city councilor, Fairley built bonds with all of Pendleton’s residents and across government, nonprofit, and public sectors. He was a devoted family man and lover of the outdoors, remembered by his community as having also devoted his life to making Pendleton a better place to live.
The memorial fund is a fitting tribute to a public servant who understood rural and urban issues and served the public across the state. Nathan Lowe, Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Eastern Oregon University writes:
“I think a memorial for Scott that provides scholarships for the Urban Rural Ambassadors Summer Institute is a good match in light of what Scott did in his life. We will honor Scott’s legacy in eastern Oregon by continuing to develop a meaningful and impactful program. The response we hear from students who take the course is that it far exceeds their expectations, and that it has led them to better appreciate the nuances and complexities of diverse communities in the state. This scholarship fund will support more students in building bridges of understanding across the state.”
To make a donation online, visit the Eastern Oregon University Foundation donation page.
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For more information contact the Eastern Oregon University Foundation directly at:
Phone: 541-962-3013E-mail: foundation@eou.edu