Past SOU President James K. Sours dies

Past President James K. Sours

Friends and colleagues of James K. Sours say the Rogue Valley lost a legend when the former Southern Oregon University president died Saturday at age 79.

"I think he was the most brilliant man I ever had the privilege of working with," said SOU Professor Ernest Ettlich.

Sours was hired by SOU, then called Southern Oregon College, because of his ability to look beyond the local view — both geographically and politically, said Ettlich.

"His ability to quickly analyze situations and his keen insights — both academic and administrative — stood us all in good stead during one of the university’s most difficult presidencies," said Ettlich, who came to SOU in 1978 and was interim president in the late 1980s.

Sours served as president from August 1969 to December 1978. Ettlich said the early ’70s brought a conservative backlash against the turbulent ’60s. For the first time since World War II, a university president had to deal with a faculty and student body upset over the ramifications of diminishing funding and mandatory downsizing, said Ettlich.

"It took a heavy toll on him," said Ettlich. "He tried to lead us through a culture of expansion to a culture of downsizing without doing permanent and irreparable damage to the school for the future."

At the same time budgets were being slashed, Sours was taking the university "from a teachers’ prep college to a liberal arts college," said Ettlich.

Sours gave faculty and student senates a strong voice in the process while maintaining a strong leadership position, Ettlich said.

In a letter to students and faculty, SOU President Elisabeth Zinser wrote that Sours "earned a lasting legacy" for his many campus improvements and for establishing SOU’s relationship with Dankook University, its sister university in Seoul, Korea.

Zinser, who is out of town, also praised Sours for actively supporting students’ right to protest during the Vietnam War. She lauded his efforts to enable free speech and open debate, and his "assembly with students and campus community to mourn the tragic killing of student protesters at Kent State University in 1970."

Terrie Claflin was a student at SOU from 1975 to 1979. She was the editor of the college paper, the Siskiyou, during her sophomore year and was an intern for the Mail Tribune during her junior and senior years. She later worked as a reporter for the Mail Tribune for several years and taught journalism classes at SOU.

Claflin said she had many challenging interviews with Sours.

"He was incredibly wise and very patient," she said. "Sometimes we’d respectfully agree to disagree. But the students appreciated him so much."

In fact, said Claflin, the students took Sours on an impromptu rafting trip upon his retirement.

"It was just poor college students, some rafts and coolers full of beer," said Claflin. "But whenever I would see him (in later years), he’d always tell me, ‘That was the best day of my life.’ "

In addition to several other academic honors, Sours held a doctorate in political science from Harvard University. Before his tenure in Ashland, Sours was the honorary Fulbright visiting professor at the University of Istanbul, Turkey. Sours pushed for SOU to be deeply involved in fostering foreign studies in France, Japan, Mexico, England, Germany and Korea.

"His greatest joy was the international program," Ettlich said.

After retiring, Sours became the development consultant for Dankook University.

Sours was in Korea during the 1979 assassination of President Park Chung-hee, which took place within months after Sours accepted his new post. He wrote several firsthand accounts for the Mail Tribune as martial law settled in upon Korea.

His list of accomplishments and interests span the arts as well as academia. Sours and his wife, Alice, served on many committees, commissions and boards including the Britt Festivals and the Oregon Shakespearean Festival.

Sours died at his home outside Medford.

He is survived by his wife Alice, who lives with their daughter, Jan Martin, in Jacksonville. He is also survived by two sons, David of Medford, and Jim of Albuquerque, N.M.

A memorial service is being planned by the university and will be held at a date to be arranged in January.

Litwiller-Simonsen of Ashland is in charge of arrangements.