4 CLACKAMAS PRINT-APRIL 15,2015
Remembering Rizzo
by Katie Archer & Lily Shaver
He left a legacy that will be near Im
possible to duplicate and his friendship
will never be replaced.
On Saturday, March 21, Clackamas
Community College lost manufacturing
instructor Chris Rizzo in a motorcycle
accident. Those w ho knew him know
they’ve lost a friend, a great teacher and
so much more.
“Chris loved to tell a good story,” said
English instructor Amanda Coffey. “He
was a great speaker, he told jokes, he
made everybody laugh cause he was
such a great guy. Comfortable with him
self, made everybody relax."
Coffey m et Rizzo w hile w orking on
the faculty senate, which represents and
supports the fac
ulty at CCC. She
had known him
for about a year.
“ He was th e
kind o f guy w ho
m ade you feel
like you’d known
him fo r a really
long tim e ,” said
Coffey. When she left the campus late at
night, Rizzo would walk her to her car.
Michelle Meyer, administrative coor
dinator, said, “He would look at you like
you were the only person in the room,”
when describing w hat it is was like to
talk w ith Rizzo.
“He brought a lot of energy and made
me excited to be there,” said Buck Rich a
former student turned teacher’s assistant
and lab instructor at CCC. While he was
a student, Rich liked to be the center of
attention and would sit in the back row.
“Chris d id n ’t like having to walk all
around the desks and so he would jum p
over the other computers and desks be
cause it was quicker to get to the back
row where I was at,” said Rich. “And that
was his little Rizzo Route that he would
take. So that was in the first week, and
I knew right away, like, ‘cool this guy is
willing to jum p over desks for people,’
you know?”
Fellow instructors Bob DelGatto and
Wes Locke described Rizzo as an inno
vator, someone who had to be on the
cutting edge of everything and liked to
push the envelope.
“If he were to read a sale brochure that
he thought probably wouldn’t work, he
would want to try it and see if the tool
breaks,” said Locke.
Although Rizzo was competitive and
accomplished many things, he didn’t
have an ego.
“I mean it was really amazing,” said
DelGatto. “That was one of the things
about Chris, and we kind of discovered
this with his folks. His folks didn’t really
know a lot o f w hat Chris had accom
plished because Chris doesn’t brag. He
doesn’t talk about himself.”
“I feel sad for students who won’t have
the chance to have a class with him,” said
DelGatto. He remembered a student who
spoke at the memorial service w ho
talked about Rizzo’s com petitive
jj
nature on the
?
race track,
b u t w hen
jHH
he cam e iH H
in to th e
classroom,
he left the
c o m p e t
itiv e n e s s
at
th e
door. Rizzo was concerned
with the success of students
and didn’t w ant to be the
reason his students w eren’t
successful.
Craig Anderson, manufac
turing and pre-engineering in
structor, said, “He was dedicat
ed to teaching, he would even
be here [CCC] on weekends.”
David Ward, solid m odeling
CDT 108a instructor, said, “Chris
had a lot of students who really,
really loved him.”
“Everybody really looked for
ward to taking his classes, they
would be like ‘I’m in Chris Rizzo’s
class, alright!’ You know, they were
really excited about it.”
CCC student Matt Eastman
Said, “He was a real great guy
and he was a CNC wizard...He
seemed kinda scatter-brained
when I first met him, but when
he started to talk about some-
' V 1
thing it was like reading a dictio
nary. All kinds of information just spilled
out."
Rizzo advanced the program and pro
vided opportunities for students. Looking
“ People that knew
Chris are going to
miss him.”
-Craig Anderson
Manufacturing instructor Chris Rizzo demonstrates using equipment in the Barlow building.
ahead, those in the manufacturing de
partment know that Rizzo’s talent, per
sonality and genuine care for students
can never be replaced.
“People that knew Chris are going to
miss him,” said Anderson.
A memorial scholarship is being set
up in memory of Rizzo. Donations can
be made at https://give.clackamas.edu/
ChristopherRizzo#.VSsGOZTF97x.