2 Winter 2019 Applegater
OBITUARY
Thomas Franklin Klinefelter II
November 25, 1949 - October 25, 2019
There is no greater honor than to be
his son, enjoy the memories we made, and
embody him. Tom made patience look
easy and lived with strict intention. As a
result he was a pillar of strength for the
people of his global community.
We can only hint at the Joy, Talent and
Love he shared. He leaves behind many
broken hearts, yet there is no shame in
his passing.
Sebastian Klinefelter
sebastian@excavationoregon.com
Mitakuye Oyasin
by Tom Klinefelter
There was never a time
When I did not exist
Nor you…you know it’s true
Nor will there be any future
in which we shall cease
to be…so let it be
A true renaissance man—an engineer,
electrician, poet, and writer. Musician,
pilot, chef, photographer, actor, athlete,
and martial artist. Survivalist, mountaineer.
Counselor, teacher, political/environmental
activist, healer, and farmer. Tom Klinefelter
was an expert on life and could
master anything he chose to.
Dear family and friends—
we are all one family
Please dance when I die
I want you to smile and dance
when I die…No sad eye
I wish for you to sing and party
Laugh until you cry
A nyone who knew my father, Tom
Klinefelter, will tell you that he was a
rare and extraordinary person, but to
say he will be missed or remembered is
not enough. The reach of his influence
knew no limits, and, despite his death,
he continues to inspire and guide us. This
was a man who passed from this place
with tremendous dignity and grace, on
his own terms.
Please don’t hesitate—
cause I’m the one that’s free
So let’s all celebrate
my liberation from me.
I love you all!
—Space Elk
Farewell
Janis Mohr-Tipton retiring?
Say it’s not true!
BY THALIA TRUESDELL
The official grand
Janis Mohr-Tipton.
opening of the new
The name is synonymous
Ruch Branch Library was
with “librarian” and
January 2, 2003, and
“community volunteer
the staff rejoiced at the
extraordinaire,” right?
bright new windows
The latter still holds true,
and open spaces. Janis
but Janis retired from the
worked tirelessly with
Jackson County Library
Ruch School about how
Services (JCLS) this fall,
to use this valuable new
after spending almost
resource—a library next
30 years in an active
door! She continued
role managing Ruch
working shortened hours
Branch Library, providing
at Ruch Library while also
programming and
managing the Central
events for her community,
Point Branch. In the fall
tirelessly campaigning
of 2008 Janis left Ruch
and fundraising to
Library to begin doing
rebuild our libraries,
book talks at Jackson
and raising her family
County libraries, sharing
in the Applegate. Janis
enthusiasm with school
has always been active in
local organizations and in
Volunteer extraordinaire Janis students about new and
building community. She
Mohr-Tipton, in costume as interesting books they
was an active 4-H leader
Madeline, the young storybook would enjoy.
Janis continues
for many years, helped
character, for Halloween at
establish the most recent
Ruch Library around 2000. as a volunteer in the
SMART Program at
Upper Applegate Grange,
Ruch Outdoor Community School
and has a green thumb up to her elbow.
Janis volunteered with Ruch Library and works with the Applegate Partnership
for several years and became Ruch Branch and Watershed Council to educate
Supervisor in 1992. At that time there schoolchildren about the life cycle of
was a committee of dreamers, called the salmon. She is also on the board of A
Applegate Valley Community Center- Greater Applegate and chair of its Cantrall
Library, who knew the time had come Buckley Park Enhancement Program. She
for a new library. Janis helped keep that was instrumental in the construction of
group grounded, and the center-library the new sundial at the park and all the
ended up merging with the Friends of educational signage.
The Friends of Ruch Library are
the Library in 1994, a move that gave
strength to the grassroots push from this fortunate to count Janis as a board
community for a new library. Fundraising member, but we’re going to miss her at
efforts followed, including Applegate the library.
Thalia Truesdell • 541-899-7438
Valley Days, bake sales, miles of pennies,
Ruch Library Branch Manager
book sales, and more, always with Janis
Jackson County Library Services
at the helm.
to Barbara Holiday
When Barbara Holiday announced
at the October board meeting that she
would be leaving the Applegater as its
editor and a board member, we were
stunned. The Applegater without Barbara?!
Unimaginable. Inconceivable. But actually,
of course, in the end, inevitable. She wasn’t
going to go on forever, though we in our
complacency at having such a good editor
hadn’t been thinking about an end date.
To say we are going to miss Barbara is
only to scratch the surface. She has been
the mainstay of this paper for 14 years. She
has overseen articles, making sure every
sentence in every article is grammatically
correct and syntactically graceful. She has
been adamant about giving priority to
contributions from the community and
letting all voices be heard. The Applegater
is visually attractive because of her layouts.
She has supervised our ad reps. She does
all the interaction with the printer, and
it was she who suggested we use a higher
quality paper and more color pages. She
works like a Trojan for our fundraisers.
She got us started on our book projects.
She has done so much for the Applegater
it would take half this page to tell it all.
And Barbara wouldn’t allow that. In her
eyes the Applegater’s first function is for the
members of the community.
We have so much to thank her for.
As sorry as we are to see Barbara go (the
next issue will be her last), we understand
what she meant when she said, “I want
a life.” She has put her life into the
Applegater, and the whole community of
the Applegate is the better for it. We will
all miss her. We on the board send her off
with hugs and kisses, a thousand thanks,
and best wishes for life after Applegater.
Applegater Board of Directors
Diana Coogle, David Dobbs, Paul Fattig
Jeannette LeTourneux, Cathy Rodgers
— Employment opportunity —
Editor in chief
Applegater Newsmagazine
Applegate Valley Community Newspaper, Inc., seeks a part-time editor in chief
to manage production of its quarterly 24-page newsmagazine, the Applegater. The
editor is paid as an independent contractor; benefits are not included. The editor
is required by corporate bylaws to sit on the board of directors as a volunteer and
attend monthly board meetings in the Applegate Valley.
See more information, including responsibilities
and requirements, on page 19.
Aaron Krikava joins the
Applegater Team
We l c o m e , A a ro n
Krikava, to the Editorial
Committee of the
Applegater!
Aaron was born in
Arkansas and raised in
upstate New York and
suburban Philadelphia.
He attended Fordham
University, in New York
City, where he earned a
BS in chemistry with a
minor in psychology.
After a brief stint
in the pharmaceutical
industry he decided to heed the deep
calling he felt to leave the east coast and
explore the rugged natural beauty of the
Pacific Northwest. In 2004 he arrived
in the “gorgeous” Little Applegate River
drainage for an agricultural internship
on an organic farm and ranch. He was
immediately taken with the incredible
beauty and natural diversity of the
Applegate area, as well as the kindness and
warmth of the local community. Working
on a forest restoration crew introduced
him to the concepts of ecological natural
resource management, and he was
hooked. He is currently developing a local
prescribed burning program to increase
the use of controlled burning on both
private and public lands
in the Applegate and
surrounding areas.
While co-owning
an Applegate-based
ecological restoration
crew, he joined the
board of the Applegate
Par tnership and
Watershed Council as
a way to contribute
h i s k n ow l e d g e a n d
experience to the land
management of the
greater Applegate area.
Aaron believes deeply that the volunteer
efforts of local residents are vital to a
healthy rural community. He has found
that communicating regionally important
information across a diverse social and
geographic region like the Applegate Valley
is a complex and difficult task and that
small local newspapers like the Applegater
have an unmatched ability to do just that.
He is honored to help support those efforts
by joining the Editorial Committee.
Note: The Editorial Committee
reviews all submitted articles each issue for
appropriateness, clarity, and factualness.
Other members are Tom Carstens, Diana
Coogle, Barbara Holiday, Sandy Shaffer,
and Greeley Wells.
