HERMISTON LOOKS FOR WIN AGAINST WALLA WALLA | PAGE A10
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2019
INSIDE
ELECTIONS
Dan Dorran of Hermiston
is the fi rst to throw his hat
in the ring for the 2020
Umatilla County Board of
Commissioners race.
PAGE A3
HermistonHerald.com
$1.50
Farewell to a watermelon king
Skip Walchli is remembered
as a generous, hard-working
pioneer of Hermiston
BY JADE MCDOWELL NEWS EDITOR
POWER UP
C
linton Patrick “Skip”
Walchli was a hum-
ble man, but his water-
melons
spoke
for
themselves.
Walchli, who died at his Herm-
iston home on Friday at the age of
80, started growing watermelons
after taking out a bank loan to start
his own farm at the age of 17. Over
the next 63 years his famously
sweet, juicy watermelons helped
put Hermiston on the map.
His family says the last week
of his life he was still involved in
running the farm, asking his sons
for details about what was going
on in the fi eld.
“He retired last Friday,” said
Curtis Pederson, Walchli’s his son-
in-law. “He wasn’t going to quit.”
Walchli and his wife, Sherry,
raised seven children at their home
on Loop Road, behind the sheds
where Hermiston residents fl ock
to buy watermelons fresh off the
vine each summer. There was also
always a steady fl ow of people
coming to visit with Walchli.
His daughter, Sherie Britt,
described her dad as a “magnet”
who loved to be surrounded by
friends and family.
“The night he passed, probably
100 people came through to see
him,” she said.
He was a smart business owner
whose conservative spending
kept the farm afl oat through hard
economic times, Britt said. He
expanded his crops over the years
to include everything from peppers
to asparagus, and his world-fa-
mous watermelons are sold across
the country.
“He never did learn to use a
computer,” she said. “He ran his
farm in his head.”
Pederson said his father-in-
law had a bit of a gruff exterior
but once people got past that he
was extremely generous. He qui-
etly supplied free watermelons to
a long list of events, from church
picnics to service club fundraisers,
throughout his life.
“He would give them a rough
fi ve minutes, make them sweat,
then give them twice or three times
what they asked for,” he said.
Bob Walchli said he never saw
his dad say no when asked to help
someone. The Walchli kids learned
the value of hard work on the farm,
but Skip also doted on his chil-
dren, pretending to grumble when
they picked up expensive hobbies
like barrel racing but always track-
ing their progress with pride.
He frequently took a truckful
Hermiston’s electric
utilities try new strategies
for reducing power
outages.
PAGE A14
SWIMMING
Hermiston School District
second graders got free
swimming lessons last
week.
PAGE A15
BY THE WAY
More road
construction
Hermiston Avenue is
back open after a month
of closure, but work has
begun on a new city street
project.
Beginning next week
and continuing through
Oct. 11, crews will be
working to resurface West
Highland Avenue between
Southwest 11th Street and
Southwest 15th Place,
and West Harper Road
between Highway 395
and Northwest Geer Road.
Drivers can expect tempo-
rary closures during the
three-week process.
• • •
The Good Shepherd
Women’s Clinic has hired
a second midwife.
Cynthia Rice, a certi-
fi ed nurse midwife, comes
to Hermiston from Geor-
gia. She has seven years of
experience as a registered
nurse and a master of sci-
ence in nurse-midwifery
from Frontier Nurs-
ing University in Hyden,
Kentucky.
She said in a news
release that she was
inspired to become a
midwife after a midwife
helped her through the
birth of her second and
third children after a “very
traumatic” birth experi-
ence with her fi rst child.
She said she is excited
to work with the team
Contributed photo by the Walchli family
Top: Skip Walchli in his younger
years. Bottom: Walchli
See BTW, Page A2
See FAREWELL, Page A16
District sees little variation in test scores
By JESSICA POLLARD
STAFF WRITER
T
8
08805 93294
2
he Oregon Department of
Education released results of
Smarter Balanced test scores
from the 2018-2019 year, and state-
wide, less than half of all students
are up to par when it comes to math
profi ciency at their grade level
and almost 60% demonstrate pro-
fi ciency when it comes to reading
and writing.
Scores show 53.4% of Oregon
students were profi cient in English
language arts this year, by Smarter
Balanced standards, a 1.5% drop
from a year ago, and they’re 39.4%
profi cient in math, one point lower
than last year.
Students are tested in grades
three through eight, and as high
school juniors. The department
of education says the results pro-
vide a snapshot of student progress.
But ODE notes that this is just one
assessment and should be taken in
context with other data points.
“It shouldn’t be the only thing
we’re looking at,” ODE Direc-
tor Colt Gill told Oregon Public
Broadcasting.
This year, the results hold a little
more weight than usual. State offi -
cials expect the data to help districts
fi gure out how to spend some of the
money from the new business tax
for schools, called the Student Suc-
cess Act.
With the exception of a few ups
and downs, Umatilla County’s big-
gest districts seem to be maintaining
See TEST, Page A16
HH fi le photo
Instructor Kendra Scott asks her students to name things they are thankful
for during class in November 2018 at Rocky Heights Elementary School in
Hermiston.