Amasa Gilman

Amasa Gilman saw school as a place to build a child’s self-esteem, and with that philosophy he became a beloved educator at a revolutionary Portland public school. He sought to give students and teachers the opportunity to develop their creativity by breaking the bounds of a traditional classroom. Once he left his role as principal, his free spirit continued to push him as an artist, and he lived the lessons he preached during his career as an educator.

Amasa was born in Denver, Colorado, on March 20, 1922. He moved with his family to Riddle in southwestern Oregon, where his father ran a car repair garage. After high school Amasa moved to California to work with an aviation company, but soon transferred to England during World War II to serve as an airplane mechanic for the U.S. Air Force. While in England, Amasa met and married his first wife, Dorothy, and had his first daughter, Loraine, before moving back to Oregon after the war. He graduated from Southern Oregon University (then Southern Oregon College) and moved from life as a mechanic into education, where he became determined to bring a student-driven style to the classroom.

Amasa served as a fifth- and sixth-grade teacher in the Portland school system before eventually becoming a principal. His classroom became an inspiration for his daughter Loraine, who grew up to become an elementary school teacher.

“It was fun,” she said of his classroom. “His emphasis was science and social studies, and he made it really fun. His kids all seemed to really like him a lot.” Those who knew him described him as reserved, with a strong presence.

In 1968, Amasa worked with teachers to create and then become principal of the Metropolitan Learning Center. The center was a revolutionary concept, a K-12 school in which the traditional letter grading system was nowhere to be found.

He literally took the door to his office off its hinges, to create the kind of openness among students, teachers and administrators he hoped the school would facilitate. The experience as the center’s principal was the “highlight of his work,” according to Eva Gilman, his second wife.

“When he was a kid, he didn’t have a happy time at school,” she said. “Going to the principal’s office was like going to the executioner’s office. He wanted no child to ever experience that.”

Under Amasa’s leadership, the school quickly developed an extensive waiting list of students trying to get in. The school gained a reputation for its relaxed climate—but the stress of challenging the status quo took a toll on its principal.

“He ended up with bleeding ulcers for a while and had to slow down,” Eva Gilman said. “It’s easier to go along but he was one who stuck his neck out.”

In 1976, Amasa’s term as principal came to a close when the public school administration transferred him to a new location with the hope he could bring the same atmosphere to a different school.

This decision was met with anger at MLC, as students and teachers protested the decision outside the facility with pickets and signs.

“Kids were really involved because they loved Amasa,” John Morrison, a teacher at MLC from 1973 to 1978, said of the protest. “They didn’t want to see him go.”

Amasa, who had separated from his first wife in the 1960s, met Eva, a native of Sweden, in 1975, and the couple married the following year. He served short stints as principal in two elementary schools over the next two years, but did not believe his style fit well there.

He retired in 1978, and he and Eva moved to Hawaii, where he owned three acres of land. “This is the kind of stuff Amasa got into,” Eva said. In Oregon, "we would come home from work, and he would say, ‘Let’s go to San Francisco. Now.’ And we’d get in the car and go. He was always saying yes to things.”

For the next two years, the couple lived in a van with a bed inside while building a home meant to resemble the Great Pyramid of Giza. "Amasa had a great passion for ancient Egypt," Eva said. "He had this dream of building a pyramid house, which is what we did. I was always in awe of his abilities."

In retirement, Amasa drew on his background in metal work during his years as an airplane mechanic to develop as an artist. He used his skills as a welder to create metal sculptures of birds, horses, and other animals, as well as jewelry. He sold his artwork at a Portland Saturday Market hut called The Phoenix. He and Eva moved to a home in Tigard in 1985, after two years of traveling in their van to each state in the continental U.S. After five years operating the hut, he opened his art shop, also called The Phoenix, in Multnomah Village, where he continued to create pieces with a Native American style.

For the final 15 years of his life Amasa struggled with debilitating neuropathy, and had to close the store.

He died on Dec. 29, 2012, at age 90. He was survived by his wife, Eva, of Tigard; daughters from his first marriage, Loraine Cruz of Tualatin and Melody Gilman-Frederick of Portland (husband, Lew); four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren; former wife, Dorothy; and nieces and nephews. A gathering to celebrate Amasa's life was held on Feb. 17, 2013, at MLC.

"Mr Gilman was my 6th grade teacher at Glencoe Grade School. He was my favorite teacher of all time. He woke me up to learning! What an incredible man." —Carol (White) Mills, from an online remembrance

"[A]fter witnessing, though I had not thought it possible, a cutthroat game of four-square, I faced my final assignment: back to the office to meet the Principal. I was ushered into his private office. He rose to shake my hand, the first person ever to do so. I looked up, way up, and couldn’t believe my eyes. This lunatic asylum was run by Cary Grant. I witnessed him many times working undercover as Amasa Gilman, surrounded and vastly outnumbered by students outraged at policy, at the School Board, at the irreconciliation of relativity and quantum theory, situations that he relished and handled with aplomb." —Tim McDevitt, from his reminiscence in MLC's 50th Anniversary publication

"The MLC family continues to touch lives across the globe, exactly as he'd hoped." —from Amasa's online obituary

AMASA GILMAN was MLC'S founding principal. Emil Abramovic and Abe Bialostosky sought support for their and Helen Abramovic's 1967 proposal for a new alternative school, and began negotiating with the Portland Public School system where both teachers worked. In 1968 focus fell on the existing Couch School in northwest Portland to become the new school's home. That's where Amasa was already principal. Undoubtedly his standing interest in student-driven education was instrumental in shepherding MLC toward Couch—and toward reality! Amasa was principal until Spring 1976.

The following portrait is slightly adapted from the February 2013 story by Danny Moran of Oregonlive.com.