Jon Pincus
After two years at Washington University in St Louis, studying 20th
Century cultural history, Jon Pincus visited Eugene in 1969, just in
time for the first Oregon Country Fair. He returned in 1970 for a year
of study at the UO plus volunteer work at the fair. "I frequented the
Odyssey Coffee House," he says, "where Bill and Cindy Wooten were
creating opportunities for community organizations like Growers' Market
and White Bird Clinic." Following his graduation from WU in 1973,
Pincus moved to Eugene, where he enrolled in a UO architecture master's
program, continued to work at the fair, and got involved in many other
community activities. "I had a mixed-media radio show one evening a
week on university station KWAX," he notes, "covering social justice
issues, art, poetry, and related music." As vice chairman of the
Westside Neighborhood Quality Project, he became aware of the WOW Hall,
the Art Deco style Woodmen of the World Lodge Hall, built in 1932, just
west of downtown, that was rented out to local performing arts groups
by the few remaining members of the lodge. When the elderly Woodmen
decided to sell the hall, Pincus took a leading role in creating the
nonprofit Community Center for the Performing Arts and organizing the
24-hour/5-day WOWATHON that raised $10,000 for a down payment in 1975.
He served as manager of the hall for most of the 1980s. "I left to
continue my work as a design consultant, focused on historical
preservation," he says. In 1996, he succeeded in having the WOW Hall
listed on the National Register of Historic Places. As a Country Fair
Elder, retired from the governing board, Pincus still puts in lots of
volunteer hours with the Site Crew.
happening people
photograph and story by Paul Neevel
Eugene Weekly /12 July 2018
|
|
archive
contact