David Dillon, Manzanita -
A retired Navy officer and former local newspaper editor, with degrees in broadcasting and business, David has dabbled with the arts since his earliest years – particularly music, photography and writing. Music lessons were followed by participation in school concert and marching bands from third grade through college. A still and motion picture aficionado, he got his first camera at age nine. Writing was essential to his career as a military public affairs officer, and he applied that talent to help start our local newspaper – The North Coast Citizen. David is a great fan of classical music – particularly Italian opera – and hopes the Hoffman Center can provide a venue for others to appreciate that art. He recognizes the value of exposure to and involvement with the arts to people of all ages – especially the young. David was a personal friend of the Hoffman Center’s namesakes – Lloyd and Myrtle Hoffman — and is married to a multi-talented artist.
Vera Wildauer, Manzanita – Wildauer spent 20 years in bank marketing, most recently as marketing director for a community bank in Everett, Washington. She has prior non-profit board experience, most notably for Bridgeways, a mental health agency, for nine years, with five years as board president and chair of the public relations committee. She is co-founder of the Manzanita Writers’ Series, a program of the Hoffman Center. Along with writing poetry and short stories, and reading at the Open Mic, she enjoys painting and photography. Wildauer moved to Manzanita full time in 2006, but has been coming here with her family regularly since 1975, all the while knowing that she would have to live here permanently someday.
Peggy Biskar, Manzanita – Peggy has spent a lifetime contemplating the importance of art in people’s lives. She started her art education career in the high school classroom and then worked as the Fine Art Specialist in the Multnomah County ESD Curriculum Department. She taught teacher in-service classes and developed art curriculum guides, lesson plans and artist-in-the-schools programs. Mid-life, Peggy went back to school at Pacific Northwest College of Art and majored in painting with a concentration in photography. Since then she has maintained a painting studio and for the past three years has been developing skills in jewelry making. She also worked at Oregon College of Art and Craft as an Admissions Officer and as the Circulation Supervisor in the Library at the College. She and her husband built a house in Manzanita in 1995 and after his death, she moved here in the spring of 2010. Peggy is particularly interested in helping the Hoffman Center further develop its adult art programs, including workshops, visiting artist talks, slide shows and demonstrations, and the establishment of a Hoffman Center gallery. She also has cataloged the books in the Hoffman Center library and will work toward making the materials available to the general public.
Sharon Borgford, Manzanita and Lake Oswego
Sharon’s grandparents were among the first homesteaders in north Lincoln County, and her earliest memories are of salt air and breezy days at the beach. She grew up in both Lincoln City and Salem and has spent most of her adult years living in Hillsboro and Lake Oswego.
With college degrees in speech pathology and audiology and in education, Sharon’s teaching career spanned nearly thirty years. She held various teaching assignments in grades one through six, retiring from Hillsboro Schools in 2005 following 17 years of teaching sixth grade.
Sharon has an enduring appreciation for what people make by hand and the endless spin that can be put on familiar materials to create something totally new. In her classroom she incorporated art throughout the curriculum on a daily basis: mask making, decorative paper techniques and book binding, ceramics, mosaics, papier-mâché, Science Design Technology, reader’s theatre, and audio and videotaping of various student presentations and performance. A past member of the Oregon Writing Project, she joined her students in their writers’ workshop. This is the setting that inspired one student to write “The Garbage Disposal and the Vacuum Cleaner,” a memorable story with a somewhat improbable title.
In 2009 Sharon and her husband Rob completed a home in Manzanita. They marvel at the array of ongoing activities in the community and look forward to continuing to take an active part in the events at the Hoffman Center.