Sam Stern « Bernard Daly's Promise

It was just four months ago when we made the first public announcement about our film project at the Lakeview Library back in November. Since then, much has happened. We’re now well into planning for on-location filming during the week of May 18^th. We’re committing to filming without having reached the April 1^st budget target we hoped for. We’re doing so because of our strong belief in the importance of this story and faith that others will join us to make it happen.

We’ll begin filming on Monday morning in Eugene at the University of Oregon Archives where we’ll film items from the Pearl Hall Collection, including some of the 48 letters written between Bernard Daly and Pearl Hall. Through these letters and Pearl Hall’s notes that she wrote for a book she hoped to write about Daly, we know more about him. Though the book was never written, her notes and first-hand accounts of Daly were of great help to me in my research and writing. We also plan to interview a couple of Daly scholarship students at the University of Oregon.

Then we’ll move to Corvallis where we’ll interview Daly scholarship students at OSU and others connected to the scholarship. After a busy day and half in Corvallis, we’ll drive to Lakeview for several days of filming interviews with high school students who have applied for the scholarship, scenes of Lakeview and the surrounding area, including ranch scenes.

It’s exciting and I hope you’ll join us in making it happen. For those of you who have been impacted by the scholarship, I hope you’ll honor Dr. Daly by “paying it forward” – that’s what Dr. Daly did more than a century ago.

You can help us bring this remarkable story to the big screen.

Make a donation (quick and convenient, but not tax-deductible) through our GoFundMe web site or a tax-deductible donation by mailing a check to the Lakeview Community Partnership, 16S S F St., Lakeview, OR 97630 with the note indicating it’s for the “Daly Fund Movie.”
Consider being an investor in the film (minimum $10K). If the film is profitable, investors will receive their initial investment plus a 20% premium and share of profits in proportion to their investment. Please contact me (sam.stern@oregonstate.edu) if you are interested in becoming an investor in the project.

Note: If the film is profitable, 10% of the profits will be given to the Daly Scholarship Fund. The names of all the donors will appear in the end credits and investors will be identified as executive producers.

Happy to report that we’re making good progress on the movie, The Daly Promise. Through donations, investments, and grants, we’ve now raised a bit more than half of our target budget of $100,000. Though we still have way to go to assure postproduction for a feature film length documentary, we’re committed to beginning production in May with on location filming in Eugene (UO Archives Pearl Hall Collection), Corvallis (interviews with Daly Scholarship students at OSU) and Lakeview (interviews with Lakeview HS students applying for the scholarship and with others connected to the scholarship).

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Much of Bernard Daly’s life seems to have happened despite great odds. He was only five when he and his family left Ireland, landing in Selma, Alabama during the Civil War. When his parents died, he lived with siblings in different parts of the country and somehow found his way into college and medical school before he finally found his home in Lakeview, Oregon where he would spend the rest of his life.

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On this day, January 5^th, Bernard Daly died on a train bound for San Francisco where he hoped to be treated by medical specialists. Daly never made it to San Francisco; he died enroute, near Livermore, California at 5:30 A.M. on Monday, January 5^th (yes, it was a Monday then too). On the following Sunday, a crowd of about 700, almost everyone who lived in or near Lakeview attended his memorial service.

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This is the earliest photo I’ve found of Bernard Daly — a good looking young man, not yet 30, with an earnest look about him. The photo was taken in 1885 when he graduated from Ohio Normal University in Ada, Ohio. Daly was attracted to Ohio Normal because of its intent to establish a medical program. Though the medical program never developed, Daly did complete the scientific program with courses in anatomy and physiology. Daly was a good student, he earned high grades and in his last year he taught the anatomy class. Disappointed that Ohio Normal did not offer a medical program, Daly went to Kentucky where he enrolled in the well-regarded University of Louisville Medical School.

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Spent day in Lakeview and night at the Lake County Library a few weeks ago. I was there for the public announcement of the feature length documentary about Bernard Daly and the impact of his remarkable scholarship. Having ridden Oregon Outback Highway 31 by bike twice, I always enjoy the drive to Lakeview from Corvallis. A mixture of memories, beautiful landscape and, as happened on my 2016 cross country bike trip, I came across a herd of cattle on the road near Fort Rock (they seemed more interested in me when I was on my bike).

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Several months ago, I got an email from Kim Waltrip, an established and successful film producer, who wanted to talk with me about making a film length documentary based on Bernard Daly’s Promise. It was a complete out-of-the-blue surprise. I’d always known that it’s a compelling story and many people had told me it would make a great movie but, I never imagined it would happen – it’s happening.

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This month is the 100^th anniversary of the Daly scholarship. It was a hundred years ago in June of 1922, when the Daly Fund trustees met in Lakeview to select the first scholarship recipients. It was a big deal then and it still is.

It’s hard to overstate the uniqueness of the Daly scholarship. Daly’s vision that not less than fifteen students would have all their expenses provided for four years of college was unusual. There was no scholarship like that in Oregon or perhaps the entire country.

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This year is the 100-year anniversary of the first awarding of the Bernard Daly scholarship. I learned about the scholarship in the early 1980s from my OSU colleague Dan Dunham, who grew up in Lakeview and received the scholarship in 1954. The story of Bernard Daly and his scholarship stuck with me and many years later at an OSU alumni gathering I attended while serving as dean of OSU’s College of Education, I met Sue (Ogle) Densmore. When Sue mentioned that she was from Lakeview, I asked about the scholarship and learned that Sue and both of her sisters had been recipients, and so were their parents, Jim and Dorothy Ogle. At the time, I was planning to step down as dean and return to a faculty position before retiring, and I was looking for a research project I could start and possibly work on in retirement. When Sue suggested I go to the annual breakfast her parents hosted at their ranch on Labor Day weekend, I jumped at the opportunity.

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For the first time in a couple of years, our family will come together this next week to celebrate the holidays. We do so with a renewed sense of the preciousness of time together, and also the nearness of tragedy. It’s especially jarring when tragedy occurs in the midst of celebration as it did on Christmas Eve in 1894 when a terrible fire occurred in the community hall on the second floor of the Chrisman general store in Silver Lake. Though it is the deadliest fire to have occurred in Oregon history, until this month it has not been included in the Oregon Encyclopedia, an authoritative and free resource on all things Oregon.

Several years ago, I added an entry on Bernard Daly, and now one on the Silver Lake Fire. Take a look at the entries and while you’re there, check out some of the other entries related to Lake County – Abert Rim, Lakeview, Reub Long, and Paisley Caves. I’m hoping others will be added in the years to come.

My best wishes to all for happy holidays and the new year, the 100-year anniversary of the first awarding of the Bernard Daly scholarship.

Note: Many thanks to Larry Landis, former OSU director of Special Collections and Archives who first encouraged me to write an entry on Bernard Daly for the Oregon Encyclopedia.

Bernard Daly's Promise

The enduring legacy of a place-based scholarship

Author Archives: Sam Stern

Belief and faith…

A progress report, more than a hundred years in the making…

Against all odds…

On this day…

Tis the season to be generous… and remember the generosity of Bernard Daly

A day in Lakeview and night at the library

An unexpected very good development…

Bernard Daly’s Promise is 100 years old this month…

A very special new year

Not to be forgotten

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