Trail of names shows war toll

TRIB TOWN • Chalk in hand, professor writes to honor U.S. sacrifices

By todd murphy

The Portland Tribune, Sep 4, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (2 Reader comments)

From downtown to Northeast Alberta Street, Marylhurst University professor Nancy Hiss writes the names of U.S. soldiers who’ve died in Iraq. She says she won’t stop till the deaths do.

JIM CLARK / TRIBUNE PHOTOS

McLaughlin. Gann. Gettings. Hecker. Lopez-Reyes. Mariano. McGurdy.

The names, written big and bold in colored chalk, snake along the sidewalk on the north side of Alberta Street in Northeast Portland. “Gann” is almost worn away. “Gettings” is partially covered by a Dumpster.

But the names continue on down the sidewalk, as certain as the traffic whizzing by along Alberta.

And a couple blocks down the street, on her knees, chalk in hand early on this bright weekday morning, is Nancy Hiss. She’s director of the interior design program at Marylhurst University, and she’s been doing this since Memorial Day.

For an hour every weekday morning, and for several hours on the weekends, she’s been on her hands and knees. She’s snailed her way from downtown Portland across the Steel Bridge, up Martin Luther King Boulevard and now Alberta Street. Chalking the last names of the U.S. and coalition soldiers who’ve died in Iraq.

She’s chalked a few more than 2,300 names so far. She’s up to the deaths of January 2006, and plans to continue until she’s written all the names. And then keep up with the deaths.

“I guess it grew out of frustration and guilt,” Hiss says of her decision to begin drawing the names. “It feels right. It feels like I’m finally doing something.”

Hiss says she opposes the United States’ involvement in Iraq. But, she says, her project is not so much about opposing the war as about honoring sacrifice. And forcing people to remember.

“These people are giving everything,” Hiss says. “And I know, personally, my life is virtually untouched by this war. Essentially, as a nation, we are not touched by this. Nobody’s sacrificing anything except a few people who are sacrificing an awful lot. And I think if this was more shared, things would be different.”

Hiss started her drawings on Memorial Day in front of the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse on Southwest Third Avenue downtown. On most mornings and weekends, she’s been joined by her husband, Dan Berkman. On many days, she’s also been aided by a volunteers who help fill in the Hiss-drawn outlines of the letters with chalk. Some days, a handful of people have helped. On one Saturday in June, there were 15.

Everyone has their own reasons for helping, Hiss says.

She asked one older German woman at the end of a long Saturday why she was helping, Hiss says. The woman told her how “at the end of World War II, Hitler went into the classrooms and sent all the boys to the Eastern Front. ‘My brothers were sent to the Eastern Front,’ ” Hiss remembers the woman telling her. “ ‘And then they were captured and worked in the mines under Stalin. I’m doing it for them.’ ”

On a good day, Hiss and crew draw around 18 names and cover more than a block.

But the chalked names often don’t last long, worn away by foot traffic, or washed away.

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