Cal Poly’s vice president for university advancement and former Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Sandra Gardebring Ogren died after a nine year battle with a rare form of cancer. She died July 20 at the age of 63.
Ogren served in an interim capacity as the university’s vice president for university advancement for two years and was given the permanent position in 2006. She retired from Cal Poly last month, where she was responsible for starting and organizing the Cal Poly Foundation, helped in the advocacy program for the Center for Science and Mathematics and worked closely with each college in organizing fundraising for advancement, President Warren Baker said.
“She was a terrific vice president for advancement,” Baker said. “She was a very articulate spokesperson for the university and assisted me in many areas that had to deal with public relations, raising private funds or community relations.”
Ogren was a very charming, smart and helpful woman that made friends for the university very easily, Baker said. Her depth of knowledge, ability to work well with everyone and positive outlook will make her hard to replace, he said.
“She was an excellent communicator and very engaging. She had impeccable integrity,” Baker said.
Ogren hosted foundation board members that came to campus to get ideas about advancement for Cal Poly, he said.
Chip Visci, associate vice president for strategic communications, knew Ogren very well from work but also was close friends with her in the community.
“She was just so full of life and truly cared about others,” Visci said. “She had good insights into problems and she kept everything in good perspective.”
Visci remembered when Ogren invited him and his wife to a Christmas gathering during his first year living in San Luis Obispo. Ogren and her husband, Paul, suddenly brought out gifts for people, and Visci expected the gifts to be a stocking-stuffer type deal, he said.
“She gave me a book that I had mentioned I was interested in,” he said. “She had remembered it over the course of the year and took the time to wrap it and place it under the tree. She did it for me and about 35 other people.”
Visci said Ogren was generous and very thoughtful and “a lot of fun to be around,” Visci said.
Ogren battled a rare form of cancer for nine years, although Baker and Visci both said she was always well composed.
“You would never know she was having any problems,” Baker said. “She was always very positive and optimistic and had a lot of energy as well.”
The cancer was a private thing for Ogren, Visci said. She was a very strong person.
“Nobody knew it was an ongoing battle until about a year ago when she started chemotherapy,” Visci said.
Ogren was truly a woman of substance, really bright and funny, Visci said.
“She was a very youthful person and snatched away from us way before her time,” he said.
Ogren’s husband told the Minnesota Public Radio news that his wife died surrounded by family.
“She knew that she was dying and at the end was not afraid of it,” Paul Ogren said in the article. “She had a lot of joy in the last month of her life, but she had a lot of pain as well. That allowed her death to be a gift, I think, to her and ultimately to those who loved her.”
In addition to her husband, Ogren is survived by her stepchildren, Shana and Samuel.
A service will be held at Mount Carmel Lutheran Church in San Luis Obispo on Saturday, Aug. 7.
“She was a terrific woman who gave a lot to Cal Poly,” Baker said. “She helped me a great deal in the time she had here; we worked very well together.”