Dennis Hebert

“I was born on the bayou,” says Dennis Hebert of Houma, Louisiana. “When a hurricane came, we’d board everything up and feel the house shake.” Hebert left the University of Southwest Louisiana in Lafayette to get married, but instead got drafted. He received a Dear John letter and a Purple Heart in Vietnam. He finished a marketing degree on the GI Bill, moved to Phoenix and started doing carpentry. He traveled the West for three years in his 1961 International van, the Turtle, picking up jobs along the way. Returning to Phoenix in 1981, he met a lady, Larena. They explored Oregon on vacation, then packed the van and moved to Eugene in 1986. Within days, he had a carpentry job and a rental house off Hilyard Street. In June, the roar of Eugene Emeralds baseball games drew him to nearby Civic Stadium. He became a fan of the team and of its wooden grandstand, a federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) project built in 1938. He married Larena in 1988, commuted to a job at the state Capitol in Salem until 2001, then worked at the UO until retirement in 2010. When a judge ruled in 2007 that the Eugene School District could sell the Civic Stadium property, Hebert parked the Turtle out front with a banner and collected 3,500 signatures to save it. He started the nonprofit Friends of Civic Stadium to raise funds, and he set up tables at local events. A goal of $3 million to support the city’s bid for Civic fell short, until it was rescued earlier this year by a new public-private partnership, the Eugene Civic Alliance. “They thank us for bearing the torch,” Hebert says. “We thank them for making it happen.”

A Note From the Publisher

Dear Readers,

The last two years have been some of the hardest in Eugene Weekly’s 43 years. There were moments when keeping the paper alive felt uncertain. And yet, here we are — still publishing, still investigating, still showing up every week.

That’s because of you!

Not just because of financial support (though that matters enormously), but because of the emails, notes, conversations, encouragement and ideas you shared along the way. You reminded us why this paper exists and who it’s for.

Listening to readers has always been at the heart of Eugene Weekly. This year, that meant launching our popular weekly Activist Alert column, after many of you told us there was no single, reliable place to find information about rallies, meetings and ways to get involved. You asked. We responded.

We’ve also continued to deepen the coverage that sets Eugene Weekly apart, including our in-depth reporting on local real estate development through Bricks & Mortar — digging into what’s being built, who’s behind it and how those decisions shape our community.

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None of this happens by accident. It happens because readers step up and say: this matters.

As we head into a new year, please consider supporting Eugene Weekly if you’re able. Every dollar helps keep us digging, questioning, celebrating — and yes, occasionally annoying exactly the right people. We consider that a public service.

Thank you for standing with us!