Gary Dirrim

Gary Dirrim Endowment

Growing up in Sellwood during the early 1950s, Gary Dirrim often rode his bike out to old Highway 99E and the new Milwaukie gas station land mark, a B 17 bomber. Climbing in to that plane, Gary and his friends would refight World War II. Some 45 years later, and 26 years after Gary went to work for Clackamas Community College, the CCC Manufacturing Department was asked by the Bomber’s owner to help refurbish the now familiar landmark.

For Gary, this project hit close to home and solidified his long-time admiration for the Manufacturing Department. A machinist before becoming the first member of his family to go to college, Gary went in to accounting and, in 1989, became CCC’s Dean of College Services.

Upon his retirement in December 1997, he created the Gary Dirrim Endowment, which offers scholarships to top Manufacturing students who are also first-generation college students.