The Linfield University Board of Trustees has approved a resolution to add five alumni and industry leaders at its November meeting. Kirby (Noland) Dyess, Tim Nickerson ’01, John R. Nosler ’01 and Dr. Harold Tu ’71, all the first in their family to graduate from college, were added as trustees. Retired auto magnate G. David Lum ’58 was added as an honorary trustee.
“It is my pleasure to introduce and welcome the slate of new trustees elected to serve on the Linfield University Board of Trustees during our meeting November, 12, 2022,” said Chair Kerry Carmody ’73. “Each of these leaders bring a diversity of thought, experience and success in the areas of medicine, business, tech and finance. What they all share is their commitment to the Linfield University mission and community.“
Kirby (Noland) Dyess
No stranger to Linfield, Dyess spent her first two years of college at Linfield, majoring in physics and skiing competitively for Linfield. She returned to serve on the Linfield Board of Trustees in 2003 before she was asked to join the Oregon State Board of Higher Education, where she served as vice president and president of the Board and a cross-over board member to the OHSU Board. She later was an inaugural member of the Higher Education Coordinating Commission as well as a member of the “529” College Savings Board for the State.
Dyess spent the majority of her career at Intel Corporation in various senior management roles, the most recent as Intel Corporate vice president and director of Intel Capital, the largest venture capital organization at the time. When she retired she started an angel capital firm, Austin Capital Management LLC (named after her grandson Austin), to invest in early-stage companies in the Pacific Northwest. She also served on multiple public company boards, including the Portland General Electric Board; several private company boards; and the Oregon Community Foundation Board as a director and a chair.
Dyess credits her Linfield education with a great start as a first-generation college student from rural Idaho; it taught her the importance of service, hands-on experience and excellence. She hopes to see this opportunity continue for other first-generation students and to grow as she joins the Board.
Tim Nickerson ’01
Originally from Sheridan, Nickerson was the first person in his family to graduate from college. He credits Linfield for opening international doors for him, from meeting people from around the world to taking two international January Term trips. He and his husband, Mike Stent, created the endowed Global Perspectives Travel Fund at Linfield to encourage students to have their own international experiences. It is also one of the reasons that Nickerson wanted to give back to Linfield by serving as a trustee.
“I would be a very different person without the experiences I had at Linfield and the dear friends that I made,” Nickerson said. “I want students to learn and grow and traveling allows you to learn not only about other people and cultures, but about yourself as well. I want to ensure that students have these great opportunities that Linfield can provide.”
After graduating from Linfield with a degree in political science, Nickerson moved to Chicago and spent a year with the Chicago Architecture Center focused on fundraising, development and events before moving into the insurance industry, working as an insurance broker for the next five years. Nickerson joined SP Plus Corporation, the world’s largest parking and transportation management company in 2006, where today, he serves as the vice president of risk management. In this role, he oversees the Environmental Health and Safety function and the corporate insurance program while providing clear and transparent risk management solutions for the organization.
Nickerson is a member of the Risk and Insurance Management Society as well as the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter Association. He and Stent actively volunteer and support multiple Chicago-based nonprofits, including the Chicago Architecture Center, the Boulevard and Howard Brown Health.
John R. Nosler ’01
Nosler is a third-generation family business owner, but before that, he was the first in his family to graduate from college. The double letterman for Linfield competed in both football and track and field, while leading Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity as president in 1998-99. Upon earning his bachelor’s degree in business, he returned to his hometown, Bend, to join the family business, Nosler Inc.
Nosler started in sales and marketing and worked to vice president for innovation and diversification for the company in 2007, was named COO in 2014, and assumed the presidency in 2018. Nosler Inc. received the “Excellence in Family Business Award” from Oregon State University in 2008.
He hopes to use his strong background in innovation and marketing to help broaden Linfield’s brand awareness so that students and the community know more about “the unbelievable opportunities only Linfield can provide.”
An avid outdoorsman, he and the company have been long time supporters of the Mule Deer Foundation and Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, investing in habitat and conservation. Nosler also coaches track and field at Mountain View High School. When not coaching or running his family company, he and his wife Susie can be found at sporting events for their four children or traveling.
Dr. Harold Tu ’71, MD, DMD, FACS
Tu is associate professor emeritus and most recently was the director of the Division of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at University of Minnesota. A graduate of University of Oregon Dental School, Tu received his medical degree and completed his residency in oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMFS) and his general surgery internship at University of Nebraska Medical Center. He joined the Minnesota faculty in 1982, served in a number of positions, including that of director of the OMFS residency program, chairman of the Quality Assurance Committee for the university hospital. He is board certified in OMFS as well as completing a fellowship in facial cosmetic surgery in 1991.
Tu has published and lectured both internationally and nationally. His efforts and advocacy on addressing the opioid epidemic by changing opioid prescribing behavior by providers has been recognized nationally. He was appointed to the federal Pain Management Task Force by the White House in 2018 that was responsible for identifying best practices and new legislation.
Looking back on his successful professional career, Tu hopes to inspire future Linfield students as a trustee.
“As a first-generation student, my liberal arts education at Linfield was foundational in acquiring communication and learning skills that was the basis for my success in achieving my professional aspirations,” he said. “My appointment as a trustee will provide me an opportunity and platform to promote to the next generation of Linfield students the value of an liberal arts education.”
G. David Lum ’58
An Astoria-native, Lum first came to Linfield to compete in football, basketball and golf. After graduating with a degree in physical education, Lum and his wife, Shirley, spent several years in eastern Oregon, where he taught and coached for Echo High School. In a 2019 interview with the Seaside Signal, Lum said that when he started teaching he was only the second Chinese teacher in the state of Oregon. He eventually left teaching to work various roles in the service and insurance industry to better provide for his growing family.
In the 1960s, they relocated to Portland and started his first auto dealership in 1969. The company eventually expanding to four dealerships throughout Oregon and Washington. Lum’s Auto Center has received numerous business and community service awards during its operation, including the “Excellence in Family Business Awards” in 2010 from Oregon State University and Toyota’s President Award for excellent customer service.
Lum has deep roots in the region: his parents ran Lum Quing Grocery store, which would later be the site of Lum’s Auto Dealership and Lum’s oral history is a part of the “In Their Own Words” collection of the Linfield Archives and Special Collections.
Last year, the Gordon David Lum Trust partially donated a building to Columbia Memorial Hospital, just one part of a legacy of giving that characterizes the Lum family. Now retired, Lum is an active volunteer with Linfield and Clatsop Community College.
