As longtime Fort Vancouver National Reserve volunteers, our experience with President and CEO Elson Strahan is that he is consistently hard-working, cheerful and enthusiastic. He has amazing drive and works long hours. He gives generously to many causes. He is unfailingly professional in both behavior and appearance.
Strahan serves many “publics,” including a large and very strong Historic Reserve Board, the city of Vancouver, the National Park Service, donors, volunteers and the wider Vancouver community. The staff he has assembled and the program he has successfully shaped and guided are a boon to all of us who live and pay taxes in Vancouver.
The Historic Reserve is a large and complex operation that serves residents of Vancouver well without costing us anything. Strahan is, in our view, reasonably compensated for his many skills and great record of success.
The recent negative insinuations in The Columbian about Strahan read to those of us who know him as “cheap shots” that detract from what could have been a worthwhile story.
