Mukilteo’s William Sacherek (right) and Liselotte Lamerdin (center right) donate two rare paintings by African American artist Charles Ethan Porter to Dr. John Perkins (center left), of Seattle Pacific University’s John Perkins Center, on Tuesday at First Free Methodist Church in Seattle, Washington. The paintings represent the school’s first acquisition of art since SPU President Dan Martin’s directive to create and shape a university art collection.

Mukilteo’s William Sacherek (right) and Liselotte Lamerdin (center right) donate two rare paintings by African American artist Charles Ethan Porter to Dr. John Perkins (center left), of Seattle Pacific University’s John Perkins Center, on Tuesday at First Free Methodist Church in Seattle, Washington. The paintings represent the school’s first acquisition of art since SPU President Dan Martin’s directive to create and shape a university art collection.

Why one couple donated art to a school they had nothing to do with

  • By Julie Muhlstein Herald Writer
  • Friday, April 22, 2016 6:39pm
  • Local News

SEATTLE — William Sacherek and Liselotte “Lilo” Lamerdin aren’t Seattle Pacific University alumni. They don’t have children who attended the school. Still, the Mukilteo couple has given an extraordinary gift to the Christian university.

They recently donated to SPU two rare paintings by African-American artist Charles Ethan Porter. The still-life painter, born in Connecticut in 1847, was once championed by Mark Twain. He worked in Paris during the era of Claude Monet and other great Impressionists. But he died back home in 1923 in poverty and obscurity, according to SPU art history Professor Katie Kresser.

The untitled paintings — one a vase of flowers, the other a bowl with onions — were unveiled at a presentation Tuesday in the First Free Methodist Church adjacent to the SPU campus. Seattle Pacific University was founded in 1891 by the Free Methodist Church of North America.

“My prayer with these paintings is that no matter how obscure you think you are, you are going to change the world,” Sacherek told SPU students at the event.

The unveiling was more than a thank you to Sacherek and his wife. The couple made their gift in appreciation of SPU’s John Perkins Center for Reconciliation, Leadership Training and Community Development.

“The center is modeled after the life and legacy of John Perkins, a sharecropper’s son in Mississippi,” said Tali Hairston, director of the university’s John Perkins Center. Hairston said Perkins experienced the horrors of racism in Mississippi, including threats from the Ku Klux Klan, beatings and the death of a brother at the hands of police.

“After moving from Mississippi to California, he found faith in Jesus Christ,” Hairston said. “He felt called to go back to Mississippi and share the love of Christ. He returned to try to figure out a way to love again and forgive.”

Perkins, 85, is co-founder and president of the John and Vera Mae Perkins Foundation in Jackson, Mississippi. The foundation was the inspiration for the John Perkins Center at SPU. Started in 2004, the center was a first, a partnership among SPU, the foundation, and Christian leaders around the Northwest.

“It’s the ministry of reconciliation,” said Hairston, adding that students involved in the center live out their faith by reaching out to others.

Perkins returns to SPU each year. After Tuesday’s presentation of the paintings, he delivered the 11th annual John Perkins lecture to students in the church.

None of that explains how a retired Boeing executive and his wife came to donate their paintings to the university.

At one of the SPU Perkins Center conferences, Hairston said, “this man walked up to me and said ‘Thank you.’ ” It was Sacherek, who had gotten to know some SPU students through Mukilteo Presbyterian Church, his faith community.

Maribeth Lopit, SPU’s director of advancement, said Sacherek now shows up on campus every week to work with students as a mentor. “I want to encourage them. This is very different from other campuses. It’s Christian-based and a forceful advocate for change,” said Sacherek, 69, who once lived on Seattle’s Queen Anne Hill.

Before retirement, Sacherek worked in major outside production for Boeing, which involved parts coming from Asia. He was later a benchmarking manager at the company. Lamerdin is a violinist with the Mukilteo Community Orchestra.

They collect other art, and Sacherek said the Porter paintings are the first of other donations they plan to make to SPU. He explained how he came to have the African-American artist’s works. As a boy in Connecticut, he shoveled snow and mowed the lawn for a neighbor, Louis Hawley.

“I was the beneficiary of these paintings from Mr. Hawley,” Sacherek said during his talk. “Mr. Porter had spent months in the Hawley home, and was allowed to paint there. In exchange, he gave a couple of paintings.”

Sacherek said his “Connecticut Yankee” upbringing didn’t include interaction with African-Americans, but “I had a neighbor who supported Mr. Porter.” And as a child of the 1960s, he saw on television the struggles of the Civil Rights Movement.

“Children my age had to have troops to go to school. People couldn’t use bathrooms or lunch counters,” Sacherek said. At SPU, he sees a place “that equips us to serve in a Christlike fashion.”

Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.

Learn more

Find information about Seattle Pacific University’s John Perkins Center for Reconciliation, Leadership Training and Community Development at http://spu.edu/depts/perkins.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

Students from Explorer Middle School gather Wednesday around a makeshift memorial for Emiliano “Emi” Munoz, who died Monday, May 5, after an electric bicycle accident in south Everett. (Aspen Anderson / The Herald)
Community and classmates mourn death of 13-year-old in bicycle accident

Emiliano “Emi” Munoz died from his injuries three days after colliding with a braided cable.

Danny Burgess, left, and Sandy Weakland, right, carefully pull out benthic organisms from sediment samples on Thursday, May 1, 2025 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
‘Got Mud?’ Researchers monitor the health of the Puget Sound

For the next few weeks, the state’s marine monitoring team will collect sediment and organism samples across Puget Sound

Everett postal workers gather for a portrait to advertise the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive on Wednesday, May 7, 2025 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Snohomish County letter carriers prepare for food drive this Saturday

The largest single-day food drive in the country comes at an uncertain time for federal food bank funding.

Everett
Everett considers ordinance to require more apprentice labor

It would require apprentices to work 15% of the total labor hours for construction or renovation on most city projects over $1 million.

Snohomish County prosecutor Kara Van Slyck delivers closing statement during the trial of Christian Sayre at the Snohomish County Courthouse on Thursday, May 8, 2025 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Jury deliberations begin in the fourth trial of former Everett bar owner

Jury members deliberated for about 2 hours before Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Millie Judge sent them home until Monday.

Christian Sayre sits in the courtroom before the start of jury selection on Tuesday, April 29, 2025 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Christian Sayre timeline

FEBRUARY 2020 A woman reports a sexual assault by Sayre. Her sexual… Continue reading

Marysville
Marysville talks middle housing at open house

City planning staff say they want a ‘soft landing’ to limit the impacts of new state housing laws. But they don’t expect their approach to slow development.

Smoke from the Bolt Creek fire silhouettes a mountain ridge and trees just outside of Index on Sept. 12, 2022. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
County will host two wildfire-preparedness meetings in May

Meetings will allow community members to learn wildfire mitigation strategies and connect with a variety of local and state agencies.

A speed limiter device, like this one, will be required for repeat speeding offenders under a Washington law signed on May 12, 2025. The law doesn’t take effect until 2029. (Photo by Jake Goldstein-Street/Washington State Standard)
Washington to rein in fast drivers with speed limiters

A new law set to take effect in 2029 will require repeat speeding offenders to install the devices in their vehicles.

Commuters from Whidbey Island disembark their vehicles from the ferry Tokitae on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018 in Mukilteo, Wa.  (Andy Bronson / The Herald)
Bids for five new hybrid ferries come in high

It’s raising doubts about the state’s plans to construct up to five new hybrid-electric vessels with the $1.3 billion lawmakers have set aside.

City of Everett Engineer Tom Hood, left, and City of Everett Engineer and Project Manager Dan Enrico, right, talks about the current Edgewater Bridge demolition on Friday, May 9, 2025 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
How do you get rid of a bridge? Everett engineers can explain.

Workers began dismantling the old Edgewater Bridge on May 2. The process could take one to two months, city engineers said.

Christian Sayre walks out of the courtroom in handcuffs after being found guilty on two counts of indecent liberties at the end of his trial at the Snohomish County Courthouse on Monday, May 12, 2025 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Former bar owner convicted on two of three counts of sexual abuse

A jury deliberated for about 8 hours before returning guilty verdicts on two charges of indecent liberties Monday.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.