Your April 22 editorial gave a good recap of what is now Bellevue College. I wish you’d given some specific credit to the man probably more responsible than any of the others involved in its success, its first president, Merle Landerholm, who began his eastside educational career as a teacher at Bellevue High School in the early 1950s.

He was the main force in taking that “night school” and building it into a major, if well-hidden asset. His sudden death at a relatively young age was a blow to education and to those of us who knew and respected him.

Jean Floten has done a marvelous job of maintaining and improving the school’s reputation and high standards. But I’m sure even she would agree she inherited an institution that already had a history of remarkable achievements, thanks to many, but mostly to Dr. Landerholm. (Yes, students, Landerholm Circle at the school is named for him.)

Don Riggs, Bellevue