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Famous Like Me > Actor > M > Tom McCall

Profile of Tom McCall on Famous Like Me

 
Name: Tom McCall  
   
Also Know As:
   
Date of Birth: 22nd March 1913
   
Place of Birth: Egypt, Massachusetts, USA
   
Profession: Actor
 
 
From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia
Governor Tom McCall

Thomas Lawson McCall (March 22, 1913 – January 8, 1983) was an American politician, a Republican, and the thirtieth governor of Oregon from 1967 to 1975.

McCall's two terms as Oregon's governor were notable for many achievements in the environmental sphere, including the country's first "bottle bill", the cleanup of the Willamette River, passage of a law to maintain Oswald West's legacy of public ownership of the state's beaches, and the first statewide land-use planning system, which introduced the urban growth boundary around the state's cities.

McCall is well known for a comment that he made in a 1971 interview with CBS News' Terry Drinkwater, in which he said:

We want you to visit our State of Excitement often. Come again and again. But for heaven's sake, don't move here to live. Or if you do have to move in to live, don't tell any of your neighbors where you are going.

Early life and career

McCall was born in Massachusetts, he was the grandson of copper king Thomas Lawson and Massachusetts governor and congressman Samuel W. McCall. As a child divided his time between his grandfather’s home there and his father’s ranch near Prineville. When he was nine when he settled permanently on the ranch. McCall attended the University of Oregon and graduated with a degree in journalism in 1936.

Prior to entering politics, McCall worked for years as a newspaper reporter in Moscow, Idaho and radio commentator in Portland. He made an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. House in 1954. He was a television reporter and commentator for most of the next decade at KGW in Portland. McCall appears briefly (on a TV set) in the famous 1975 film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in a cameo role based on his time at KGW. A 1962 documentary he produced and hosted ("Pollution in Paradise") graphically portrayed the poor condition of the Willamette and helped focus public attention on the problem.

Political career

Preceded by:
Mark Hatfield
Governor of Oregon
1967-1975
Succeeded by:
Robert W. Straub

McCall made his first run for office in 1954, winning the Republican nomination for Oregon's Third Congressional District seat. He lost in the general election to Edith Green, who went on to hold the seat for the next two decades.

In 1958, when Mark Hatfield was elected governor of Oregon, he vacated the position of Secretary of State. McCall thought Hatfield had promised to appoint him to the unexpired portion of the term, but the job went to Hatfield associate Howell Appling instead. When Appling chose not to run for re-election in 1964, McCall sought and won the job. He was elected governor in 1966 and re-elected in 1970.

While his activity on behalf of Oregon's environment brought nationwide attention to his state, McCall brought a measure of both common sense and imagination to his office.

Vortex I

In 1970, McCall was faced with a potential riot in Portland. In May of that year, a week-long student protest at Portland State University over the Kent State shootings had ended with charges of excessive police violence. The American Legion had scheduled a convention in Portland later that summer; local antiwar groups were organizing a series of demonstrations at the same time under the name of the "People's Army Jamboree", and expected to draw 50,000 protesters.

After vain attempts to convince the People's Army Jamboree to either not carry out their plans or to move the date, McCall decided to hold a rock festival at Milo McIver State Park near Estacada, Oregon called "Vortex I: A Biodegradable Festival of Life", in imitation of the famous Woodstock Festival held the previous year.

"I think I just committed political suicide," McCall is reported to have remarked immediately after approving the event. Vortex was the first and so-far only state-sponsored rock festival in US history.

The festival was a success, attracting between 50,000 and 100,000 people. The feared violent clash between the antiwar groups and the conservative American Legion was avoided, and the city of Portland passed the summer relatively uneventfully. And in the general election that November, McCall was returned to office with 56% of the vote.

Back to journalism

Oregon's constitution prevented McCall from seeking a third consecutive term as governor in 1974. He returned to journalism, writing a newspaper column and serving as commentator for Portland television station KATU. He made an unsuccessful bid to return to the governorship in 1978, losing in the Republican primary to State Senator Victor G. Atiyeh, who went on to defeat incumbent Robert W. Straub.

After McCall's final attempt at the governorship a group launched an initiative to repeal McCall's most lasting legacy, the state's land use planning system, which included the creation of urban growth boundries. Measure 6 went on the ballot for the 1982 election and McCall vowed to fight it to the end. McCall was dying of cancer and used the final months of his life making sure that Measure 6 did not pass.

"You all know I have terminal cancer-and I have a lot of it. But what you may not know is that stress induces its spread and induces its activity. Stress may even bring it on. Yet stress is the fuel of the activist. This activist loves Oregon more than he loves life. I know I can't have both very long. The trade-offs are all right with me. But if the legacy we helped give Oregon and which made it twinkle from afar-if it goes, then I guess I wouldn't want to live in Oregon anyhow."

Measure 6 failed to pass in the '82 election and McCall had won his final battle. With that McCall was admitted to Good Samaritan Hospital in Portland just over a month after the election.

McCall once said "You're terminal from the minute you arrive. You've been going to go ever since you got here. Still it is unacceptable when the calendar hints that the prospect has lost its open-endedness. Despair strikes you and what was vaguely inevitable is barely down the road anymore."

McCall lost his lengthy battle with prostate cancer on the morning of January 8, 1983. McCall's lasting legacy has left an Oregon that would not have been without him.

Tributes

His term as governor was honored after his death by the dedication of Gov. Tom McCall Waterfront Park, a 37-acre (150,000 m²) park which runs along the Willamette River for the length of downtown Portland. It was built in 1974 by removing Harbor Drive, a freeway which previously ran alongside the river. The annual Tom McCall Forum, which pairs prominent speakers with opposing political viewpoints, is presented by Pacific University.

The Nature Conservancy named a nature preserve in Wasco County, Oregon after him.

External links and references

  • Gubernatorial history and biography of McCall, from the Oregon Historical Society website
  • Oregon Secretary of State: Governor Tom McCall
  • The Far Out Story of Vortex I, from a Portland State University website
  • Tom McCall Preserve at Rowena, named in his honor, from the Nature Conservancy website
  • Notecard with McCall's "State of Excitement" quotation, from the 1000 Friends of Oregon website
  • Matt Love, The Far Out Story of Vortex I (Pacific City, Oregon: Nestucca Spit Press, 2004) ISBN 0974436410

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Tom McCall