Charles 'Bill' William King of McMinnville died on Sept. 17 at the age of 94. He was born Jan. 1, 1909 in Corvallis and was a member of an Oregon pioneer family that came to Oregon in 1845. He graduated from Oregon Agricultural College in 1931. He received a scholarship to study law at the University of Pennsylvania, where he received his law degree in 1935. He had a series of federal agency jobs in various states including California, Alaska and Washington, ending in retirement and private law practice in Lincoln City. He was preceded in death by his wife, Gladys, in 2003 and their daughter in 1951. He is survived by one son.
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James A. Boon, 48, died Oct. 12, 2003. He was a graduate of Sprague High School and the University of Portland. He served in the Peace Corps in Ecuador and then went to Willamette Law School, graduating in 1984. He married Sandra Sowells in 1985. He was a legal aid lawyer in Florida and Oregon. Boon had a private practice in Woodburn before retiring due to illness. Survivors include his wife, Sandra, his mother, son, daughter and two step-daughters.
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Kenneth (Ken) Kraemer died Oct. 29, 2003, at age 85. He was born May 25, 1918, and graduated from Lincoln High School. He received a degree in economics from Harvard College in 1939 and a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1942. He served in the U.S. Air Force during World War II in the South Pacific. Kraemer joined his father’s law firm in 1945, thus beginning his law practice that spanned more than 50 years. He served in the Oregon State Legislature during 1950 and 1951. He was a member of the Oregon State Bar, Portland City Club, Multnomah Athletic Club and the Portland Golf Club. He was a stamp and political button collector, enjoyed racquetball, travel, gardening, fishing, golf and duplicate bridge. He was a life master and member of American Contract Bridge League.
He married Esther Belt in 1951; she died in 1984. He married Verda Schwabe in 1986. He is survived by his wife, Verda; two daughters and a son.
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Timothy Gordon Garlock died Nov. 3, 2003. He was born April 6, 1955, in Nampa, Idaho. He graduated from McMinnville High School where he played varsity basketball and was active in student government. He also graduated from the University of Utah and Willamette University College of Law. He served a two-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Michigan.
An Eagle Scout, he served many years in the Boy Scout program. He also served on the Sprague High School Athletic Booster board, coached youth basketball and baseball and was a Skyball coordinator. He was known for his passion for athletics as he loved to play basketball and tennis during his lunch break.
Garlock practiced law in Salem for 20 years and was known among his peers as an honest and successful attorney who lways treated those around him with respect and kindness.
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Cash Ridley Perrine of Bend died Sept. 13, 2003 of natural causes at the age of 71. He was born in 1932 in Ashland and attended Ashland schools and then Principia College in Alton, Ill. He served in the military, including 17 months in Munich, Germany.
He married Mary Hillberry in Ashland in 1954. After graduating from Willamette University Law School in 1958, he moved to Bend and started a private law practice that continued until his retirement. He was municipal judge for Bend and city attorney for Sisters for several years. He was a member of the Central Oregon Bar Association and Bend Elks Lodge, serving as exalted ruler in 1966-1967.
Perrine enjoyed hunting, fishing and photography. Survivors include three sons and two daughters.
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Former Junction City mayor Steve Allen Tyler of Eugene died Sept. 20, 2003. He was 86. Practicing solo, Tyler was Junction City’s only attorney from just after World War II until the mid-1960s, when he was joined by attorney Bob Andrich. Their firm, Tyler & Andrich, was the historical predecessor of the firm of Cooney & Trudeau, currently Junction City’s only law office.
Tyler was born March 12, 1917 in Tulles, La. He married Helen Shores in Woodville, Miss. on Jan 2, 1940. They lived in Baton Rouge, La. until 1943, when they moved to Oregon, living in Klamath Falls until 1950, and then moving to Eugene. The Tylers lived in Junction City from 1954 until 1973, when they returned to Eugene.
Tyler received a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern State University in Louisiana and a master’s degree in business from Louisiana State University. He received a law degree from the University of Oregon. He served in the Navy at the rank of lieutenant. He worked as a loan officer and was also employed as a business educator instructor in Amarillo, Texas, and at the Oregon Institute of Technology.
Tyler later established his private law practice. He was a member of the Lane County Bar Association. He was an arborist, and his interests also included bird watching, reading and collecting antique books. He was a member of the Lane County Chamber of Commerce and a past president of the Junction City Lions Club.
In addition to his three terms as mayor, Tyler served on the Lane County Budget Committee. The Junction City/Harrisburg Chamber of Commerce honored him as Citizen of the Year in 1986, and he received a distinguished service award from the Junction City Jaycees.
Survivors include his wife, a son and a daughter.
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Jack Robert Hannam died Nov. 2, 2003 at age 79. He was born Feb. 6, 1924, in Portland. After serving in the Navy during World War II, he graduated from the University of Oregon and received a law degree from Northwestern School of Law at Lewis & Clark College. In 1953, he married Suzanne Goodyn. Survivors include his wife, Suzanne, four daughters and two sons.
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Robert Y. Thornton of Salem, who over 30 years was a legislator, attorney general and an Oregon Court of Appeals judge, died Nov. 29, 2003. He was 93.
Born in Portland in 1910, Thornton earned a bachelor’s degree in social science from Stanford University in 1932 and then his law degree from George Washington University in 1937. He spent his first years in law practice in Medford before joining the Army during World War II, when he graduated from its Japanese-language school.
After the war, Thornton set up a law practice in Tillamook, where he met his wife, Dorothy, and was elected in 1950 to one term in the Oregon House. He was elected in 1952 to the first of four terms as attorney general, the second-longest tenure in the 110-year history of that office. In 1955, he began the state’s first formal effort to collect parental payments owed for child support.
He was the Democratic nominee for governor in 1962 but lost to Republican Mark Hatfield.
He lost re-election to the attorney general’s post in 1968 amid controversy. He challenged the election of Republican Lee Johnson, whom he accused of violating the state Corrupt Practices Act. A three-judge panel in Marion County overturned the result, but the Oregon Supreme Court upheld Johnson as the winner in the spring of 1969. Thornton remained as attorney general pending the decision.
In 1970, Thornton was elected to a new judgeship on the Court of Appeals.
Even after he retired from the court in 1983, Thornton continued to be active. In the 1990s, he and a Japanese co-author wrote 'Preventing Crime in America and Japan,' in which they stressed personal responsibility and social discipline over legal sanctions in crime prevention.
Friends described him as an aficionado of Japan and all things Japanese. He developed a phonetic Japanese-English dictionary, was host to Japanese tourists and friends and frequently traveled to Japan. Another interest was parenting and family skills. During three legislative sessions, he unsuccessfully sought legislation that would have encouraged schools to offer a course in child development and parent skills.
Thornton is survived by his wife, Dorothy, and his son.
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Meronne Allison Fitzgerald, University of Oregon alumna and Dallas County (Texas) public defender, died Sept. 24, 2003 at the age of 27. She had been working late on a case and her vehicle stalled at 10:15 p.m. on a Texas freeway (Stemmons). As she and a Good Samaritan worked on her vehicle, a passing vehicle struck her. Allison is survived by her husband of 11 months, John Pollock, and her parents, a brother, stepsiblings and extended family. She also leaves behind law school friends from Oregon’s three law schools, many of whom she met through the OSB’s OLIO program.
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Portland attorney Paul J. Rask died Dec. 9, 2003, of cancer. He was 76. He was born in Portland in 1927 and spent his early childhood in Butte, Montana before returning to Portland as a teenager, graduating from Grant High School in 1945. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Portland in 1949. In 1950 he married Esther Azorr. The couple recently celebrated their 53rd wedding anniversary.
As an attorney Rask was involved in Arab American social and political causes to combat discrimination. He founded the Oregon chapter of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination committee and was a former president of the Arab American Community Center.
Rask had a variety of careers before settling on the law. He worked as an insurance agent with his father, B.J. Rask. He also became a local radio personality, announcing sports on KEX and hosting a talk show on KPOJ in the 1960s, interviewing Joan Baez and Allen Ginsberg, among other colorful figures. He worked as proprietor of Christmas City and Apollo Wigs. And his dramatic roles were not limited to the courtroom — he appeared in several plays at the Portland Civic Theater, including 'The Great Sebastians' and had a role in a film (banned in Portland) about the city’s drug underground called 'Portland Expose.'
Rask worked two jobs to support his wife and six children while attending night school at the Northwestern College of Law at night. He earned his law degree in 1965 and began a general law practice in Portland which he continued until becoming ill two months before his death.
He is survived by his wife, Esther, four daughters, two sons and five grandchildren.