Collection is open for research.
Gift of Kerry Tymchuk, January 2022 (RL2022-027).
Thomas William Lawson McCall, commonly known as Tom McCall, was born in Egypt, Massachusetts, and grew up on a ranch near Prineville, Oregon. He graduated from the University of Oregon in 1936 with a degree in journalism, and worked in a variety of journalism positions from the 1930s to 1960s, including as a radio news host and a television commentator and documentarian. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. In 1954, McCall unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican. In 1964, he successfully ran for Oregon secretary of state, and two years later was elected governor of Oregon. He was reelected in 1970.
As governor, McCall was noted for activism in environmental and conservation legislation. He supported the protection of Oregon's beaches; established the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality; led the successful fight for the Oregon Bottle Bill, the U.S.'s first mandatory container deposit law; and championed Senate Bill 100, which established statewide goals for land use planning and development.
After leaving office in 1975 due to term limits, McCall wrote a newspaper column and worked as a news analyst for KATU television in Portland. He ran for governor again in 1978, but lost the Republican primary to Victor Atiyeh. In 1982, despite suffering from terminal cancer, McCall successfully lobbied against Ballot Measure 6, which would have overturned the land-use planning legislation that he had supported.
McCall married Audrey Owen (1915-2007) in 1939. The couple had two sons: Samuel Walker McCall III, and Thomas "Tad" McCall. Tom McCall died on January 8, 1983.
Program and script for Tom McCall tribute dinner, Coll 885, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
Additional collections at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library relating to Tom McCall include the Tom McCall papers, Mss 625; the Tom McCall photographs collection, Org. Lot 353, and Tom McCall speeches and statements, Coll 881.
The collection consists of a packet, titled "A Toast and Roast of Tom McCall," containing the program and script for a tribute dinner held in honor of outgoing Oregon Governor Tom McCall on January 9, 1975, at the Hilton Hotel in Portland, Oregon. The script contains prepared remarks by a number of speakers, including Glenn Jackson, Oregon Historical Society Executive Director Tom Vaughan, Portland Mayor Neil Goldschmidt, former State Senator Anthony Yturri, U.S. Representative Edith Green, Judge Mercedes Deiz, State Representative Norma Paulus, and State Senator Debbs Potts, as well as McCall's own remarks, and lyrics to songs sung by the New Oregon Singers. The packet also includes a schedule of events and a seating chart.
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