A tip of the hat to Tom's Massachusetts roots on the day after the Red Sox won their first World Series at Fenway Park since 1918. There's another reason this photo, taken during the 1912 series, has significance for the page. If you enlarge it, you can make out a sign that says "Thomas W. Lawson offers $250 to any batter who hits this sign. $1000 to the first who smashes The System's Slate." Tom was named for his maternal grandfather.

"There have been very few governors who embody the spirit of Oregon quite the way Tom McCall did. That's one of the reasons he was - and still is - so beloved. We look at Tom McCall and see the best in ourselves: Non-conformist. Fiercely Independent. Plain spoken. Tolerant. And above all, in love with - and determined to protect - the natural beauty of Oregon." The full text of Gov. Kulongoski's Tom McCall Memorial Lecture can be found here: http://archivedwebsites.sos.state.or.us/Governor_Kulongoski_2011/governor.oregon.gov/Gov/speech/speech_021203.shtml

 In 1981, Tom was attending a luanch party for the autobiography of a former state official, Ted Winters. As Tom walked to the podium, a picture of his younger self was flashed on the screen. Tom quipped: "Isn't that a nice picture of my grandson?"

Today I had the distinct pleasure of a having a conversation with Tad McCall, Tom and Audrey McCall's eldest son. Tad retired as a captain after a lengthy career in the U.S. Navy and has held significant leadership positions in the Air Force and the Environmental Protection Agency. He's currently with the Texas A & M Institute of Renewable Natural Resources. He told me that like many of us, he's been inspired by his father's life and work, and he's enthusiastic about the goals of the Tom McCall Legacy Project. He says it's not enough to protect our natural resources; we also need to maintain and nurture them. "Its time to revisit it in a common public way and recommit in a way to protect jobs society, and our commitment to each other, he said.--Bill Hall

As both a journalist and as governor, Tom McCall rallied the public to clean up the Willamette River and improve public access to it. What better way to honor that legacy than to encourage Tri-Met to name the new transit bridge over the Willamette the McCall Bridge? You can submit the idea at this website: http://www.trimet.org/namethebridge/ Register your support on line now! You can also send a letter: the mailing address is:

Name The Bridge 
c/o TriMet
1800 S.W. First Ave., Suite 300
Portland, OR 97201

Tom McCall is sworn in as Governor, January, 1967. He closed his first official message to the public and the Legislature with these words: "A few weeks ago I said, 'The overriding challenge --- the umbrella issue --- of the campaign and the decade is quality --- quality of life in Oregon.'

I respectfully suggest that the proposals this administration has submitted to you today will meet the challenge and further dramatize the significance of that issue.

Your oath of office and mine mark the moment of truth.

In these weeks and months as we labor together, as winter t urns to spring, hope and expectation abound throughout our state that we will devote ourselves imaginatively and selflessly to the tasks at hand.

To this end I here solemnly vow --- in the proudest hour of my life --- to join you fully and completely in assuring the people of Oregon we will work with all of the talents and good will at our command in their service."

From 1965 to 1967, Secretary of State Tom McCall, Governor Mark Hatfield and State Treasurer Bob Straub made up Oregon's Board of Control, which had oversight of several state programs and agencies. The three men led Oregon in the governor's chair from 1959 to 1975, a period of unprecedented progressive achievements in the state.