I would love to see a Tom McCall day in Oregon. He was my hero.

I idolized Tom McCall as a child.  My father used to quote him---"Go ahead and visit, but then, go home."    My brothers and I roamed the southern Oregon beaches growing up.  We watched a group of Californian tourists leave their cans behind once, on the beach.  Made us mad, being young, and Tom McCall being our hero, at least mine.   So we boxed up two cans and sent them off the Governor of California, and included a letter stating we have a bottle bill here in Oregon, and respect for our beaches, and that we had seen Californians dump cans on an Oregon beach which was not acceptable in Oregon.  We asked the governor of California to tell residents there to not litter when they came to Oregon.  

I wrote Tom McCall a fan letter in 1972 and I got a reply, a letter I have kept.  Attached is a photo of that letter.
My address is not blacked out on the actual letter, only for the internet.  I had posted it on my blog (www.catwomanflix.blogspot.com) awhile back.

I wanted Tom McCall to be president.  I figured he'd make things better.  He was a larger than life figure when I was young and his ideology and courage caught my young soul afire.

This photo on our Facebook page inspired this tribute from Richard Zettervall of Creswell: "This is how I remember Gov. McCall. He was an avid Outdoorsman who cared deeply about preserving the unique environment that is Oregon. I remember him spearheading the drive to clean up the Willamette River, and return the Salmon and Steelhead runs in the Willamette. I was a young man when I had the honor of meeting and shaking the hand of Gov. McCall at a Park along the banks of the Willamette River in Salem. I was there as a member of the NW Steelheader's when we were in support of the Willamette River clean-up as well as the drive to make Steelhead an Official Game Fish in the State of Oregon. Both issues were successful and Steelhead are now a Game fish in Oregon, making it illegal to have Steelhead taken by any Commercial Fisheries, ie: Columbia River Gillnets. That memory of meeting Governor McCall in person, was and still is a wonderful memory that I truly treasure."

We made The Oregonian again! Please help spread the word and build momentum about this effort to honor Oregon's greatest governor by paying it forward! http://www.oregonlive.com/mapes/index.ssf/2013/11/tom_mccall_admirers_need_a_few.html

http://www.ktvz.com/news/tom-mccall-kids-celebrate-namesakes-100th-birthday/-/413192/22435738/-/3ida5dz/-/index.html  A great story; wouldn't it be wonderful if every child attending school in Oregon had this opportunity?

Richard Chambers, left, exemplifies Tom McCall's statement about heroes being people who say "this is my community and it's my responsibility to make it better." Although Tom McCall became the public voice of the bottle bill and signed it into law in 1971, it was Richard Chambers who became frustrated over seeing litter despoiling the landscapes he loved to hike across. It was Richard Chambers who read a newspaper article about a proposed bottle bill in Canada who picked up the phone, called his state representative and got the ball rolling for this innovative idea. The story of Richard Chambers and the bottle bill is told in greater detail in Brent Walth's outstanding McCall biography, Fire at Eden's Gate.

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