by Stephen Kafoury of Portland, Oregon
Oregon has lost a giant.
Portland Democrat Ted Hallock served in he Oregon senate for 20 years, beginning in the late 60.s. He is best known for his co-sponsorship of SB 100, Oregons pioneerng land use legislation. In fact, he was an environmental champion with particular cxpertise in energy issues.
Possessed of a brilliant, restless mind, he was always creating new ideas --- even when serving under Republicans who gave him little opportunities. Fearless and full of energy, he had a sign that said “Windmill Tilter” on his office door...
Testifying before his committecs could he an ordeal if one wercn’t prepared. Ted tempered this side with an outrageous sense of humor that often had the whole Senate in stitches.
From his experiences navigaling a B-17 in World War II, (winning several medals including the Purple heart), he brought a ferocious hatred for anti-Semites and those who would trade away civil liberties for temporary security. Hc knew what he had fought for.
A Renaissance man, Ted wrote jazz reviews for Downbeat magazine m the 1950s, and had his own band. He did his own voice work for his clients’ advertising at his ad agency. Ted also had a world-class stamp collection. which ccritercd around stamps from Asian communist countries when these were contraband -- a rebellious spirit, for sure!
Ted was also hugely loyal to his friends, many of whom served across the aisle in those benighted times, and he will be
terribly missed. The son of an electrical engineer, Hallock was horn in Hollywood. Calif. in 1921. The family moved to Portland when he was 6
years old, settling in lrvington.
By the time he graduated firm Grant High School, his love for jazz music inspired him to become a competent drummer who later
formed his own dance band. He spent a year washing dishes and working in local radio, sometimes on the air before
enrolling at the University of Oregon in 1940..
Hallock’s life changed with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. "Within an hour or two we had a plan to go down to the beach
and defend the country" he says. "I enlisted in June of 1942 here at Portland Air Base.”
“In a little more than a year I went from being a kid frorn Portland, Oregon, to a seasoned veteran of 30 combat missions.
Extraordinary."
Hallock cheated death repeatedly In the skies over Europe, sometimes dramatically. On one mission, a German fighter came in fast
on one of the B-17’s unmanned guns. ”The navigator was busy doing something. Navigating, I gucss," he says.
A 20 mm shell pierced the planc’s thin fuselage end exploded; shrapnel severed the cord to Hlallock’s headset.
“Twelve inches fioni my head,” he says. “I don’t know why I wasn’t dead.”
By the time ofthe Allied assault on the beaches of Normandy in 1944, Hallock was on his way home. He had earned a
Purple Heart, the Distinguished Flying Cross. the Air Medal and the Presidential Unit Citation.
Back in Oregon, Halloek earned a .iournalism degree, married for a second time, fathering three children, and went back to radio,
winning the prestigious Peabody Award in 1952 for a news talk show. His work took him to England and the Soviet Union.
In 1959, Halloek started a public relations firm, the earliest incaration of what he calls the oldest continuously operatcd advertising agency
in the state. It is now run by his third wife, Jackie, whom he named in 1969.
In 1962, he decided to enter politics. A lifelong Democrat, Hallock defeated popular Multnomah County party boss Frank Roberts
and headed for the state Senate in 1963.
"He was a very liberal senator in a very conservative Senate,” says U.S. District Judge James Redden. “The guy is a genius. A lot of
bills were prepared for his assault, and were better for it”
Kitzhaber, who served with Hallock in the Senate, says~ "Ted was the single best spontaneous orator wc’ve ever had in the legislature.
I saw him kill bills that had the voles to pass, where votes were dropping off as he was speaking."
Even Hallock’s allies concede that his effectiveness as a legislator may have been hindered by his caustic and sometimcs vindictive nature,
He was famously intolerant of ill-prepared testimony from lobbyists. dissecting adversaries with withering contempt.
Hallock is survived by his wife, Jackie, and two daughters. rr