Thomas Lawson McCall is an American politician of the second half of the 20th century. Was the thirtieth governor of Oregon from 1967 to 1975 from the Republican Party. He went down in history as a bright politician, an excellent orator with an extraordinary gift of persuasion.
Biography
Thomas McCall was born in Egypt, Massachusetts, in 1913, where he spent his childhood. He was the grandson of the "copper king" Thomas Lawson and Congressman Samuel W. McCall. As a child, he often moved from one grandfather's estate to another's ranch and back.
Tom graduated from high school in Redmond, and then entered the University of Oregon. However, later financial problems began in the family, he was forced to interrupt his studies, and therefore he received a degree in journalism only five years later. His grandfather Thomas Lawson eventually went bankrupt.
Journalistic career
After graduating in 1936, he worked as a freelance correspondent for various newspapers in the city of Bend, and then moved to the university city of Moscow. Here he wrote notes for News-Review.
He liked journalistic work, but fate knows better who where to serve the society. McCall briefly served as a correspondent on a warship, and was once asked by KGW radio to talk about it. When the station manager heard his voice, he immediately demanded a contract with the journalist, and Thomas was hired as a news announcer.
Until 1949, he worked in this place, and then he was hired as assistant to Oregon Governor Douglas McKay. He stayed there for three years, and then returned to radio, to move to television a little later.
He became an announcer at an Oregon television station, and worked there for over a year - until 1954, when he moved to another post. From that time on, he began to take confident steps in politics.
Political career
McCall first ran for governor of Oregon in 1954, but lost to Edith Green. He was lucky only in 1966, and in 1970 he was re-elected again. As governor, he paid great attention to environmental protection and land use planning. Thus, he made a significant contribution to the development of the state.
Grateful Oregonians immortalized his work in bronze - they erected a monument on the banks of the Willamette River.
He would probably be re-elected again, but the Oregon Constitution only allows for two terms as governor. After leaving his senior position, McCall worked as a commentator for the Portland television company KATU.
McCall died of prostate cancer at the age of 69 at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Portland on January 8, 1983.
Personal life
In February 1939, the future governor met Audrey Owen from Spokane, and a few months later they were already husband and wife. They had two sons: Samuel Walker McCall III, who died at the age of 40, and Thomas "Ted" McCall, an environmental consultant.
