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Republicans and Democrats remember Peter Courtney, legendary leader of Oregon senate, who governed the ‘Oregon Way’

A stack of programs rest on a chair during a memorial service for Peter Courtney held in the Oregon State Capitol, Salem, Ore., Jan. 29, 2025.
Anna Lueck
/
OPB
A stack of programs rest on a chair during a memorial service for Peter Courtney held in the Oregon State Capitol, Salem, Ore., Jan. 29, 2025.

Courtney's oratory skills were unequaled and his influence over state politics arguably unmatched. Perhaps most noteworthy in today’s era, he embodied a style of government he believed was the “Oregon Way” - the type of governing where you compromised and listened and remembered what it felt like to not be part of the political majority.

Peter Courtney, the longest-serving state lawmaker in Oregon history, died in July. But on Wednesday, in the state Senate where his booming voice was a constant for decades, many said they felt like they could still hear him.

Lawmakers, a former governor and the current one, political staffers and lobbyists, along with Courtney’s family, gathered in the upper chamber to remember the life of a Salem legend who often referred to himself by his full name: Peter Michael Coleman Courtney.

“I don’t know if any of the rest of you feel this, but I feel his presence up here and I hear his voice in my head and I hear him saying, ‘invoke already!’” said Lori Brocker, the former longtime secretary of the Oregon Senate. “So we pray, in whatever way that you are comfortable, gathered together to celebrate and honor and remember one of Oregon’s greatest leaders.”

Courtney was a one-of-a kind character in Oregon politics. His oratory skills were unequaled and his influence over state politics arguably unmatched. Perhaps most noteworthy in today’s era, he embodied a style of government he believed was the “Oregon Way” - the type of governing where you compromised and listened and remembered what it felt like to not be part of the political majority.

Courtney once said he felt serving as a state senator was " a spiritual calling, the most glorious, honorable, noble role that a citizen of this country, of this state, can possibly be given.”

Legislative Administrator Brett Hanes, right, presents Margie Courtney, Peter Courtney's wife, with an Oregon flag during a memorial service for Peter Courtney held in the Oregon State Capitol, Salem, Ore., Jan. 29, 2025. Courtney was the longest serving legislator in Oregon's history.
Anna Lueck
/
OPB
Legislative Administrator Brett Hanes, right, presents Margie Courtney, Peter Courtney's wife, with an Oregon flag during a memorial service for Peter Courtney held in the Oregon State Capitol, Salem, Ore., Jan. 29, 2025. Courtney was the longest serving legislator in Oregon's history.

As evidence to his style of leadership, there were members of both political parties who spoke at Wednesday’s celebration of life.

They included Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek and her two opponents in the 2022 gubernatorial race, current House Republican Leader Christine Drazan and Betsy Johnson, who is a former state Senator. Johnson ran against both women as an unaffiliated candidate in the governor’s race.

Johnson remembered Courtney’s role in preserving the Metolius River basin in Central Oregon, a move that meant the river would be protected from development. Johnson has property on the river and was intimately involved in the fight. In general, she said, Courtney had the ability to use “his soaring oratory, his powers of persuasion, his ability to scare the crap out of people, me included, to affect change.”

Republican Leader Drazan recalled how she was in her early 20s when she first got to know Courtney and she watched how the Democrat interacted with his Republican counterpart in the House.

“The issues were just as important and highly charged as today, but somehow those two men managed to be human beings with each other,” she said.

And Gov. Kotek, who served as House Speaker during some of Courtney’s tenure, nodded back to Courtney’s Oregon origin story.

He often told the story of how he spent two years at the Salem YMCA when he first arrived in town, shortly after he finished law school in Boston, sleeping on a Murphy bed. In the 2017 session, he secured millions of dollars to renovate the YMCA building where he made so many memories.

Governor Tina Kotek gives remarks during a memorial service for Peter Courtney held in the Oregon State Capitol, Salem, Ore., Jan. 29, 2025.
Anna Lueck
/
OPB
Governor Tina Kotek gives remarks during a memorial service for Peter Courtney held in the Oregon State Capitol, Salem, Ore., Jan. 29, 2025.

“Many of us know the story of how Peter came from West by God, Virginia, to his beloved Oregon staying at his beloved YMCA in Salem,” Kotek said. “Peter never forgot his journey or the things he learned along the way. He never forgot to stand up for those who needed a champion like the individuals who died at the Oregon State Hospital for whom he fought for their dignity and respectful resting place.”

Former Democratic Gov. Kate Brown spoke as well, recalling Courtney’s discovery at the decrepit Oregon State Hospital of unclaimed copper urns holding patient remains. It became a central narrative in his push to improve things for Oregonians with mental illness. The state hospital is now named the Peter Courtney Salem Campus of the Oregon State Hospital — a move Brown made as one of her last acts in office.

Courtney served 38 years in the Legislature. He spent 20 years in the powerful role of Senate President; both are records.

“The most enduring quality of my father is that he cared about others more than himself,” Sean Courtney, his son, said at the service. “He loved to learn a person’s story. He would also move heaven and earth to help someone in need. And I want to believe that everyone has gathered here today because Peter Courtney has touched their lives in some way and has likely helped them at a time when they needed it most.”

Lauren Dake is a politics and policy reporter for Oregon Public Broadcasting, a JPR news partner. Her reporting comes to JPR through the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.