State News
Tycoon builds fortune, gives it away
incnMULIdiev ness
PORTLAND — Over the past
40 years, Joe Weston was quietly
building an empire on the city’s
east side, steadily acquiring land
and putting up apartments.
Now, just as quietly, he's plan
ning to give most of it away.
To him, its a simple matter of
principle: “I made up my mind
awhile ago that you don’t pass ex
cess wealth on from one genera
tion to another.”
“Joe is Oregon’s best-kept se
cret,” said developer Homer
Williams, a partner in the Hoyt
Street Yards project in northwest
Portland.
Here’s a guy with thousands
of apartments and millions of
square feet of commercial proper
ty. And eventually, it will all go
to charity. That’s the way Joe is.”
Growing up, Weston didn’t re
ally know what he wanted to do,
but he knew what he wanted to
be: better off.
He earned his way to Oregon
State University selling newspa
pers, working as a soda jerk and
sweeping up at a local bakery.
But he didn’t stay there long.
“I was sitting in one of those
big lecture halls at Oregon State,”
remembers Weston. “And I
thought, ‘There’s more money in
running a school than there is sit
ting in a school.’ So I started the
Portland Real Estate School.”
The school served as the
launching pad for his businesses.
“I came up with a plan, and I
stayed with it,” he said. “If you
do that, success is attainable.”
Just as Weston foresaw his own
success early on, he likewise
knew he’d eventually turn over
his assets to help others.
Toward that end, he formed the
Joseph E. Weston Foundation,
run by the Oregon Community
Foundation.
People don't know the name
Weston," said Greg Chaille, presi
dent of the Oregon Community
Foundation. “He’s not doing the
kind of giving that attracts publici
ty-”
Weston crafted a mission state
ment for the foundation five years
ago, and at the top of the list are
education, children and the work
ing poor.
My heart is with the working
poor,” he said. “I can relate to
them.”
Weston bought his first duplex
in 1957 with $2,500 in savings,
forming the Weston Investment
Co. A decade later, Weston In
vestment began swooping into
neighborhoods on Portland’s in
ner east side. The company
would purchase older homes, tear
them down and replace them
with apartments.
As the economy changed in the
80s, Weston began buying ware
houses and office buildings in
northeast Portland, then commer
cial properties in Washington
County.
In 1993, Weston made his
move into downtown Portland,
picking up the Commonwealth
Building at auction for $1.9 mil
lion.
By the end of 1997, Weston had
acquired eight downtown proper
ties — now worth $27.7 million
— on or near the city’s light-rail
lines.
In each of the past seven years,
Weston donated property valued
at more than $1 million to OCF,
then leased the land back from
the foundation.
There are tax advantages, but
proceeds go into the Weston
Fund, which funds a wide range
of organizations — from Cascade
AIDS Project to the House of
Umoja to Loaves and Fishes to
most Portland-area high schools.
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Record snowpacks raise
Oregon avalanche danger
The Associated Press
PORTLAND—The danger from
avalanches in Oregon and Wash
ington is the highest it’s been since
the 1930s.
“We’ve issued more warnings
this year than any other year, ’’said
Mark Moore, director of the North
west Weather and Avalanche Cen
ter in Seattle.
“It’s safe to say that while we
may not have had the most snow
of any year, the danger is the high
est it has ever been because of the
way the snow has accumulated. ”
Twenty-nine sites in Oregon
have set records for snow accumu
lation.
In the Olympic Mountains,
where the snowpack is nearly 260
percent of average, a two-man
crew was unable to conduct a
snow survey on Mount Craig be
cause the avalanche danger was
too high.
“These were experienced folks,
and when they got up there and
had avalanches starting below and
above them, they said, ‘No way,’
and turned around,” said Jon Lea
of the Natural Resources Conser
vation Service.
In the town of Diablo, Wash., a
snowslide closed a road to a near
by power plant, and crews had to
be flown in by helicopter.
“The avalanches have never
closed this road before,” Lea said.
“We’re seeing it all over —
avalanches are larger and running
farther than we ’ve e ver seen. ’ ’
A combination of steep bowls
and sizeable snowpack qualifies
Mount Hood Meadows as a Class
A avalanche zone, among the most
hazardous in the country.
Every morning, a dozen ski pa
trol members start their day on the
slopes above the ski runs, setting
explosive charges into slabs of
snow that have the potential to
start avalanches.
The mountain air resounds with
the thwipp of the air-compressed
“avalauncher” — a large, tubed
gun that fires an explosive charge
into inaccessible areas of the
mountain.
“Safety is always our number
one concern, and we’ve been espe
cially vigilant this year—we have
pressure to open on time, but
sometimes people just have to wait
until it’s safe,” said Stuart Hill, ski
patrol member. “We don’t want to
make it any more dangerous than
it already is.”
Ten years ago, Mount Hood
Meadows ski patrol director Jeffer
son Wong was swept away by an
avalanche on a ski run called The
Gulch shortly after the patrol set
off charges to knock down a slab of
unstable snow.
Rescuers dug him out in 12 min
utes, but it was too late. Like most
avalanche victims, Wong suffocat
ed.
So far this season, Oregon has
had one avalanche fatality. A
snowboarder from Spokane,
Wash., died in January when he
triggered a slide near Spout
Springs Ski Area in the Blue
Mountains.
Nationwide, 17 people have
died this season from avalanches.
Another 18 died in Canada. Those
numbers pale by comparison with
the 60 who have died this year in
Europe, including 38 killed last
month in Austria.
“There are more people and
more houses, and the mountains
are steeper,” Lea said of the Euro
pean death toll.
Experts say land-use practices
in Europe have made the danger
worse. Many steep mountains
have been denuded of trees, the
best defense against devastating
avalanches.
Pam Hayes, a forecaster with the
Northwest Avalanche Forecast
Center, said most of the danger in
the United States occurs on federal
lands, where few houses are built.
But Moore said unsafe logging
practices and people building va
cation homes in high-avalanche
danger zones could boost the num
ber of deaths here.
He said the arrival of spring
brings the most danger, especially
in back-country areas without
avalanche control.
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