OPINION
6A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, AUGUST 8, 2017
SOUTHERN EXPOSURE
Founded in 1873
DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor
JEREMY FELDMAN, Circulation Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
OUR VIEW
Health authority’s
smear plans should
outrage taxpayers
lthough the plan went nowhere, Oregonians should be
outraged that a state agency even considered planting
negative news stories about a health care nonprofit.
The Portland Tribune broke the story last week about an
Oregon Health Authority proposal to promote negative news
coverage and undermine the credibility of FamilyCare Health,
one of the state’s coordinated care organizations.
The draft communications plan included looking for an
HIV patient who would complain about FamilyCare and try-
ing to get a journalist to write about that patient’s experience.
Journalists often work off such tips, but it’s beyond callous for a
state agency — especially the state health agency — to consider
exploiting a patient in such a way.
The plan never was implemented. Lynne Saxton, director of
the Oregon Health Authority, said it was part of an initial draft
that was soon squelched.
“If something bad happens (at OHA), I take full responsibility
for it, as I am doing here,” she told us on Monday.
Saxton said she encourages her staff to be creative. But the
fact that anyone in a state agency would even suggest planting
negative news stories raises questions about the culture at the
Oregon Health Authority and the leadership of Democratic Gov.
Kate Brown.
“This is outrageous. I’ve never heard or seen anything like
this,” said state Sen. Jackie Winters, R-Salem, whose roots in
state government reach back to the Tom McCall administration.
“This is not the Oregon way. Our way is to work collabora-
tively and hammer out compromises, not to throw people under
the bus just because you disagree with them.”
The health authority already had raised eyebrows this year for
its aggressive press releases about its dispute with FamilyCare,
with which the health authority has been in litigation and media-
tion for 2 1/2 years.
It’s been a tough year for the state health department. This
spring, Republican legislators criticized the health authority and
the state Department of Environmental Quality for attempting
“to push a misleading story line” regarding health and environ-
mental concerns at Entek International in Lebanon. Legislators
also were upset that the health authority may have been authoriz-
ing state-paid health care to substantial numbers of Oregonians
who were ineligible, despite assurances to the Legislature that
everything was under control.
Against that backdrop, it’s troubling that the state was slow to
respond to last week’s Tribune article.
Saxton told us that she would be sending a letter of apol-
ogy to Oregon’s coordinating care organizations, assuring them
that the health author-
ity would treat them
‘Our way is to work
fairly and would not
tolerate negative pub-
collaboratively
lic-relations efforts.
and hammer out
She also will ask the
compromises, not
state Department of
Justice to train her
to throw people
staff on attorney-client
under the bus
privilege.
Those may be
just because you
worthwhile steps,
disagree with them.’
assuming they pro-
mote transparency and
Sen. Jackie Winters, R-Salem
openness instead of
finding ways to hide
“creative” ideas under the veil of attorney-client privilege. Still,
it is disconcerting that the Governor’s Office did not immedi-
ately respond to the Tribune’s revelations.
One leading Republican candidate for governor, Bend Rep.
Knute Buehler, said the Oregon Health Authority’s negative-pub-
licity plan – even though it never was implemented – demon-
strates arrogance and a lack of accountability by a state agency.
The state’s CEO, Gov. Brown, should recognize that as well.
A
LETTERS WELCOME
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Submitted Photo
Seaside lifeguards were assisted by a St. Bernard in the 1930s.
Swimmers braved the
waters of Terrible Tilly
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
regon surfing began in
1962,” states a recent
book on the topic.
Family members of brothers
James and Chuck Reed want to let it
be known that their relatives staked
out Seaside long before legends like
Dana Williams and Dick Wald surfed
the Point in the 1960s.
“Jim supervised the construction
of the first real Hawaiian surfboard
ever used in Oregon,” Melinda Mas-
ters, his niece, said. “He introduced
surfing to Seaside and explained to
the public how the surfboard is con-
siderable value to lifesaving work.
“These were the original ‘Beach
Boys,’” Masters’ brother, also named
Jim Reed, said.
“People here did
not know what a
surfboard was.”
All this may not
even match Jim
Reed’s greatest ath-
letic achievement: a 9-mile swim
from Seaside to Tillamook Light-
house in July 1934 — Terrible Tilly,
aka “The Killer Lighthouse.”
Masters and Reed came to Sea-
side this summer to celebrate the
lives of two men, largely forgotten,
for their incredible string of achieve-
ments: as swimmers, surfers, life-
guards and ultimately, in the case
of James Reed, in service to their
country.
‘O
Webfoots
Charles W. Reed Jr. and James
Reed grew up in Hawaii in the early
20th century after Charles Reed Sr.,
an accountant, and the family moved
from the Northwest.
The boys grew up on Waikiki
Beach, where the sport of he’e nalu
— “wave sliding” — was integrated
into the culture.
While in Hawaii, the Reeds
“surfed at the knee” of Duke Kah-
anamoku, the famous competition
swimmer and founder of modern
surfing.
The Reeds were younger, but
“they were on the same beach,” Mas-
ters said. “I’m sure they met up.”
Their early experience riding
longboards stayed with them after
their return to the mainland to study
at the University of Oregon, where
both were recruited for the swim
team, known as the Webfoots.
Jim Reed was a individual med-
ley and freestyle specialist who
helped lead the team to the 1936
Pacific Coast championship.
Chuck was 200-yard backstroke
champion and several times bettered
the record mark in the 100- and 220-
yard backstroke.
Together the brothers would
help forge a program that remained
unbeaten in dual-meet competitions
during their Oregon tenure under
head coach Mike Hoyman, winning
three straight Pacific Coast Confer-
ence Northern Division champion-
ships from 1935 through 1937.
Along with other University of
Oregon swimmers, the Reeds life-
guarded in Seaside over summers.
The Reed brothers first consid-
ered bringing boards to the coast as
a way to aid people in distress, Reed
said.
If they had longboards like they
grew up with in Hawaii, the broth-
ers reasoned, they could reach strug-
gling swimmers more quickly. And
once they reached the victims, they
could use the board to hold onto for
the return to shore.
“Surf board riding introduced
here by beach life guards,” a Seaside
Signal headline announced. “Reed
supervised the construction of the
first real Hawaiian surf board ever
used here … When the tide and surf
are right, Reed can ride the board for
several hundred yards to the beach.”
R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
Jim Reed and Melinda Masters, whose father was Chuck Reed, at the
Signal office. Jim was named after his uncle, James Reed, who died
during World War II.
Swim to the lighthouse
Aftermath
Swimmer Julie Havelka of
Jim Reed died as he lived, Mas-
Eugene made headlines in July
ters said, as a hero protecting others,
when she swam the mouth of the
and giving of himself.
Columbia.
A test pilot, Jim’s plane went
She was following in a long
down in 1942. Even in death he was
tradition.
a hero, she said. Before the crash, he
Long-distance swims were pop-
ordered his crew to bail out. Once
ularized in the 1920s by English
his crew had safely left the air-
Channel swims and silent star
craft, Jim remained with his craft in
Johnny Weissmuller, better known
an unsuccessful attempt to land the
as the actor who played “Tarzan.”
plane.
Jim Reed undertook the crossing
“My dad and my uncle were
when he entered the first Columbia
only a year apart,” Masters said.
River swim as a contestant, a fea-
“When we lost him in the war, it
ture of the 1934 Astoria Regatta.
was very traumatic for my father. It
The swim was a 4 1/2-mile stretch
was hard for him to talk about. My
from Megler, Washington,
grandmother was never the
on the north bank to Astoria
same.”
on the south.
Chuck Reed began a
Jim won the race in a
career with the phone com-
time of 2 hours, 34 min-
pany in 1940, but “kept
utes. His performance won
coming back” to Seaside,
so much approval, wrote
Masters said.
the Astorian’s Vera Gault in
As a lifeguard in 1942,
2011, that the race was pub-
Chuck Reed fought a riptide
Jim
licized as a race called the
that carried seven swim-
Reed
“trans-Columbia amateur
mers to sea. Reed, with
marathon swim.”
three of the distressed swimmers on
That feat was only surpassed by
his shoulders, battled the current and
Jim Reed’s 9-mile swim from Sea-
the breakers “for better than a half an
side to the Tillamook Lighthouse
hour,” the Oregon Journal reported.
rock in the Pacific Ocean on July
Reed managed to get the three to
20, 1934, what the Signal’s Ful-
a buoy, “then, almost exhausted,” he
ton H. Travis described as “9 miles
swam to the shore for help.
of cold ocean and treacherous cur-
Two of the seven swimmers
rents,” battling the sea all the way.
caught in the undertow died as hun-
Accompanied by U of O free-
dreds watched the dramatic rescue at
style swimmer Wally Hug, Jim
the Turnaround.
Reed and Hug lubricated them-
selves with axle grease at 5:30 a.m.,
American heroes
launched by a small pilot boat cap-
Surfing on the North Coast lan-
tained by one Bill Hoops.
guished for many years after the
By 8 a.m., “the stroke of the
Reeds first brought the Hawaiian
swimmers has slowed percepti-
longboard, the younger Jim Reed
bly,” wrote Travis, who accompa-
said.
nied Hoops in the skiff. “The strain
It wasn’t until the popularization
is terrific. Their faces have gone
of the wetsuit — developed by Jack
dead white beneath their tans and
O’Neill in the 1950s — that the sport
the lines of their faces have drawn
came northward and modern surfing
tense. Their lips are black with
took hold in Seaside.
cold.”
Chuck Reed died in 1989 and his
Hug complained of seasickness
wife, Georgette, died in 2002.
and leaned against the boat for a sip
In 2015, James Reed was named
of beef broth before resuming his
into the University of Oregon sports
swim.
Hall of Fame. Reed “helped attract
The pilot boat rocked “drunk-
national acclaim on Oregon’s swim-
enly,” according to the report, as
ming program unlike any other,” the
Hoops called out “Riptide!”
athletic department wrote at the time
Panting and nearly exhausted,
of presentation.
the swimmers rolled onto their
What inspired this retelling was a
backs when the riptide crossed.
box received by Masters by the war
As the lighthouse grew in size,
widow of Jim Reed. She had remar-
the waves “grow bigger with every
ried, but the impact of her first hus-
passing minute,” finally close
band was so powerful she and her
enough for Reed and Hug to board
second husband named their daugh-
the skiff and tumble into a swing-
ter Reed in his honor. The contents
ing basket and hauled to the beacon. of the box proved so compelling
“Perfect manipulation of the oars is
Masters later sought to revive the
necessary to keep from shipping a
memories of her father and uncle.
wave,” reported the Signal.
“I’m the one that went through
At 9:25 a.m., the swimmers
this box that was sent to me by the
reached their destination.
widow of Jim Reed,” Masters said.
Their final time was registered
The American flag that draped his
in the lighthouse log dated July 20,
coffin was in the personal collection.
1934: “The first men to make the
“I almost didn’t want to touch it,
swim from Seaside to the Tillamook because it was so emotional,” she
Lighthouse: 3 hours, 45 minutes.”
said. “It was just amazing to find out
They were treated to a hot bath
who he was.”
and a breakfast of “fried eggs, slabs
R.J. Marx is The Daily Astori-
of ham, seagoing coffee, fresh bread an’s South County reporter and edi-
baked by one of the crew,” and
tor of the Seaside Signal and Cannon
canned fruit for dessert.
Beach Gazette.