A5
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, MAY 30, 2020
Arlene Schnitzer
January 10, 1929 – April 4, 2020
rlene Director Schnitzer,
businesswoman, philanthropist, and
civic leader passed away Saturday,
April 4th, 2020 in Portland Oregon at
age 91. Born in Salem Oregon her parents Simon
and Helen Director moved to Portland when she
was 3 years old. She attended grade school and one
year of high school in
Portland before
transferring to Westlake
school for girls in Los
Angeles where she
graduated in 1947. From a
young age, she was very
involved in Portland Civic
Theater and after one year
at the University of
Washington, she was
intending to enroll at USC
in Los Angeles to pursue
becoming an actress, when
she met Harold Schnitzer
in the summer of 1949. At
the end of their first date,
she turned to him and said, “Harold you are going
to marry me, so you better get used to the idea!”
Harold Schnitzer always said he liked a woman who
was decisive and after several weeks of dating they
were engaged and married five weeks later in
September 1949.
Married for 62 years they were life-long partners
in business, the arts, and philanthropy. She helped
Harold start Harsch Investment Corp. which
is now run by their son Jordan and has become
one of the largest privately-owned real estate
companies in the Western United States. In 1961
after attending the Portland Art Museum Art
School, now called the Pacific Northwest College
of Art, she opened the first art gallery in Portland
Oregon, the Fountain Gallery of Art. She operated
the gallery until 1987 and during those 26 years, she
was instrumental in helping many businesses and
individuals understand the importance of having
art in their life. In addition to operating the gallery,
she also produced a current events television show
for 14 years and was the host of her own interview
program on Oregon Public Broadcasting. In 1998
Harold and Arlene established The Harold and
Arlene CARE Foundation, which has now funded
over 150 million dollars to non-profits in the Pacific
Northwest and in several other West Coast cities.
The Foundations’ principal interests are art and
culture, social services, at-risk youth education,
and medical care. Arlene and Harold were very
proud of having endowed The Harold Schnitzer
Diabetic Health Center at Oregon Health Sciences
University, which provides care for over 7,000
patients a year, irrespective of their financial ability
to pay.
In 1984 the family made their first philanthropic
gift to help renovate The Arlene Schnitzer Concert
Hall now referred to as the “Schnitz.” In addition to
philanthropic support, Arlene was highly recognized
as one of the best board members for her energetic
leadership and served many organizations, such
as The Portland Art Museum, Oregon Health
Sciences University, The Children’s Institute, Girls
Inc, Oregon Symphony, the College of the Desert,
McCallum Theater in Palm Desert, Palm Springs
Art Museum, the Palm Spring International Film
Festival, the Rancho Mirage Writers Festival, the
National Council of the Fine Arts Museums in San
Francisco and The Performing Art Committee of
The Kennedy Center of Washington DC.
Arlene and Harold were always committed to the
arts and established The Center for Northwest Art
and several curatorial positions at The Portland Art
Museum. At Portland State University, they funded
The James DePreist professorship and Endowment
created to hire and enable professors dedicated to
helping students understand multicultural art The
Arlene Schnitzer Arts prize-awards students from
the College of the Arts cash prizes to recognize
their talented work.
In addition to being significant collectors of
contemporary artists of the Pacific Northwest,
Arlene and Harold became fascinated by Chinese
Han antiquities which are over 2,000 years old. For
45 years they assembled the most important private
Han Dynasty collection in the United States, which
is now on display at The Portland Art Museum
in the Harold and Arlene Schnitzer wing of early
Chinese art.
Arlene always wanted to help young people
giving and incredibly candid. Her only real hobby,
have opportunities to become the best they
in addition to helping people and collecting art, was
can be. A youth
reading and golf which,
philanthropy program
she was very good at!
CommuniCare was
“Astoria and all Astorians have lost a close
established which
On January 21, 2020
friend with the passing of Arlene Schnitzer.
helps over 600 high
Arlene made her last
She was the leading lady of philanthropy
school students learn
public appearance
in Oregon. The impact Arlene had on
to be grant makers.
when she was honored
These youth groups
for making the largest
our community of Astoria was immense.
fund over $500,000
contribution to the
Arlene was the leading benefactor of the
annually in grants to
Portland Art Museum
renovation of the Astoria Column. She not
local non-profits.
in its 128-year history!
Arlene received many
awards which include a
Doctorate of Humane
Letters, Portland
State University 2004,
Oregon Governors Arts
Award 2008 Honorary
Doctor of Fine Arts
Degree PNCA 2011.
Arlene and Harold
were named Portland’s
First Citizens in 1995.
While Arlene was
proud of all the
accomplishments and
recognition, she was
most importantly a
wife, mother, aunt,
and loyal friend.
only gave money, but her idea’s to improve
the monument and the entire park. Arlene
gave the closing and largest donation to
the Garden of Surging Waves. Arlene was
the first person, (and one of only 10 ), to
donate to the Astoria Riverfront Tolley
Association which enabled our community
to buy “Old 300”, our beloved trolley.
Arlene was a champion of our youth
through Astoria High School athletics
and scholarships. Astoria is a better place
because of a lifetime of support from our
friend Arlene Schintzer. I miss her and
Astoria misses her.”
WILLIS L. VAN DUSEN
Mayor of Astoria, 1991 through 2014
Her concluding
remarks sum up her
philosophy of giving
back “I want to inspire
other people and other
families to do things
for their community.
If you don’t do it, and
I don’t do it, who is
going to do it? You
owe something.... you
can’t just take in the
fresh air. You have
- to be responsible.
There’s only one way
to show it. You either
‘put up or shut up’...
you have - to show a
community you care
about it!
Growing up with parents who were immigrants,
she always felt lucky to live in this country. When
Arlene was a young girl, she decided she wanted
to “make something of herself”. Her drive and
ambition led to a life full of passion, Passion for
family, for friends, for the arts, for making the world
a better place and most of all a marriage of 62 years!
Over the last several decades Arlene was given
many tributes. As the date of the event got closer,
she would say “why did I agree to this, there are
so many more deserving people.” Arlene was
always humble about her achievements and felt
she was the lucky one to be able to give back to the
communities she cared about.
She certainly had a fun side! She loved jewelry, clothes,
and getting and giving presents. You should have
seen her Christmas and Hanukkah lists. If she met a
bellman in Pittsburgh she liked, he got a gift! Chinese
food – could not get enough! Finally, chocolate chip
cookies – she rarely cooked but when she did it was
to bake 500 chocolate chip cookies – the kitchen was
a disaster, and her husband Harold always cleaned up
the kitchen when she was done cooking!
If there are tears for Arlene, they should be tears
of joy, she felt so blessed to live the life she had, to
become the person she dreamed of being when she
was a little girl.
Arlene is survived by her son Jordan,
granddaughters Audria and Arielle, grandsons
Samuel and Simon and many nieces and nephews.
Arlene was smart, sassy, full of wisdom, tough, kind,
To honor her memory the family suggests
contributions be made to The Portland Art Museum
(Karie.burch@pam.org), Pacific Northwest College
of the Arts(chorter@pnca.edu), or The Harold
Schnitzer Diabetes Health Center at OHSU
(mcilveen@ohsu.edu). A private family service has
already taken place and a larger public memorial
will be planned in the future.