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THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2022
146th Year, No. 56
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Faculty
implore
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to reject
budget
Members of the Corey family gather for their family
council during the 2022 lambing at Cunningham Sheep
Co. in Nolin between Pendleton and Echo.
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — Faculty
of Blue Mountain Community
College, Pendleton, took a unifi ed
stance Monday, April 25, against
the budget proposal calling for
numerous layoff s and program cuts
at the college.
The budget committee, though,
held off on making any decision
after meeting for the better part of
three hours.
BMCC instructors gathered at
the Pendleton campus before the
committee discussed the college
administration’s proposal to elim-
inate 10 full-time teaching posi-
tions, several part-time positions
in multiple disciplines and elimi-
nating criminal justice, college prep
and industrial systems technology
programs. They had prepared state-
ments to deliver to the committee,
the rest of the college board and the
administration. The East Oregonian
obtained several of the statements.
Just getting into the boardroom
took some eff ort. The college was
not going to let instructors into the
meeting. BMCC President Mark
Browning in the hallway outside
the room agreed faculty could go on
one at a time to address the board.
Math instructor Bob Hillenbrand
went fi rst.
He told the committee and
Browning that a similar scenario
played out in 2002-03, when Travis
Kirkland was president of the
college.
“Just like then, we’re now hear-
ing claims of the imminent demise
of the college,” Hillenbrand said, “a
false pretext for radical action from
someone who just arrived primed
with an anti-faculty agenda.”
But 20 years later, Blue Moun-
tain continues operating. He warned
this fi ght will end up in arbitration
and the outcome will be the same as
it was then. The college spent nearly
$500,000 fi ghting legal challenges
during Kirkland’s tenure, Hillen-
brand said, and lost all of them.
“Don’t waste precious college
funds on lawyers,” he urged.
Hillenbrand also said Browning
was deceptive in his use of fi gures
and obscured facts, such as the
39 classifi ed and administration
See BMCC, Page A7
Steve Corey/Contributed Photo
FAMILY FARM
Cunningham Sheep Co. gives term new meaning
By SIERRA DAWN
MCCLAIN
Capital Press
P
ENDLETON —
Inside the Pend-
le t on Wo ole n
Mills retail store,
shoppers oohed
and aahed while
fi ngering vibrantly
colored clothing and blankets.
“I love people’s reactions. That’s
the most gratifying thing about this
work,” said John Bishop, president
of Pendleton Woolen Mills.
In the adjoining mill — run by
generations of the same family
since 1909 — skilled artisans
worked alongside roaring machin-
ery. Wool was carded, aligned
into roving, wound onto spools,
stretched and twisted into yarn on
spinning frames and sent to looms
to be woven into cloth.
Some of this wool came from
Pendleton-based Cunningham
Sheep Co., one of Oregon’s larg-
est and oldest family-run farms,
with thousands of sheep plus
cattle, timber, wheat and hunting
grounds.
Those familiar with the farm
say its success was built on more
than just land and capital; it also
was forged through five gener-
ations of family members, each
contributing to the farm in diff er-
ent ways through a highly orches-
trated business structure.
“We are truly a family ranch
with almost a 100-year history
in the same family, and to me,
that’s the most important thing,
not so much how much sagebrush
we’ve got,” said Steve Corey, 75,
a member of the family farm and
who has served on the farm’s board
of directors.
Five generations
According to family records,
the sheep business was founded
by Charles Cunningham in 1873.
In 1933, Mac Hoke and his
business partner, Don Cameron,
acquired it. Cameron later sold to
Hoke’s family, in whose hands the
farm has remained ever since.
Hoke and his wife, Carrie, the
fi rst generation, had two daughters:
Joan and Helen, the second gener-
ation.
Joan married a Corey and Helen
married a Levy.
Joan Hoke Corey had three chil-
dren and Helen Hoke Levy had six
— the third generation.
In the fourth generation, there
are six Coreys and 17 Levys.
The fifth generation is
comprised of around 30 children.
About 75% of the family has
stayed in Eastern Oregon, and
most family members — includ-
ing the children — spend some
time on the farm.
Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press
A pair of Cunningham Sheep Co.’s 4-year-old Rambouillet rams.
Everyone has a voice
Industry leaders and commu-
nity members say the farm’s
success is partly attributable to
its structure, which strategically
incorporates generations of family
members.
Direct lineal descendants
inherit interest in the company, but
non-owners also play a role.
The family has two entities that
contribute to the business: a family
board and a family council.
The board includes eight family
members and one independent
director. Board members vote on
business decisions. The current
board has seven fourth-generation
family members and one third-gen-
eration member. Older generations
are transitioning out.
The family council is separate,
existing to give everyone a voice.
Spouses of lineal descendants are
allowed to participate. Although
council members don’t get to vote
on business decisions, the council
keeps the family connected and is a
“breeding ground for ideas,” Steve
Corey said.
On some family farms, only
those who actually work the ground
get an ownership stake and a say in
how the farm is run, but that’s not
the case with Cunningham Sheep
Co. This family encourages each
generation to pursue their own
career interests, on or off the farm,
but to be part of the farm either
way.
Some family members have
chosen farm life, including Dick
Levy, who manages cattle, and
Bob Levy, who oversees sheep.
Others have chosen off -farm occu-
pations, including Steve Corey,
who worked in the farm’s wheat
fi elds when he was young, stud-
ied history at Yale University and
law at Stanford University, then
returned to practice as an attorney
in Eastern Oregon.
Both categories — those in
full-time farming and those with
off-farm careers — participate
in the family board and council,
contributing their skills and knowl-
edge to the farm.
Sharing responsibility between
family members has kept the busi-
ness in its best shape, said Corey,
though it has demanded “a great
deal of coordination and commu-
nication.”
‘Wool was king’
Early in the farm’s history,
Cunningham Sheep Co. had about
25,000 sheep, and the farm has a
long history of selling its wool
exclusively to Pendleton Woolen
Mills.
“Back then, wool was king,”
said Glen Krebs, the farm’s lead
sheep herder.
As markets changed through
the decades, Cunningham Sheep
Co. whittled down its flock —
the farm now keeps about 4,000
ewes, plus rams and lambs — and
expanded into other commodities.
In the 1960s, the family added
cattle and now raises 1,200
cow-calf pairs annually. The family
also diversifi ed by adding wheat,
timberland and a hunting operation
called Hunt Oregon LLC.
Since the 1950s, the farm has
increased its acreage by 60% to
80%.
Steve Corey showed a map of
the family’s holdings: private land,
timberlands and federal grazing
lands extending across Umatilla
County and parts of Morrow and
Union counties. Corey estimated
the farm is larger than 75,000 acres.
Although the farm now
produces a diverse mix of live-
stock, wheat and timber, many
locals still know Cunningham
Sheep Co. best for what gave the
farm its name: sheep.
Fine-wooled Rambouillets
Wool remains a major part of
the farm 149 years after Cunning-
ham started the business.
The Coreys and Levys raise
Rambouillet sheep, a large, white-
faced breed that produces fine
wool soft enough to be worn next
to the skin.
“Shearing is a busy time,”
Krebs said.
He ascended a ramp to the
upper story of a barn lined with
shearing stations.
Annually, he said, the farm
pays a shearing contractor to bring
in several shearers.
Shearing is fast-paced. Shorn
sheep are guided down chutes
resembling slides at a park, while
handlers classify the wool’s qual-
ity before it’s mechanically stuff ed
into bags.
When Krebs was growing up,
his family stuff ed round burlap
bags, often 7 ½ feet tall, with wool
manually rather than mechani-
cally.
“When I was little, they’d throw
me in a bag and I’d have to work
my way out,” he said.
He chuckled.
Krebs is not part of either the
Levy or Corey side. The family
hired him because he has a life-
time of industry knowledge;
Krebs’ family also runs an East-
ern Oregon sheep business.
The farm hired Krebs in 2013
after their former Basque lead
sheep herder, Juan Erice, retired.
To the mill
Once wool is bagged, it’s
shipped to Pendleton Woolen
Mills.
The mill and farm have a long-
standing relationship built on trust.
For decades, the mill has commit-
ted to buy the farm’s wool at the
best price it can aff ord to off er.
Pendleton’s wool buyer does a
visual inspection, talks with the
farm about the year’s clip and
negotiates a price.
“If you want to call it a hand-
shake relationship, you can call
it that,” said Dan Gutzman, who
manages Pendleton’s wool buying
department. “But it’s one that’s
withstood (decades).”
Corey said Pendleton Woolen
Mills has been loyal, buying the
farm’s wool even during diffi cult
years.
Many factors drive the interna-
tional wool market. Tariff s, disease
outbreaks, drought and shipping
congestion all impact pricing.
Pendleton Woolen Mills
consumes about 2.4 million
scoured pounds of wool annu-
ally — 40% from domestic
growers, 60% from overseas —
and Cunningham is one of the
longest-standing suppliers.
Wool, however, isn’t the farm’s
main money-maker. More profi t
comes from selling meat and
breeding stock.
See Farm, Page A7