Robert W. Straub's Political Career

Robert W. Straub was born in San Francisco, California on May 6, 1920. He received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Science degrees in Business Administration at Dartmouth College. During World War II, Straub served as a second lieutenant in the United States Army. Eventually in 1994, he married his wife Pat, who was influential during his governor years, and had five children. Him and his wife moved to Oregon in 1946 and Straub eventually became a builder and developer in Eugene. Straub is not only known as a husband, a father, and a soldier, but historically notorious as the 31st Governor of Oregon. During time in office, he was noted as an important figure to Oregon, especially when he was the first leader to voice a concern about air

During his time at Lane, Straub became a passionate advocate of natural resource management and conservation. A year later, he was elected to a four-year term as the state treasurer and earned the reputation of being financially conservative. As a state treasurer, he worked to create the Local Government Investment Pool (LGIP) and the Oregon Public employees Retirement System (PERS). LGIP is a voluntary investment vehicle with the objectives: safety of principle, maintaining adequate liquidity to meet cash flows, and providing a competitive interest rate relative to other comparable investment alternatives ("For Local Governments."). On the other hand, PERS lives by their mission statement which states, “We serve the people of Oregon by administering public employee benefit trusts to pay the right person the right benefit at the right time” ("State of Oregon: Public Employees Retirement System."). The organization, PERS, initiate specific planning to develop a roadmap and support enterprise-level priorities and strategies that guide executive decisions, budget development, and resource allocation. Finally, as he worked his way up the political chain, Robert Straub became Oregon’s governor in 1975. During his time as governor, his main goal was to increase property tax relief and grant senior citizens with utility rate

The Chemeketa Community College (CCC) was the first of many colleges to help form the new taxing power in Oregon. Launched the previous year with LSCA funding, CCC plans to put a tax levy on the ballot to persist the Chemeketa Cooperative Regional Library Services. If the levy were to be approved, issued extensive library cards and bookmobile services to rural areas would be initiated, and seen as a mean of, “preventing double taxation of city residents who already are assessed for library service” (1975). It was very important for Straub to establish a state to satisfy people’s need in a safe environment, but he didn’t do it alone, his wife Pat was to help him find environmental issues. Pat Straub served on the Oregon Forestry Council, and donated ten acres of farm property to the city of Salem, which turned into a park. The Straub’s were the inspiration for the Straub Environmental Center, in the Salem-Keizer school district. Catherine Alexander, the executive director of the Straub Environmental Center, describes Patas having, “a conservation vein running through her independent of Bob Straub,” as she continues, “She had her own identity as a conservationist. She was kind of an unsung hero in our region and elsewhere.” The Straub’s