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Military Service: Marines

THEODORE KULONGOSKI was born in rural Missouri in 1940 and grew up in St. Louis in a Catholic boys’ home. After graduating from high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and upon returning from duty in Southeast Asia, spent a few years as a truck driver and a bricklayer in a steel mill in Alton, Illinois. Those experiences and the availability of the GI Bill gave him the impetus and the financial opportunity to put himself through the University of Missouri, where he earned his undergraduate and law degrees.

Kulongoski served as a judicial clerk in Eugene and then established his own law firm. Kulongoski is the only governor in Oregon history to have served in all three branches of state government. He was a member of the Oregon House of Representatives (1975-1978) and the Oregon State Senate (1978-1983), where he authored the Oregon Public Employee Collective Bargaining Act. In 1987, he was named one of the top 71 Oregon lawyers in Best Lawyers in America and the same year was appointed Oregon insurance commissioner, where he led the reform of the Oregon workers’ compensation system. Elected Oregon attorney general in 1992, he reformed the state juvenile justice system. In 1997, he was elected to the Oregon Supreme Court where he served until mid-2001.

When Kulongoski was sworn in as governor in January 2003, Oregon faced the largest budget deficit since the Great Depression. He responded by changing the way Oregon budgets, building a principle-based budget designed to establish fiscal stability while delivering measurable returns. He made priority investments in economic development, workforce training and transportation infrastructure that helped turned Oregon’s economy around. He helped create over 150,000 jobs, attracted over a dozen new major employers to Oregon and substantially reduced the state’s hunger rate.

Winning reelection in 2006, Kulongoski remains committed to ensuring every Oregon child receives the educational opportunity to succeed and ensuring every student can access higher education or vocational training. In addition, he continues to work to guarantee no child in Oregon goes without access to affordable health care and to make Oregon a global leader in renewable and alternative energy.

Kulongoski and his wife, Mary Oberst, have three grown children and he recently became a grandfather. They enjoy backpacking and hiking. An avid fly-fisherman, Governor Kulongoski will throw a fly in any puddle or stream of water in Oregon.