Obituaries for George and Jeanne Pasero

 

Obituary: George Pasero (1917-1997)

George Paseo was as longtime sports editor of the Oregon Journal daily evening newspaper of Portland, Ore., and writer of the Journal’s popular “Pasero Says” sports column.

Although a newspaper journalist, George Pasero was in broadcasting, too, fitting it in his busy schedule. For example, Journal editions 1957-1959 carried this promotional blurb: “Listen to Pasero talk sports each evening, Monday through Friday, on Radio KPOJ –The Journal at 6:15 o’clock. “POJ” in the call letters represent Portland Oregon Journal.

From St. Helen, Ore., George Pasero graduated from high school there. He was a 1940 University of Oregon (Eugene, Ore.) graduate having transferred to the UO from Oregon State College (now Oregon State University, in Corvallis, Ore.)

His wife, Jeanne Yount Pasero was from Portland and a graduate of its Washington High School and a 1941 grad of Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash.

They married in 1948. He died in Portland at age 79 in 1997. She died at age 83 in 2002.

Read more about George Pasero here.

https://journalism.uoregon.edu/george-pasero

https://pamplinmedia.com/component/content/article?id=104981

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/1062991/george-pasero

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George Pasero was highly praised and well liked sports editor of the Oregon Journal, Portland’s evening newspaper and writer of its popular ‘Pasero Says’ sports column

Born: April 10, 1917, St. Helens, Ore.

Died March, 6 1997, Portland, Ore.

 

By John Nolen (with contribution by Linfielder Ken Wheeler) of Oregonian, Portland, March 7, 1992. Newspaper headline, “Longtime sports journalist dies of stroke at 79”

George Pasero, an award-winning journalist in the Northwest for four decades as a sports editor and columnist, died early Thursday from a massive stroke at Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital. He was 79.

Pasero suffered the stroke Wednesday and lapsed into a coma.

The former sports editor of the Oregon Journal wrote a weekly sports column for The Oregonian since retiring as a full-time columnist in 1985. He began writing columns, up to six times a week, in the late 1950s, when he was sports editor of The Journal.

His newspaper career, mostly in sports, spanned 57 years.

Fred Stickel, publisher of The Oregonian, said he considered Pasero “one of the most highly regarded and respected sports editors and columnists in the region.''

“He was at all times an honest and fair reporter, a genuinely good person who knew his trade and performed in a most professional manner,'' Stickel said. “He has a host of admirers and followers and will be missed by all. Certainly, he'll be missed by all of his associates at the Oregon Journal and in recent years at The Oregonian.'

Pasero was from the old, less-critical school of sportswriting, and he didn't stray from that style throughout his career.

In a column that ran Feb. 23 of this year, he wrote about The Oregonian Banquet of Champions:

“Dismiss for one evening the egomania, greed, and disrespect for authority that have so marred the high levels of professionals.

“Think here of your neighbor kid happily going out to soccer practice, all the basketball shooting you see on driveways, all the evenings of Little League and hamburger dinners, the prep football players with mud-caked uniforms on a rainy, cold Friday night.''

Pasero was named Oregon Sportswriter of the Year seven times by the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters. He won four consecutive awards between 1959 and 1962. He also won the award in 1966, 1975 and 1978.

Don Sterling, recalling his days as editor of The Journal, said under Pasero's leadership, “the sports section and George's own column were among the strongest parts of the paper.''

“It always amazed me, how he could manage the sports department, cover games and write six columns a week,'' Sterling said. ``He had tremendous drive.''

Peter Thompson, former managing editor of The Oregonian who also worked with Pasero at The Journal, said: ``George was so closely connected to sports that he was not only writing about sports, but he was an acknowledged part of that history.

“Ask any knowledgeable sports person who the single most integral part of the Oregon sports scene has been and I would think they would answer George Pasero. The first name that would come to mind would not be that of an athlete, but would be that of George Pasero.

“When you think of the house that Oregon sports has been built on, you think of George Pasero.''

Pasero's compassion and search to find the good in everything did not go unnoticed. When he retired as a full-time columnist in 1985, friends and sports figures from all over the country -- 750 total -- gathered on short notice and honored him at a special banquet.

Among those in attendance was Tommy Prothro, former Oregon State, UCLA and Los Angeles Rams coach.

“What a mob for a sportswriter,'' Prothro said. The crowd roared its approval.

“A few hours after his death, a moment of silence was observed before the Barlow-Beaverton quarterfinal game at the Class 4A high school basketball tournament at Memorial Coliseum.

Pasero was born April 10, 1917, in St. Helens, the son of Italian immigrants. He grew up in St. Helens, and after graduating from high school he entered Oregon State College in 1935 to study chemical engineering. He dropped out of Oregon State after one year and worked for 15 months at the paper mill in St. Helens before enrolling at the University of Oregon in the fall of 1937.

When he graduated in 1940 with a degree in journalism, he took a job with the Oregon Journal as a member of the Journal Juniors, a promotional department that worked with youngsters in the city.

“I got $15 a week,'' Pasero said in a 1985 interview. “And I was high paid.''

Pasero joined the U.S. Navy in 1942 and served until February 1946. He then returned to The Journal in the spring of 1946, and in 1956 was named sports editor, a title he held until The Journal and The Oregonian merged in September 1982.

Until then, Pasero's column was a fixture for readers of The Journal. After the merger, Pasero became the regular sports columnist for The Oregonian.

During his sportswriting career, he covered such major events as the Rose Bowl, World Series and NBA Finals.

Upon his retirement as a full-time columnist in 1985, Pasero said he had two philosophies:

“One is, I don't like to lash out unfairly,'' he said. ``You lash out sometimes if it's deserved. But don't do it unfairly.

“Second, I want to talk about the events, not about myself. People want to read about the events. The people who read me, I give them credit that they know who I am and where I stand.''

Former coaches Dee Andros of Oregon State and Len Casanova of Oregon recalled their friendship with Pasero.

“He was one of my very best friends,'' said Andros, former football coach and athletic director at Oregon State. ``He was truly an outstanding journalist, and without doubt, you could trust him with anything.''

Casanova, former football coach and athletic director at Oregon, said: ``George was always a real good friend, was a person who was always kind to me. If he ever thought you were wrong, he did not mind saying so. I appreciated that.''

Harry Glickman, president emeritus of the Portland Trail Blazers, said: “George was a journalism giant. He had the smallest shoes in the sports department, and they will be the largest to fill.''

Pasero is survived by his wife, Jeanne, daughter Anne, sons John, Mark and James, and five grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Tuesday in the ballroom of the Multnomah Athletic Club.

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Photo cutline: George Pasero, who lived and wrote sports for seven decades and died in 1997, made an indelible mark on Oregon’s athletes, journalists and readers alike.

Photo cutline: George Pasero was best known as sports editor of the Oregon Journal, Portland daily evening newspaper, and writer of the popular "Pasero Says" sports column.

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Obituary: Jeanne Pasero

Oregonian, Portland, Dec. 16, 2002, with editing in December 2020 by Wildcatville blog.

Born: April 8, 1919, Portland, Ore.

Died Dec. 11, 2002, Portland, Ore.

 

A memorial service was held 10 a.m. Dec. 30, 2002, in Young's Funeral Home, Portland, Ore., for Jeanne Pasero, who died Dec. 11, 2002, at 83.

Mrs. Pasero was born Jeanne Maryon Yount in Portland on April 8, 1919. She grew up in the Mount Tabor area and graduated from Washington High School in 1941. She also graduated from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash. She returned to Portland during World War II to become the personal secretary of the editor of the Oregon Journal. She wrote a popular radio column, interviewing pre-television entertainment luminaries such as Bob Hope and Eddie Cantor.

She earned a master's degree in English from Portland State University and taught at Portland Community College until her retirement in 1984.

She married George Pasero, longtime sports columnist for the Oregon Journal and The Oregonian, in 1948; he died in 1997.

Survivors include their daughter, Ann; and sons Mark, John and Jim; and five grandchildren.

Remembrances to Portland Community College.

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In 1978, the 1966 Linfield national baseball championship title team celebrated its coach, Roy Helser. Read what George Pasero of the Oregon Journal evening daily newspaper of Portland wrote.

Here's edited text from ‘Pasero Says’ sports column by sports editor George Pasero in July 21, 1978, Oregon Journal, Portland evening daily newspaper. Editing by and supplemental info from Wildcatville in 2021.

Pasero wrote: 

It’s supposed to be a surprise, but let’s quit kidding. Sharp man that he is, and with all the friends that he has, Roy Helser by now knows something is going on.

Which is on Saturday, Roy’s 1966 Linfield national championship team (NAIA), winner of four straight in St. Joseph, Missouri, will descent on him to relive what Oregonian sports writer Dick Fishback then called “the finest achievement in Oregon small college baseball history.”

Helser vividly remembers the highlights – and there were many.

Stu Young, a 160-pounder out of Medford, pitched two of the wins. Frank Bake from Cleveland High (of Portland) threw another and , in the championship game, Roy called on John Hart, from Washington High (of Portland), a sophomore who had been injured and hadn’t had a pitching decision. John was shaky to start, then settled down as his mates bombed 17 hits in the 15-4 win.

(John Hart is a member of the Portland Interscholastic League Hall of Fame. In a commentary by John Hart at the PIL “Hall” website he said Helser “came out to the mound in the first inning. I was wild and pumped with adrenaline and knew it was all over. But like all great coaches who help turn boys into men, he did not take the ball away, he took the ball and slowed everything down and looked at me and said ‘You will never have a chance like this again, I am giving you another chance’ and he handed the ball back and left the mound. …. He really wanted to win, he was a very tough competitor. He did not take me out. He believed in me...I believed. I shut them out the rest of the game.”)

IT WAS A TEAM that did nothing but surprise Helser.

“When we started the season, Roy recalls,” we weren’t expected to be very good, but as the season progressed the guys learned and … decided they wanted to be first.

“When we arrived at St. Joseph (Missouri), the kids were really loose, the loosest I’d ever had going into a tournament. In fact, I worried about getting them serious.”

After it was won, Helser marveled, “You never saw a bunch decide to want to win a tournament like this one did. They were just a great team; it’s easy to say that, but these guys acted like it and talked like it. They never showed a sign of tension, and, in fact, would say, ‘Cool it, coach, we are going to win.’ ”

And win they did — with some unbelievable feats.

“ALL BAKE really had,” says Helser “was a sinker ball, but I told him to just keep throwing it, and, would you believe, he made the other club hit it on the ground nine times to our third baseman, Jay Bandonis, who made good throws on all for an NAIA record for assists.

“In the championship game, our catcher, Rocky Reed ... went 5-for-5, all of the shots you couldn’t believe. Two were over the left-center field fence on the bounce. John Lee hit two that missed clearing the fence by a foot. They were a hopped-up group of guys.”

THE LINFIELDS, who had beaten Southern Oregon, Eastern Washington and Westmont of Santa Barbara to earn the trip to Missouri, were stung by being picked for eighth in the tournament.

“You couldn’t blame the people back there,” says Roy. “First, we had to beat Guilford of North Carolina, the favorite. Then, we were coming in with the highest ERA, the lowest batting and fielding records.

“Well, we finished with the lower ERA and the best batting and fielding records.”

WHO WERE THEY? Oh, Jay Gustafson, Alan Wells, John Lee, Barry Stenlund, Frank Molek, Jay Bandonis, Steve Collette, Dennis Schweitzer, Stu Young, Rocky Reed, Frank Bake, Gary Cox, Art Larrance, Wayne Petersen, Bob Daggett, Tom Rohlffs and John Hart.

With money always a problem, 11 players were sent by student rates and the other nine, who were over 21, on excursion fares. Somehow, the all assembled, although getting home was even more of a problem. With some making as many as five stops in different cities on circuitous routes to Portland.

PAUL DURHAM, the athletic director, stayed home, with Roy promising to call each night.

The first night, Roy recalls, Paul said, “Nice going.”

The second night it was, “No kidding!”

The third, “NO kidding.”

The last, “Wow!”

Paul, who also wrote a column for the McMinnville News-Register, the next day led off with: “NATIONAL CHAMPIONS – Stick that between your teeth and roll it around a bit. It sounds better every time you say it.” It sounds a whale of lot better when Roy’s champions come to his Lincoln City home.

HELSER’s own career — for achievement and longevity — also qualifies as one of the state’s great sport stories. He was a football, basketball and baseball athlete. Oh, he never won the Heisman or was drafted No. 1. In fact, he didn’t play much baseball, really, until his brother Morrie got him to Linfield, where Morrie was a student-athlete for Coach of all sports Henry Lever. He was the “original ‘free agent,’ only in his day the bonuses were like a couple hundred bucks for signing and sometimes the moguls were reluctant to part with even that.

What happened to Roy: Back in 1936, he signed with the Cincinnati Red Major League organization and played for its Waterloo, Iowa, farm team. Warren Giles reneged on a bonus promised Roy for finishing the season. And so the stubborn Helser went back to the semi-pros in an age when almost every town had a team and Sunday games were the highlight of the week.

Roy played for Vernonia’s town team and for Doc Abrams (*see postscript)  at Hillsboro, and he was getting $5 and sometimes $10 a game, as was the way then for a good pitcher. As in 1938, he commanded $100 for Abrams to pitch in the star tournament at Silverton, where he won the top-pitcher award.

The next year, he was with Bill McGinnis and one of the great semi-pro teams of all time and team that finished third in the National Congress at Wichita, with Helser MVP there and then tabbed the nation’s No. 1 semi-pro player.

BIDDY BISHOP then signed him for two years with Salem in the old W-I (Western International League and he had a “30-day look” by the old (San Francisco) Seals, but Lefty O’Doul pronounced him too wild.

Then, with WWII ending the W-I, Helser taught at Rainier before coming to organize the Albina Hellshippers league ... and sure, his team won.

With the Beavers in their final two weeks of the 1943 season and with 18 games to play, Bill Klepper recruited Helser — for $400.

In his first game he was matched against Ken Raffensberger,  who was going for his 20th win for the pennant-winning Los Angeles Angels. Roy won, 2-0. He then beat SF 3-1 and lost 2-1.

NEXT SPRING, he didn’t like Klepper’s offer, held out and finally got new terms. He made his first start in Sacramento and won 10-4 while going 5-for-5 with the bat. He was such a good hitter that he later was sometimes used to pinch-hit by the Beavers.

Anyway, Roy had a nine-year career with the Portland Beavers and old Vaughn Street Stadium denizens recall what a fierce competitor he was.

After that he Roy recruited players and coached (and pitched and played some) for the historic southern Oregon Drain Black Sox

But, Linfield came back into the picture. He was lured to the college, where he coached basketball and baseball and assisted in football. In 21 baseball seasons (1950-1970), his Linfield baseball teams winning 14 titles, finishing second six times and third once. (Research shows he also coached the 1941 Linfield baseball team, too.)

On Saturday, an “unbelievable team” – the Linfield Wildcats of 1966 -- is toasting its great man of Oregon sports, Roy Helser.

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*POSTSCRIPT from George Pasero’ “Pasero Says” sports column in the Feb. 20, 1965, Oregon Journal ..

… More on Life of Roy Helser

Ed O’Meara, (Oregon Journal) city editor, fills in “year 1938” in the career of Roy Helser … Ed was on the Hillsboro (Argus newspaper) that year.

“1938 … was the year Helser – a prominent McMinnville figure before and afterward in a pair of careers at Linfield – brought baseball back to Hillsboro.

“The late Doc Abrams (a dentist...) talked to (Ed) that spring … about doing something to stimulate baseball. It had been dead in Hillsboro for about five years, although there were some illustrious ghosts and fair crowd records in the past. Don was determined to do something … we launched a fund-raising campaign.

“Long before the funds came in, however, Doc had collared Roy Helser and ordered some fight, flashy blue-and-gold silk “airplane cloth” (baseball uniforms) …

“He entered the (Hillsboro) team in the Portland Valley League … along with the Portland Police, Elks and other high-caliber semi-pro outfits.

Playing for Hillsboro, Roy was "suberb. He hit about .600, pitched about 15 games and, I think, won them all, won the league title … and the team went to play in the tournament at Bill McGinnis’ Silverton park … Hillsboro finished fourth --- largely due to Helser and the confidence he inspired in a pretty fair collection of players.

“This was after Roy’s apparently unhappy connection with (the) Cincinatti (Reds of Major League Baseball’s “National League.)… Rumor then was that Roy had the ability to make it but felt loney for the Northwest … Remember that he pitched many years for the (Portland) Beavers and so many people figured he could have done duty in the National League .. but wasn’t very interested.

“Roy was and is a great guy.

“I remember than his (younger) brother, Morrie, was even a bigger star at (their alma mater) Benson (High) … Roy was the shy one, who went to Linfield because Morrie was going there …”

DALE NEWHOUSE: Playing Linfield football to officiating in a college football National Championship game … and more

PHOTOS include Dale's Linfield College Wildcat football helmet. Other photos show Dale (far left) with game officiating crew before 1996 National Championship football game/Tostitos' Fiesta Bowl in Tempe, Arizona; watches and other mementoes Dale received from officiating post-season bowl games; Dale on cover of 'Referee' magazine; Dale throwing penalty flag and Dale (far left) in a game action.

QUESTION: Who is the only Linfield grad to play football for the Wildcats in the mid-1960s and officiate in the 1996 National Championship football game in Arizona between Nebraska and Florida?

ANSWER: Dale Newhouse, Linfield College Class of 1966 Education, 1967 Master of Education.

Dale grew up in San Francisco and attended Lincoln High School in San Francisco graduating in 1958. He lettered in football and baseball.

Thinking he wanted to become a medical doctor, Dale enrolled in 1958 at City College of San Francisco, taking 19 semester hours of pre-med courses including two labs. But, “I soon found myself overwhelmed and failing,” he said. Dale left the college and joined the U.S. Navy and, for training, was sent to the Navy Electronics School in Great Lakes, Ill.

His Navy four year hitch included serving on Midway and Johnston Islands in the Pacific Ocean and on a ship. After active duty he had two more years in the Navy Reserve.

Later Dale joined the U.S. Army with most of his time in the Army Reserve. In all his U.S. military service included six years in the Navy and 27 years in the Army retiring in 1999 as a colonel.

After the Navy he enrolled at Diablo Valley College (DVC) in Pleasant Hill, California, where he played football and competed in track & field.

To earn a bachelor’s degree he planned to transfer. Ted Wilson, Linfield men’s basketball coach, also worked for Linfield Admissions. “Ted came to DVC and told me great things about Linfield including the success of its sports programs. I was impressed. I applied to Linfield and was accepted. My way was paid partially by a student work study job of sweeping Linfield dorm steps,” said Dale.

Dale recalls his first day of classes at Linfield was Labor Day 1964: “I was a Navy Vet anxious to play football and get on campus to start that part of my life.”

“I will never forget my freshmen football player roommates in Larsell Hall: Brian Petersen, Karl Luthe and Don Shiralla. It was likely thought I’d be a good influence on them. But, my attention wasn’t on them. It was on getting myself through school,” Dale said.

After marrying in June 1965, he and his first wife lived in a small house in McMinnville owned by Linfield’s Pi Kappa Alpha, his fraternity. Their house was in front of the Pi Kapp house “With my Navy cooking experience, I cooked the Sunday evening meal for the fraternity members,” Dale said.

Under the tutelage of Linfield Physical Education faculty, including Paul Durham, Ted Wilson, Roy Helser, Hal Smith, Jane McIlroy and Barbara Olsen, Dale was on his way to becoming a p. e. teacher.

He played linebacker/fullback on the Linfield 1964 and 1965 Northwest Conference championship football teams. The 1964 season ended in Fargo, North Dakota, in the NAIA national championship playoffs.

In 1965, the season concluded in Augusta, Georgia, in the NAIA national championship game. Both were losses for Linfield. “I didn’t play much those seasons, but it was a wonderful experience for many reasons, most importantly the leadership of Coach Durham,” Dale said.

While a Linfield student he did his student teaching in the Dayton (Yamhill County) School District and drove a school bus for Dayton schools.

“About this time McMinnville Junior High was requesting football officials for their after school program. I got involved with that and joined the local high school officials group. I officiated football, basketball and baseball. One of my fellow officials was Paul Durham’s son, Terry, a quarterback on the 1965 football team and son of Paul. Later Terry became a NBA official,” Dale said.

Dale earned his education bachelor’s degree from Linfield in 1966.

As a 1966-1967 graduate student, working on his Master in Education degree, he “refed” Linfield JV football and baseball games. And, he was assistant coach of the 1966 Linfield Softball team which placed first in district.

After earning his M.Ed. in 1967 he and his first wife went on vacation, traveling to Europe, South Africa, Asia and China before returning to the U.S.

After substitute teaching he was hired by California’s Mt. Diablo Unified School District as a physical education teacher. He served in the district for 33 years the last part as p.e. chair of Riverview Middle School; in Bay Point, Calif. The gym at the school is named for him.

While working in that district he hoped to coach. That never happened. But, a school administrator talked him into officiating football, basketball and baseball. Within three years, 1971, he was officiating college football. In 1976 he started officiating in the Pac-8 Conference which later became the Pac-10 and is now the Pac-12.

Dale was a football official for 27 years. He officiated Pac-8 and Pac-10 games and the 1996 national college football championship Tostitos Fiesta Bowl game between #1 Nebraska and #2 Florida in Tempe, Arizona. (Nebraska won, 62-24.) He also worked professional games for the World League of American Football, NFL Europe, XFL, USFL, the Arena League and even few in the NFL including one Monday night game.

“College football was very nice to me. I got to officiate games in Europe, Japan and Australia. I worked all the major Bowls -- Rose, Fiesta, Sugar and Cotton and many others. I had about 25 post-season assignments,” he said.

Later Dale was with the Pac-10 Conference as an observer, a TV sideline official or a replay official. He became Pac-10 supervisor of football officials until June 2019 when he and his second wife retired and moved from California to Port Orchard, Wash., to live closer to grandchildren.

Dale is effusive about the impact Paul Durham, former Linfield football coach and athletic director had on his life.

Paul Durham is “my hero,” Dale said, “After his statue was unveiled on campus in 2014 and I was standing in front of it, I actually felt the presence of the man to whom I owe much of my success in football and life. I felt like he was there and talking to me.

“During his life I told him many times through letters and phone conversations just how much he and the rest of the Linfield staff had positively influenced my life since graduating in 1966. I support the effort to have Linfield’s athletics/p.e. building named for him. He deserved the honor during his life and deserves the honor now as a memorial.”