Hector "Huck" Macpherson Jr. (September 18, 1918 – March 21, 2015) was an American dairy farmer and politician in the state of Oregon. Macpherson was a member of the Oregon State Senate from 1971 to 1974 and is best remembered as a primary author of the seminal 1973 Land Conservation and Development Act (SB 100) which established the Oregon Land Conservation and Development Commission and statewide land use planning regulation.
As the navigator aboard a B-17 Flying Fortress during World War II, Macpherson flew 50 combat missions and was the recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Bronze Star Medal for his service, leaving the United States Army Air Corps in 1945 with the rank of Major. Following the war Macpherson took over the family dairy farm and became involved with the politics of land use planning over concerns with encroaching urban development of farmland.
Macpherson was the son of former Oregon state representative Hector Macpherson Sr. and the father of former Oregon state representative Greg Macpherson.
Biography
Early years
Hector Macpherson Jr., known to family and personal friends from his earliest years by the nickname "Huck," was born September 19, 1918, in Corvallis, Oregon.Hector Macpherson Jr. with Katharine Smith Macpherson, The Macpherson Family Through Four Generations. n.c. [Corvallis, OR]: Janet Macpherson Wershow, 2010; pp. 80-81. He was the third of three children of the Canadian-born Hector Macpherson Sr., a professor of agricultural economics at Oregon Agricultural College (today known as Oregon State University) and his Chicago-born wife, the former Margaret Buchanan Dupee.Macpherson, The Macpherson Family Through Four Generations, pg. 80. His father, an academic expert on the cooperative movement, resigned his academic position in 1926 to dedicate his time to politics.Elizabeth Nielsen, "Guide to the Zorn-Macpherson Bill Collection 1926-1932," Oregon State University Archives, Corvallis, OR. His father was elected in 1926, 1928, and 1938 as a progressive Republican member the Oregon Legislative Assembly and was instrumental in a controversial high-profile initiative campaign for education reform in Oregon.
The Macpherson family lived on a small dairy farm several miles outside of Corvallis and Huck and his siblings were responsible for performance of farm tasks from an early age.Macpherson, The Macpherson Family Through Four Generations, pg. 82. Although nominally Presbyterian, the family was skeptical towards Biblical literalism and both parents were believers in the doctrine of evolution.Macpherson, The Macpherson Family Through Four Generations, pp. 84-85.
Elementary school was attended in the small rural school at Oakville, Oregon, from which Macpherson graduated 8th grade in May 1932 — a member of a graduating class of seven students."Seven Graduated at Oakville," Albany Democrat-Herald, vol. 65, no. 273 (May 26, 1932), pg. 1. Macpherson's youthful academic history was unremarkable, and he was neither the valedictorian or salutatorian in his tiny graduating class.
In 1936, Macpherson graduated from Corvallis High School and enrolled in Oregon State Agricultural College (from 1937 Oregon State College, today's OSU).Macpherson, The Macpherson Family Through Four Generations, pp. 88, 90. He began his collegiate career in the sciences but switched majors to the OSC's School of Agriculture after two years of study, graduating with a Bachelor's degree in 1940.Macpherson, The Macpherson Family Through Four Generations, pg. 90. He was a member of the U.S. Army's Reserve Officers' Training Corps throughout his collegiate years, initially training for potential assignment in the infantry.Macpherson, The Macpherson Family Through Four Generations, pg. 91.
Military years
Following graduation, Macpherson applied for a teaching fellowship at Washington State College in Pullman, Washington. American entry into World War II, which had erupted the previous autumn, was clearly on the horizon, however. Rather than face the prospect of entry into the conflict as a 2nd Lieutenant of the infantry, Macpherson instead chose to enlist in the Army Air Corps.Macpherson, The Macpherson Family Through Four Generations, pg. 99. He trained as a pilot at the new Vandenberg Air Force Base in Santa Maria, California, but was scrubbed from the pilot program following a rough landing during training.Macpherson, The Macpherson Family Through Four Generations, pp. 99-100. He was instead stationed as a 2nd Lieutenant of the Army Air Corps at Albrook Field, located near Panama City, Panama, where he was placed in charge of the base photo laboratory.Macpherson, The Macpherson Family Through Four Generations, pg. 104.
In 1943, now a 1st Lieutenant, Macpherson was enrolled in Navigation School at Selman Field in Monroe, Louisiana, where he was trained as a navigator for high-altitude bombers.Macpherson, The Macpherson Family Through Four Generations, pp. 116-119. Prior to assignment abroad he took time to get married in May 1943 to Katharine Brownell Smith of New York, whom he had met in 1941 and corresponded with for two years.Macpherson, The Macpherson Family Through Four Generations, pg. 155. His military training would be completed during the summer of 1943 and he was dispatched to Casablanca in Northern Africa aboard a so-called Liberty Ship.Macpherson, The Macpherson Family Through Four Generations, pp. 128-129. There he was assigned to the 416 squadron of the 99th Bombardment Group, for which he began flying missions from Tunis late in October 1943.Macpherson, The Macpherson Family Through Four Generations, pp. 129-130
In December 1943 Macpherson and the rest of his crew were transferred to Italy, from which they continued to fly frequent bombing missions aboard a B-17 Flying Fortress.Macpherson, The Macpherson Family Through Four Generations, pp. 132-133. He was one of a group of a dozen navigators selected for training in H2X radar, a new form of radar navigation system developed by the British Royal Air Force, and returned stateside for instruction to Boca Raton, Florida, in January 1944.Macpherson, The Macpherson Family Through Four Generations, pp. 133-134. Training was completed in the middle of March 1944 and Macpherson was again transported to Northern Africa, where he became a member of a 7-man crew aboard a B-17.Macpherson, The Macpherson Family Through Four Generations, pp. 134-135.
By early August 1944 Macpherson had recorded his 50th mission as a bomber flight navigator, ending his stint in that capacity.Macpherson, The Macpherson Family Through Four Generations, pg. 136. Promoted to the rank of Captain later that month, Macpherson was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his service.Macpherson, The Macpherson Family Through Four Generations, pg. 142.
Macpherson was then assigned to desk duty at Air Force Headquarters in Bari, Italy.Macpherson, The Macpherson Family Through Four Generations, pg. 143. There he was assigned the task of writing a manual on the use and combat applications of HX2 "Pathfinder" radar, which he completed along with two other experienced navigators. He also helped to launch a training school for radar navigators and assisted with mission planning. Macpherson would receive a Bronze Star for his work helping to expand the use of the Pathfinder radar navigation program, a technology which proved itself vital to successful operations against enemy oil refineries.Macpherson, The Macpherson Family Through Four Generations, pg. 145.
A final promotion to the rank of Major followed, just in time for his return to the United States in May 1945, just one day ahead of V-E Day.Macpherson, The Macpherson Family Through Four Generations, pg. 148.
Post-war career
Following his discharge from the military, Macpherson returned to Oregon where his father, Hector Macpherson Sr., operated a dairy farm in rural Linn County, Oregon. The idea of farming held an appeal to the returning flight navigator and father and son entered into a business partnership in the fall of 1945.Macpherson, The Macpherson Family Through Four Generations, pg. 152. Funds accumulated during the war years were plowed into the business.Macpherson, The Macpherson Family Through Four Generations, pg. 159. At the end of a pre-arranged one-year partnership, his father sold son Huck the 180-acre homestead for a modest sum. A growing family and farm consumed the next quarter century, with the farm expanded and modernized during the second half of the 1950s.Macpherson, The Macpherson Family Through Four Generations, pp. 158-185 passim.
In addition to life on the farm, Macpherson pursued outside interests, including activity in the local Community Club and telephone cooperative.Macpherson, The Macpherson Family Through Four Generations, pg. 185. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Linn-Benton Dairy Breeders and Corvallis Milk Producers organizations, and was elected president of each. These activities made the dairy farmer aware of broader political and economic issues impacting farmers of the region and helped Macpherson hone his public speaking skills.
In 1962 Macpherson first became involved in land use planning after the national farm press began publishing articles on the topic.Macpherson, The Macpherson Family Through Four Generations, pg. 186. Around the country residential housing was beginning to encroach upon established farm land, driving up land values and making agricultural production uneconomic. In California an alternative had been conceived in the form of special farm zones, which would protect farmers from this escalating problem. Macpherson could foresee a similar situation developing in his own area and was interested by the idea, which he was able to promote through his chairmanship of an advisory committee to the Oregon State University Extension Service.
Aided by a favorable resolution of the Linn County Chamber of Commerce, Macpherson was able to help orchestrate a hearing on land use planning before the Linn County Commission, the elected county government authority for rural Linn County. The hearing, at which positive testimony was heard from a broad range of community figures including the head of the Linn Chamber of Commerce, led to an initial appropriation of $5,000 towards the development of a first building code for the county. A county planning commission was established, with Macpherson recruited as chairman, and in 1967 the first land use zoning hearings for Linn County were held. Macpherson would remain active in the Linn County planning commission's affairs, acutely aware of the rapidly changing land-use planning landscape in Oregon.
Land use planning in Oregon
During the decade of the 1960s, the population of Oregon grew by approximately 18%, with the vast majority of this expansion taking place in the nine counties of the Willamette Valley in the northwestern section of the state.Sy Adler, Oregon Plans: The Making of an Unquiet Land-Use Revolution. Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University Press, 2012; pg. 14. The nine Willamette Valley counties include Washington, Multnomah, Yamhill, Clackamas, Marion, Polk, Benton, Linn, and Lane counties. This rate of growth would increase in the subsequent decade, with Oregon's population expanding by another 26% during the 1970s. This substantial expansion of the population base increased pressure on the state's finite land supply, which impacted land values as residential and agricultural users came into competition.
A hodge-podge of local land use regulations had emerged during the 1940s and 1950s when county governments were first empowered to zone land for specific uses. Most county governments showed little appetite for land-use planning, however, with sprawling suburban development which dissected prime farmland an all too frequent result of the lack of centralized oversight.