Date: Nov 12, 2014 Author: d darling Source: (
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A Bend man who helped found Bend Research Inc. and three times ran to represent Oregon as a U.S. senator died Tuesday morning in Southern California.
Harold "Harry" Lonsdale, 82, had a heart attack last week and heart failure Tuesday, said Karen Trachsel, 57, his daughter from Bend. He died at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Indio, California, a hospital official confirmed Tuesday night.
Lonsdale lived a life defined by bold decisions. He left a successful career in Silicon Valley in the mid-1970s to start Bend Research. The fly fishing in Central Oregon drew him here.
He then left the company to run as the Democratic challenger to Republican incumbent Sen. Mark Hatfield in 1990.
"He wanted to change things," said Chris Babcock, who took over as CEO of Bend Research when Lonsdale left in 1987.
Rod Ray, former CEO of Bend Research, wrote in an email Tuesday announcing Lonsdale's death to the company, "Harry was a great man. Harry was the founder of Bend Research, and through that accomplishment, transformed the lives of all of us, as well as many other folks within BRI, as well as in Bend, and all over the United States."
Ray also wrote that Lonsdale had spent much of the summer "carefully and thoughtfully giving a significant amount of his money from the sale of BRI (to Capsugel) to various charities and causes. This was the essence of Harry: to do as much as he could do to make Bend and the world a better place."
Calling for campaign finance reform, Lonsdale did not shy away from taking on a powerful politician in Hatfield. Hatfield had never lost an election for public office and had served two terms as Oregon's governor and three as a U.S. senator, when Lonsdale ran against him as a Democrat. Hatfield was also the ranking Republican on the Appropriations Committee.
"It wasn't like he went for mayor first," Babcock said.
Lonsdale lost 54 to 46 percent to Hatfield but ran again for Senate. He lost in the 1992 Democratic primary to Les AuCoin and lost in the 1996 primary to Tom Bruggere. Lonsdale turned his lessons from the campaign trail into a book titled "Running: Politics, Power, and the Press," which came out in 2002.
This is not the only way Lonsdale left an impression. He maintained close relationships with the two men who took the top spot at Bend Research after him, Babcock and Ray. Both said they looked to Lonsdale as a brother and a father figure at the same time.
"He was always trying to make the world a better place," Ray said. "He was always trying to make Bend, Oregon, a better place."
Back in the 1970s, when Lonsdale was looking for a new home for his family in Central Oregon, he had the requirement that the house must be within walking distance from a fishing hole, Trachsel said. He found one in Tumalo along the Deschutes River.
Lonsdale, who served in the Air Force, earned a bachelor's degree from Rutgers and a doctorate in chemistry from Penn State.
He married his high school sweetheart from North Plainfield, New Jersey, in 1953. He and Connie (Kerr) Lonsdale brought their two children, Karen and Harold "Sandy" Lonsdale Jr., to Bend, and his family helped him start Bend Research with Richard Baker, his business partner.
Trachsel said they helped paint the walls for the fledgling business and she later washed dishes from the lab. The company started with studying ways to convert saltwater to freshwater and later expanded into pharmaceutical research. Lessons from her dad ranged from how to tie a fishing line to a fly to how to be a scientist.
"He taught me everything I know," said Trachsel. She said he particularly showed her how to work hard.
Harry Lonsdale and Connie Lonsdale divorced in 1983. He remarried twice.
Over the past decade, Harry Lonsdale would spend summers in Bend and winters in warmer climes. He had a home in the Palm Springs, California, area and had recently left Central Oregon for the winter.
A letter written by Lonsdale ran in The Bulletin on Friday, in which he expressed his views on politics and money.
Services are pending. Trachsel said Lonsdale's family plans to set up a memorial fund to honor him. His survivors include his daughter, his son, of Bend, and two grandsons.
— Reporter: 541-617-7812, @bendbulletin.com
