Ron Still, a Portland police chief and candidate for mayor in the 1980s, died Friday of natural causes. He was 90 and lived in Lake Oswego, his eldest daughter said.
Still, who began his career with the Portland Police Bureau as a patrolman in 1954, rose to lead the bureau in 1981, when then-Mayor Frank Ivancie appointed Still to replace Bruce Baker, who retired. In Still’s era, the bureau distributed Trail Blazers trading cards with crime prevention tips on them.
Ivancie and Still also championed a seven-point “War on Crime” that a deputy city attorney at the time said was mostly unworkable because aspects were unconstitutional or already existed in the form of other laws. Still said the platform had been misunderstood.
“A lot of people were on the streets bothering other people and they had major crime records which could be documented,” Still told the newspaper in 1984. “There were people harassing elderly people to the point some of those people feared to come downtown.”
Born in Gresham in 1932, Still retired as police chief at age 52, after 30 years with the bureau, when a barkeep named Bud Clark ousted Ivancie as mayor in 1984.
Still’s eldest daughter, Darolyn Augusta, said police bureau members of all ranks attended her father’s retirement party at the Benson Hotel. “Dad always had the police behind him,” she said. “He was quite a leader.”
Former Portland Police Chief Ron Still receives Neco Abu, an Arabian horse, from Elba Pielstick of Salem after Pielstick and his wife, Zetta, donated the animal to the bureau in 1983. The 7-year-old horse, the first donated to Portland police, was expected to join the agency’s mounted patrol, which has since been disbanded. OregonianOregonian
That wasn’t the last Portland saw of Still.
Clark appointed Penny Harrington, Portland’s first female police chief, to replace Still in 1985. Then Still challenged Clark in the 1988 mayoral election, forcing Clark into a November runoff.
Still focused his campaign on crime and drug use in Portland, and he took harsh aim at Clark, whom he once called a “little leprechaun.” “If I’d done to this city what Bud Clark has done — the suffering, the killing — I’d expect to be indicted for murder,” he also said on the trail.
Clark, nonetheless, held onto the seat, winning almost 59 percent of the vote in the general election. Clark died in February.
Carolyn Arntsen, Still’s campaign manager, said Still was gregarious and kind and also a “law and order” type. He’d certainly heard that before. “I’m thankful I’m not unlawful and disorderly,” he told The Oregonian upon his retirement.
Still served with the U.S. Coast Guard before joining the police bureau. “Those were his roots — service,” said Augusta.
Still’s wife of 69 years, Pat, died in January. He is survived by three children and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
— Beth Slovic; bslovic@oregonian.com; @bethslovic
