Robert William Sawyer

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Robert William Sawyer (May 12, 1880 – October 13, 1959) was an American politician who was a prominent figure and a respected conservationist in Oregon.

He was born in Bangor, Maine on May 12, 1880. He studied law at Harvard. In 1912 he moved to Bend, Oregon where he started working at the Bend Co. sawmill. Here he met George P. Putnam, the publisher of the Bend Bulletin. From this friendship, he soon became a news writer for the Bulletin.

1 Publishing
2 Politics
3 Conservation
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Publishing

Sawyer purchased Putnam’s interest in the Bulletin after Putnam became secretary to Governor James Withycombe, and in 1919 assumed the role of editor. During his years in this post, Sawyer became one of the state’s leading newspapermen. From 1927 to 1929 he served as president of the Oregon State Editorial Association. He remained editor until 1953 when the Bulletin was sold to Robert W. Chandler.^[1]

[edit] Politics

Sawyer was involved in the split of Deschutes County from Crook County in 1917.

1920 – 1927, Deschutes County judge
1927 – 1930, member of the Oregon State Highway Commission.
1931 – 1937, President of the Oregon Reclamation Congress
1935, elected Oregon Director of the National Reclamation Association
1935 – 1939, advisory board for reconstruction of the Oregon State Capitol
1939 – , chairman of the Capitol Planning Commission.
1945 – 1948 Oregon Director of the National Rifle Association (NRA)
1946 – 1947 President of the NRA
1945 – 1951, vice-chairman of the Oregon Statuary Hall commission.

[edit] Conservation

Always an avid outdoorsman, he served as a director of the American Forestry Association and on the Pacific Northwest Regional Forestry Advisory Council. During the 1950s he was a member of the Hoover Commission Task Force on Water Resources and Power. Sawyer died of a heart attack on October 13, 1959. A former Oregon state park (now a city park) near Bend is named for him.^[2]