Jean Vollum

Oregon philanthropist Jean Vollum has died at 80.

Her oldest son, Charles, said she died Tuesday of congestive heart failure at her home.

"She was a philanthropist in the truest sense of that word," said conservationist Spencer Beebe, who knew Vollum for 35 years and worked with her to create Ecotrust, a nonprofit organization devoted to regional conservation issues. "She was someone who loved humanity."

She was the widow of Tektronix co-founder Howard Vollum.

The Vollums financed a range of buildings and projects, such as the Mount Angel Abbey Library, the campus of the Oregon College of Art & Craft, the Vollum Institute for Advanced Biomedical Research at Oregon Health & Science University, the Native American Center at Portland State University and the Jean Vollum Natural Capital Center, better known as the Ecotrust building, in Portland's Pearl District. She also helped to preserve natural areas in Oregon.

"The most incredible thing about Jean Vollum is that she's not one of those grande dames who let you know how grand they are," said Thomas Lauderdale, founder of the band Pink Martini. In high school and college he didn't have a piano, he told The Oregonian newspaper, so Vollum offered him the use of her Steinway.

Born Jean Kettenbach in Alberta, Canada, Vollum attended the University of Idaho and moved to Portland, where she was an elementary school teacher.

While ice skating, she met Howard Vollum, who invented the cathode-ray oscilloscope and made a fortune at Tektronix. They married in 1950 and raised five sons. He died in 1986.

In her 60s, Vollum started to take photographs, eventually showing her work at local galleries. A few years ago she visited Antarctica, where she took pictures of the melting polar ice cap from ships and helicopters.