Certain Events

There are certain events through time that have been transformative. Just to name a few …

  • The Big Bang —  from a singular point the universe began expanding about 13.8 million years ago, give or take a few hundred million years and resulted in the creation of 500 billion galaxies each perhaps containing 500 billion stars!
  • Big Splash –  the formation of the Moon after an apparent collision of the earth with a body the size of Mars about 4.5 million years ago and resulted in numerous biologically-rich eco-systems dependent on the ebb and flow of sea tides controlled by the Moon’s gravitational pull
  • Big Extinction –  Like the meteor strike 66 million years ago in the Gulf of Mexico that ended the Cretaceous period resulted in the loss of 75% of all organisms on earth and re-set the trajectory of life…not so good for dinosaurs but perhaps fundamental to the rise of mammals
  • Big Ice Age or Missoula Floods –  between 15000-1300 years ago that resulted in massive waves of of water flowing through the Columbia Gorge, carving the gorge canyons and depositing rich thick topsoils on the Willamette Valley floor
  • More recently…the Big Willamette Flood of 1861 – the largest recorded flood in the history of Oregon that swept away towns, mills, houses and domestic livestock and transformed much of Oregon’s economy and how people lived with the river

An even more recent event was the arrival of Betty in Corvallis in 1968 in what we call the Big Griffiths which resulted in a burst of cosmic energy that transformed our community.

Betty Griffiths: Friend, Volunteer, Leader 1940 – 2014

The essential elements or chromosomes that composed the DNA Helix of The Big Griffiths included the attributes of :

  • Fierceness (what I call the Warrior Princess chromosome )
  • Indomitable Will (Tsunami chromosome- similar to that massive wall of water that swept through the Columbia Gorge-13000 years ago)
  • Passion (A gene that expresses an unalterable and deep love of this community)
  • Vision and Creativity (Rare and highly valued trait that constantly pushes one to strive to achieve a better community)

You mix these elements together (and grace it with Betty’s beautiful smile) and you have an irrefutable cosmic force that swept through our community for 46 years.  The results to name a few, are a community with:

  • More affordable housing,
  • Neighborhoods that retain their historic roots, culture and character
  • A rich and vibrant downtown and
  • A more sustainable environment with cleaner water and air, an abundance of natural areas and parks for healthier people and wildlife

If something of importance was happening in our Community, I can assure you that Betty was in the thick of it and often Directing Traffic … prodding, cajoling, insisting, asserting that indomitable, fierce will that revitalized our riverfront, created a progressive comprehensive planning framework for our town, protected our cultural and historic legacies, built an environmentally conscious community, and surrounded our town with an emerald necklace of green open spaces to connect people to nature.

Betty joined Greenbelt Land Trust’s Board in 2002 and was elected VP of the Board the following year and President the year after that. Aside from a term-limited hiatus of a year off she remained on our Board for nearly 12 years.   She was a passionate, unstinting ambassador for Greenbelt and its mission, and instrumental in the evolution of our organization as it grew and flourished.

When Betty joined the Board in 2002 Greenbelt had just acquired the first land acquisition to be held by the land trust, the 95 acre Owens Farm property. With this purchase it had protected 8 properties totaling about 330 acres since its founding 13 years earlier.  In 2015, we should be closing on our 31th land transaction and will have nearly 2800 acres of wetlands, oak woodlands, upland meadows and river floodplains under permanent protection.

After joining the Staff of Greenbelt in 2010, I soon experienced some of the Cosmic Forces from the Big Griffths.  I learned that the little beep on my cell phone at 10:30 or 11 pm as I was preparing for bed after a Board meeting was likely an email from Betty.  The email often included a single line “Michael, Please see just a few edits to the policy you presented.  Betty”   The few edits were often an entire page of bright red track changes.  I think it was about 2 years ago that the emails changed perhaps because she felt that I was a bit wary and not responding to her emails as quickly as she would have liked or perhaps she was mellowing a bit, wanting to soften the cosmic force . I started getting emails that said “Michael, Please see just a few edits to the policy you presented.” (with a Smiley Face emoticon at the end of the line). At the end of the day, if Betty signed off on something, the entire Board generally nodded their heads because they knew that every page, every paragraph, every word, every period had been reviewed and confirmed.

Just as the Universe is still expanding, the cosmic force that was unleashed in 1968 with Betty’s arrival in Corvallis still swirls through our community and will continue to expand…it is present and growing every time I walk through the grasslands on Lupine Meadows, the meadows of Bald Hill Farm, under the ancient oaks at Owens Farm, or among the rich floodplains of the Willamette River.

Michael Pope
Executive Director

* This post has been re-printed from a eulogy delivered at the memorial service for Betty Griffiths, 9/25/2014