- Chief of Staff for House Majority Leader Les AuCoin, 1973-1974.
- Chief of Staff for House Speaker Hardy Myers, 1979-1983.
- Public Affairs Manager, Tektronix, Inc., 1987-1989.
- Partner, Conkling, Fiskum & McCormick, 1991-2010.
- Partner, AM:PM PR, 2010-Present.
About Pat McCormick
As a teenager in the 1960s, Pat McCormick took President John F. Kennedy’s call to serve one’s country to heart. In his oral history he recounts the many ways he fulfilled that call throughout his career.
Born in Portland, Oregon, McCormick attended parochial schools, earned a BA in General Studies from Portland State University, and worked in journalism and public television before enlisting in the Army. In 1973, he served as Chief of Staff for House Majority Leader Les AuCoin during that legendary session that passed groundbreaking environmental and feminist legislation.
Returning to the Oregon Legislature in 1978, McCormick was Chief of Staff to House Speaker Hardy Myers during a tumultuous period of party politics and the passage of significant tax legislation.
Interested in new technologies, he went to work in public relations for the Oregon-grown Tektronix, Inc. Eventually he became a lobbyist for the tech industry at the state legislature for many years.
McCormick has had a clear approach through all of his civic and policy endeavors: “Being quiet makes it a lot easier in a meeting. It also has…the benefit of people paying attention when you do talk.” Pat McCormick would like to see a return to more civics education like he experienced in his youth, but he sees a bright future from Gen Z’s activism in electoral politics, and social justice movements.
– Interview recorded March 19, 2021