{"id":689610,"date":"2026-06-07T10:39:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T10:39:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/689610\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T10:39:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T10:39:24","slug":"bob-packwood-longtime-oregon-senator-marred-by-scandal-dies-at-93","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/689610\/","title":{"rendered":"Bob Packwood, longtime Oregon Senator marred by scandal, dies at 93"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Sen. Bob Packwood, R-Ore., works in his Capitol Hill office Friday Aug. 25, 1995. Packwood, reversing his earlier position, said Friday he wants public hearings into charges that he committed sexual and official misconduct.<\/p>\n

DENNIS COOK \/ AP<\/p>\n

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President Clinton shakes hands with Senate Majority Leader-in-waiting Bob Dole of Kansas in the Rose Garden of the White House Wednesday November 23, 1994, where Dole delivered his support for the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade(GATT). Sen. Bob Packwood, R-Ore., second from left, and White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta, second from right, look on.<\/p>\n

WILFREDO LEE \/ AP<\/p>\n

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Former presidential candidate Bob Dole shakes hands with former U.S. Senator Bob Packwood, after an Oregon GOP fund-raiser, in Portland, Ore., Thursday, Sept. 25, 1997. Packwood, who resigned from the Senate in l995, says he’s content with running his Washington, D.C., lobbying firm.<\/p>\n

JOHN GRESS \/ AP<\/p>\n

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Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), right, and Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, center, talk to Sen. Bob Packwood (R-Ore.), prior to a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee on Capitol Hill, Feb. 3, 1994 in Washington. The committee was to hold hearings on the states’ perspective on health care reform.<\/p>\n

John Duricka \/ AP<\/p>\n

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Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), left and Sen. Bob Packwood (R-Ore.), debate a proposed constitutional amendment to ban abortion, June 27, 1983 in Washington in the president’s room off the Senate floor. Sen. Hatch, sponsor of the amendment, conceded that he doesn’t have the votes to win passage of the constitutional amendment. (AP Photo\/Scott Applewhite)<\/p>\n

Scott Applewhite \/ AP<\/p>\n

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Treasury Secretary James Baker, right, huddles with Sen. Bob Packwood, R-Ore., on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, Nov. 2, 1987 during a session of administration and Congressional members working on the budget cuts.<\/p>\n

Doug Mills \/ AP<\/p>\n

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Members of the Senate House Conference Committee meet, Sunday, Dec. 31, 1982 on Capitol Hill in Washington to begin talks on the proposal five post increases in the federal gas tax. From left are: Sen. Bob Packwood, R-Ore, and Sen. William Roth, It is expected the agreement would come quickly.<\/p>\n

John Duricka \/ AP<\/p>\n

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Members of the United States Senate talk to reporters outside the White House, Thursday, Jan. 29, 1981 in Washington, after attending a meeting with President Ronald Reagan. From left are: Sen. Bob Packwood, R-Ore.; Robert Dole, R-Kan.; Harry Byrd, I-Va.; and Russell Long, D-La.<\/p>\n

Thumma \/ AP<\/p>\n

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Sen. Bob Packwood, R-Ore., right, talks with Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, D-Ill., prior to approval of the most radical tax overhaul in a half-century, on Capitol Hill in Washington on Saturday, August 17, 1986. \u0093I am proud of the Congress and happy for the nation, Packwood said.<\/p>\n

Ron Edmonds \/ AP<\/p>\n

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Senate Finance Committee Chairman Bob Packwood, Oregon, holds a book entitled “Intensive Care” by Ross Perot during hearings dealing with the future of Medicare on Capitol Hill Wednesday, Aug. 30, 1995.<\/p>\n

DENNIS COOK \/ AP<\/p>\n

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Former Sen. Bob Packwood, driven from office by a sex scandal three years ago, speaks at a rotary luncheon in Gleneden Beach, Ore., Wednesday, April 8, 1998, as he launches a speaking tour aimed at becoming a political player once again. Last month, the disgraced lawmaker-turned-lobbyist hinted at a possible comeback bid for public office and said his five-stop speaking tour was a way of gauging his prospects.<\/p>\n

DON RYAN \/ AP<\/p>\n

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Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole of Kansas, left, speaks with Sen. Bob Packwood, R-Ore., and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N. Mex., right, about pending budget legislation on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 1985, Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

Lana Harris \/ AP<\/p>\n

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Senator Bob Packwood, R-Ore., pauses while speaking with reporters outside the CBS television studios in Washington Sunday, Sept. 10, 1995, following his appearance on the network’s “Face the Nation” televison show. Packwood, forced from the Senate by charges of sexual misconduct and abuse of power, said Sunday his diary is littered with inaccuracies and won’t help jog his memory. During his appearance on the show he repeated his qualified apology to the women who accused him of unwanted sexual advances.<\/p>\n

JOE MARQUETTE \/ AP<\/p>\n

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Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), left, poses with Sen. Bob Packwood (R-Ore.), just after the Senate vote, rejecting a constitutional amendment to empower Congress and the states to ban abortions, June 28, 1983 in Washington. Hatch was the move’s chief sponsor and Packwood its principal opponent.<\/p>\n

J. Scott Applewhite \/ AP<\/p>\n

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Senate Finance Committee Chairman Bob Packwood, Oregon, holds a book entitled “Intensive Care” by Ross Perot during hearings dealing with the future of Medicare on Capitol Hill Wednesday, Aug. 30, 1995. (AP Photo\/Dennis Cook)<\/p>\n

DENNIS COOK \/ AP<\/p>\n

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Oregon Republican gubernatorial candidate Ron Saxton, right, visits with former Sen. Bob Packwood, R-Ore., after a news conference in Portland, Ore., Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2006. Saxton, in the closing days of his campaign, is trying to win independents and other voters who, according to state and national polls, are shunning the Republican Party,<\/p>\n

DON RYAN \/ AP<\/p>\n

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Assistant Treasury Secretary John E. Chapoton, left, chats with Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Robert Dole of Kan., right, and Sen. Bob Packwood, R-Ore., Monday, August 9, 1982 on Capitol Hill, Washington prior to a meeting of the group. Chapoton is a tax policy expert at Treasury.<\/p>\n

Scott Stewart \/ AP<\/p>\n

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Sen. Bob Packwood (R-Ore.), ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee listens during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 10, 1994. Packwood, battered for months by sexual misconduct allegations, is taking a combative stance with the news media and his accusers, to rescue his 25-year Senate career.<\/p>\n

John Duricka \/ AP<\/p>\n

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Former Oregon Sen. Bob Packwood, who resigned in disgrace in l995, stands in the Portland Rose Garden, Monday, Aug. 3, 1998, overlooking Portland, Ore. where he talked about his political career. Packwood has launched a very successful lobbying business and is on a pace to nearly triple his lobbying income from last year.<\/p>\n

JACK SMITH \/ AP<\/p>\n

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Former U.S. Sen. Bob Packwood, founder of the Oregon Republican Party’s 2005 Dorchester Conference, speaks to reporters during the 41st conference in Seaside, Ore., Saturday, March 5, 2005.<\/p>\n

GREG WAHL-STEPHENS \/ AP<\/p>\n

\uf054<\/p>\n

Listen to audio from OPB journalists<\/p>\n

Bob Packwood, a longtime Oregon Senator who entered national politics young and ascended to the pinnacles of congressional power before his career ended in scandal, died Saturday. He was 93. <\/p>\n

Packwood died in a residential care facility in southern California, where he and his wife rented a vacation home, according to one family friend. His family released an obituary to media outlets Saturday afternoon. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is with great sadness that I share the news that Senator Packwood passed away earlier today,\u201d Packwood\u2019s wife, Elaine Franklin, said in a statement from a private Facebook post that was also provided to OPB. \u201cHe touched many lives and leaves behind a lasting legacy of public service. He will be deeply missed.\u201d <\/p>\n

A moderate Republican, Packwood spent decades in the Senate building a reputation for bucking his party\u2019s hard-liners and for supporting women\u2019s rights. That included much-heralded stances in favor of abortion rights and securing landmark federal protections for the Columbia River Gorge.<\/p>\n

But that reputation came crashing down in late 1992, just after Packwood had been re-elected to his fifth term in the Senate. <\/p>\n

The Washington Post published an investigation<\/a> detailing allegations by former female staffers and others who described a decades-long pattern of forceful kissing and other sexual misconduct by the Senator. <\/p>\n

Packwood kept Congressional investigators at bay for years, while also serving in one of Washington, D.C.\u2019s most powerful roles as chair of the Senate Finance Committee. <\/p>\n

\"Senate<\/p>\n

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Bob Packwood, Oregon, holds a book entitled “Intensive Care” by Ross Perot during hearings dealing with the future of Medicare on Capitol Hill Wednesday, Aug. 30, 1995.<\/p>\n

DENNIS COOK \/ AP<\/p>\n

But in 1995, he ran out of time. <\/p>\n

The Senate Ethics Committee voted to expel Packwood from the Senate, finding he had made unwanted advances<\/a> toward more than a dozen women and tried to obstruct the investigation into his conduct. <\/p>\n

Packwood resigned the next day<\/a>, but spoke to OPB in 2013 about the scandal. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn the majority of the cases, I could not remember the woman, could not remember the incident,\u201d he said. \u201cIn some cases, it was one time, one night. And all of the charges, save one, were over 10 years old, and in two cases 20 years old, and I just couldn\u2019t remember.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the years following his departure from the Senate, Packwood became a successful Washington lobbyist. But he kept a relatively low profile in his home state. <\/p>\n

Still, his contributions to his party live on. Packwood played a major role in starting the Oregon GOP\u2019s annual Dorchester Conference, now in its 60th year. <\/p>\n

Robert William Packwood was born in Portland in 1932 to a family with a strong pedigree in state affairs. His great-grandfather attended Oregon\u2019s constitutional convention and designed the state seal, Packwood would recall. <\/p>\n

His father was a tax analyst at the state Legislature. <\/p>\n

After graduating from Grant High School in Portland, Packwood attended Willamette University in Salem and began to dabble in Republican politics. It was there that he first met Mark Hatfield, an advisor who would eventually become governor and Packwood\u2019s equally powerful counterpart<\/a> in the U.S. Senate. <\/p>\n

\"Sen.<\/p>\n

Sen. Bob Packwood (R-Ore.), ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee listens during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 10, 1994. Packwood, battered for months by sexual misconduct allegations, is taking a combative stance with the news media and his accusers, to rescue his 25-year Senate career.<\/p>\n

John Duricka \/ AP<\/p>\n

After attending law school in New York, Packwood returned to Oregon and began his rise through the political ranks. He won a seat in the state House of Representatives in 1962, crediting an army of volunteers \u2013 many of them women \u2013 who helped to get his name out. <\/p>\n

By 1968, Packwood had learned the ropes in Salem and went for a larger prize. He challenged Democratic U.S. Sen. Wayne Morse and made an issue of Morse\u2019s outspoken opposition to the Vietnam War. He won the race by three-tenths of a percent and, at 36, became the youngest senator in the country. <\/p>\n

In the Senate, Packwood cultivated a reputation as a maverick. <\/p>\n

He was the first Senate Republican to support the impeachment of President Richard Nixon. And he was among the first national politicians to embrace the environmental movement, pushing to protect Hells Canyon in 1975, and helping to preserve the Columbia River Gorge as a national scenic area. <\/p>\n

Where Packwood generated most attention, though, was in his stance on abortion and women\u2019s rights. He would ascribe his position favoring a woman\u2019s right to choose an abortion, in part, to the female volunteers who assisted him on the campaign trail. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey each had, if not personally experienced it, had something very close to a personal experience,\u201d Packwood told OPB. \u201cAnd they described how brutal it was, how unsanitary it was, and I thought, well, this is wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Treasury<\/p>\n

Treasury Secretary James Baker, right, huddles with Sen. Bob Packwood, R-Ore., on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, Nov. 2, 1987, during a session of administration and Congressional members working on the budget cuts.<\/p>\n

Doug Mills \/ AP<\/p>\n

Packwood unsuccessfully introduced a bill to legalize abortion in the early 1970s. With the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision at the Supreme Court, he was thrust into the national limelight as the voice of support in Congress.<\/p>\n

Packwood said he at first assumed furor over the issue would subside. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt did not, and it went on,\u201d he said in 2013. \u201cIt\u2019s going on. I guess it\u2019s going to go on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Packwood was also one of two Senate Republicans to vote against the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who had been accused of sexual harassment. <\/p>\n

Packwood said at the time that his vote was based on Thomas\u2019 legal theories, not the allegations against him.<\/p>\n

Packwood also played a major role in the nation\u2019s tax policy, eventually ascending to chair of the Senate Finance Committee. And he was among the Senate\u2019s staunchest defenders of Israel. <\/p>\n

But the events Packwood would ultimately become best known for were darker. The Washington Post investigation that was published on November 21, 1992, marked the beginning of the end of the senator\u2019s career in elected office. <\/p>\n

It detailed allegations that Packwood had forcibly kissed female staffers, attempted to remove one woman\u2019s underwear by force in his office, tried to force himself on another woman in an Oregon hotel room, and more. <\/p>\n

The earliest allegation stemmed from Packwood\u2019s first year in the Senate, when a staffer at his Portland office said he came up and kissed her on the neck. \u201cDon\u2019t you ever do that again,\u201d the staffer, Julie Williamson, said she told Packwood. <\/p>\n

According to the Post, \u201cWilliamson said Packwood then followed her into an adjoining room, where he grabbed at her clothes, pulled on her ponytail and at one point, stood on her toes\u201d to prevent her from kicking him as he tried to remove her undergarments.<\/p>\n

\"President<\/p>\n

President Clinton shakes hands with Senate Majority Leader-in-waiting Bob Dole of Kansas in the Rose Garden of the White House, Wednesday November 23, 1994, where Dole delivered his support for the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade(GATT). Sen. Bob Packwood, R-Ore., second from left, and White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta, second from right, look on.<\/p>\n

WILFREDO LEE \/ AP<\/p>\n

Stories from other women followed a similar pattern.<\/p>\n

The article launched a three-year process in which Packwood first welcomed \u2013 and then obstructed \u2013 a Congressional investigation. <\/p>\n

That investigation turned up damning evidence from Packwood himself. The Senator\u2019s personal diary included some shocking entries. <\/p>\n

In a 2017 memoir, former U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer included one excerpt detailing Packwood\u2019s account of an encounter with a staffer, NPR noted<\/a>. It read:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf she didn\u2019t want me to feather her nest, why did she come into the Xerox room? Sure, she used that old excuse that she had to make copies of the Brady Bill, but if you believe that, I have a room full of radical feminists you can boff. She knew I was copying stuff in there. I had my jacket off and my sleeves rolled up, revealing the well-defined musculature of my sinewy arms which are always bulging with desire. I know what she wanted. This didn\u2019t require a lot of thought.\u201d<\/p>\n

The investigation concluded with a nearly 200-page report<\/a> detailing findings that Packwood had committed at least 18 instances of sexual misconduct between 1969 and 1990. The document also concluded that Packwood attempted to obstruct investigators\u2019 work, and that he had sought to use his position as a senator to win work for his then-wife. <\/p>\n

Rather than being formally expelled by the Senate, Packwood opted to leave on his own.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is my duty to resign,\u201d he said on the Senate floor. \u201cIt is the honorable thing to do for this country, for this Senate\u2026 I leave this institution not with malice, but with love.\u201d <\/p>\n

CORRECTION: This article has been updated to reflect that Packwood and his wife did not own the vacation home in southern California where they were living when he died. OPB regrets the error. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Showing image 1 of 20 Sen. Bob Packwood, R-Ore., works in his Capitol Hill office Friday Aug. 25,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":689611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,299422,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-689610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-northwest-politics","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=689610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}