Avel Gordly, who received an honorary degree from Portland State in 2017, leaves a legacy as both a trailblazing public servant and a devoted educator and mentor.
Avel Gordly, the first Black woman elected to the Oregon State Senate and a proud alumna, professor and honorary degree recipient of Portland State University, passed away Monday at 79, leaving a legacy as both a trailblazing public servant and a devoted educator and mentor.
"She was committed to doing what was right and, in that regard, she was like a lighthouse for everyone else to observe and follow," said Darrell Millner, a longtime Black Studies professor. "She will be difficult to replace. She was a unique talent, and she gave all of her energy and all of her commitment to trying to make Portland State and Oregon a better place. Her legacy will live after her."
Born in Portland in 1947, Gordly graduated from Girls Polytechnic High School and worked at Pacific Northwest Bell until 1970. In 1974, she became the first person in her family to earn a college degree when she graduated from PSU with a degree in administration of justice. She went on to work as a women’s work-release counselor for the Oregon Corrections Division and later as a parole and probation officer.
Gordly held leadership roles in several activist and public service organizations, including the Black United Front, the Urban League of Portland, the American Friends Service Committee, and Portlanders Organized for Southern African Freedom.
In 1991, she was appointed to fill a vacancy in the Oregon House of Representatives and was reelected. In 1996, she became the first Black woman to be elected to the Oregon State Senate where her legislative initiatives focused on criminal justice, mental health and cultural competency in education.
"Senator Gordly was a trailblazer in service to her community and an inspiration to generations of men and women. She will be deeply missed by our community," said PSU President Ann Cudd. "While I never had the chance to shake her hand, I know her connections to Portland State ran deep. She certainly represented the best of PSU and our pledge to Let Knowledge Serve."
In 2006, while still in office, Gordly returned to PSU to teach in the Black Studies department.
"I'm very proud of her tenure there," said her son, Ty Waters. "I met some of the students that Mom mentored and that she took under her wing and are still connected to this day. Mom considers all of them to be family — her children that she mentored."
One of those students is Sam Sachs, who graduated with a bachelor's in Black Studies. He still remembers their first meeting. After Gordly was quoted in a newspaper article about racial profiling, he sought her out to talk about it.
Sam Sachs, left, shared a 19-year friendship with Avel Gordly (Courtesy of Sam Sachs)
"From that moment on, we were friends," he said.
They found what they shared in common — both had worked in corrections — and talked about Sachs' community work through his nonprofit, No Hate Zone.
During his senior year, Gordly selected Sachs and five other students to serve as legislative interns. He attended meetings and took notes on her behalf.
"I represented Avel Gordly," he said. "Can you imagine — this white kid from Albany, Oregon — and she'd say, 'I need you to go to this meeting. Tell them you're with my office.'"
Her mentorship was everything for him.
"Through the way she nurtured and mentored me, I learned how to use the legislative process," he said. "All the work that I've done since then has been inspired because of that experience. None of the things I did — the billboards and dinners bringing communities of color and police together — were ever done without consulting Avel first and getting her perspective."
Sachs, who became her personal security officer in the last decade of her life, described Gordly as someone who extended grace and respect to everyone.
"She could make the toughest politician and the fiercest adversary her friend," he said. "She taught me that no matter who you disagree with in this world, there's a way to find a middle ground."
He says he hopes someone will pick up the baton and carry on her work.
"That's what's missing today," he said. "Who's going to be the next Avel Gordly? Who's going to be the next person to give others grace and to embrace other people — even those they disagree with — so that we as a beloved community can move forward together?"
Ty Waters with his mom (Courtesy of Ty Waters)
In 2008, OHSU unveiled the Avel Gordly Center for Healing, which provides culturally specific mental health care — an issue that hit close to home for Gordly and her son.
"Mom was a champion and pioneer in the Legislature for mental illness advocacy," Waters said. "She wanted me to live, be happy and not live as a victim. She was very proud that I was able to get a grasp on my mental health and become an advocate for others."
After retiring, Gordly published her memoir, Remembering the Power of Words: The Life of An Oregon Legislator, Activist, and Community Leader, co-written with PSU History Professor Patricia Schechter. The two first met at PSU Day at the Capitol in 2008, shortly after Gordly donated her papers documenting her political career and public life to the PSU Library's Special Collections.
Schechter worked with librarians and students to process the collection and develop a guide, later writing an essay introducing Gordly's career and creating curriculum materials for middle and high school classrooms. After that work was complete, Gordly called Schechter with a new project: She was ready to tell her story and wanted Schechter's help. The memoir grew out of some 25 hours of interviews that Schechter conducted and transcribed.
"Working on that project with her was not just a high point in my career, but one of the high points of my life," she said. "We became family after that. Even though we've lost her, her story will continue to touch people."
Her legacy also lives on through the Avel Louise Gordly for Oregon Black Women Scholarship Fund, established in her honor by Schechter and Carmen Thompson. The scholarship supports African American women graduating from Oregon high schools as they pursue higher education in Oregon or at one of the nation's Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
"She has been a lifelong teacher and educator," Schechter said. "She has done so much to make sure young people, especially African American young people, have what they need to pursue their dreams, their training, their education, so it feels like a scholarship is a really good fit for keeping with her lifelong commitment."