Joyce Furman, seen here with good friend Murdo, played a major, if quiet, role in many of Portland’s more notable philanthropic efforts over the last several years. Furman, also an animal lover, died recently at 67. Joyce Furman’s idea sounded a bit ambitious.
First, we import 100 fiberglass cows from Poland, she told her fellow board members for the New Avenues for Youth nonprofit. We’ll display them around Portland for a while, auction them off for artists to paint, place them around town again, and auction them off again. And all this will raise lots of money that will all go to help kids.
Maybe impossible is the better word.
“You can’t imagine all the reasons why that would never work,” said Mitchell Hornecker, a fellow board member and president of Howard S. Wright. Furman politely but persistently waved away the objections. “But for Joyce, that idea would have never had another minute’s consideration.”
But it did. The six-month “Kows for Kids” fundraiser in 2002 not only generated $2.5 million for children’s causes but captivated Portlanders.
That was Furman’s style, recalled friends and family, a mix of grace and grit to achieve a goal no one would have imagined. The longtime philanthropist who served as a board member for the Portland Parks Foundation, Oregon Community Foundation and several other civic and children’s organizations, died Monday night. She was 67.
Furman graduated from Lebanon High School and earned distinction as Miss Oregon USA of 1962. She then received a bachelor’s degree from Oregon State University in 1965 in science education. After college, she worked as a math teacher for a private school in Hawaii, then returned to Oregon where she worked as a systems analyst for IBM, said her husband, Bill Furman, president and chief executive of Greenbrier Cos. The two married in 1973.
“She’s like an angel,” said her husband Bill Furman. “She wanted to help others. And anything, any creature, or any child or any cause that would come into her path, she would help.”
At the time of her death, she was serving as a board or committee member for eight organizations, including Marylhurst University, the Children’s Institute and New Avenues for Youth, which she helped found. The agency, which serves homeless teens, recognized her years of leadership at the unveiling of a transitional housing center 10 years ago. To her surprise, when the sheet covering the sign was lifted, it showed her name, recalled board member Gary Maffei.
But recognition wasn’t what she looked for, Maffei and others said. The Portland Parks Foundation received more than half of the $800,000 to create Holly Farm Park in Southwest Portland from the Furmans, but the donation was low key. Their only recognition was being listed on a plaque with other donor names, said executive director Linda Laviolette.
“As much as she contributed to the community financially, she contributed even more of her self,” said Maffei, vice president of Merlo Corp.
Years ago, her husband recalled, a cat with part of its ear torn off showed up at their home. The Furmans eventually found a note taped to a dumpster at Hoyt Arboretum, about a lost cat. The phone number on the note, however, had been disconnected.
Joyce Furman wrote a note on the original, including her phone number. A while later, she received a call from Priscilla Watrous.
At the time, Watrous was living out of her van, but Joyce Furman invited her to tea. Watrous decided her cat would be better cared for by the Furmans, recalled Watrous, but the two women struck up a friendship. Watrous, who has since reconnected with her family, got a job and cares for her 2-year-old daughter, said Joyce Furman has been an inspiration.
“It’s crazy that someone who was at the bottom of the barrel at the time could have met somebody so wonderful,” she said.
Furman’s love for animals meant that several times, she enlisted the help of her friend Ray Mathis, a former FBI agent and former executive director of the Citizens Crime Commission, to locate owners of stray animals she found.
“She gave so much to friends and strangers you had to respond,” he said.
Joyce and Bill Furman in happer times at the festa to celebrate the completion of the renovations to their Palazzo in Barga
Her health declined in recent years, as she battled metastatic melanoma. But she focused on her volunteer work, encouraging people to see possibilities when none seemed apparent, said Ken Cowdery, executive director of New Avenues.
He recalled one time when people were talking about fundraising challenges. Furman shared with them an inspirational message she saw on a trinket at an airport gift shop. “Jump — and the net will appear.” Cowdery amended that message on Tuesday.
“When you’ve got somebody like Joyce working with you, ” he said, “the net will appear.”
A memorial service is scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 4, at 11 a.m. at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Northwest Portland.
She will be buried in Barga, Tuscany, Italy. In addition to her husband, Joyce Furman leaves her mother, Viola Collin of Portland; a brother, Roger Collin of Beaverton; a sister, Betty Keepers of Lebanon; one daughter, Cindie Marie Grassi of Olympia, two sons, Wade Furman of Weare, N.H., and Greg Furman of Portland; and five grandchildren.
The article for the festa to celebrate the completion of the renovations to their Palazzo in Barga canbe read here