Thomas Byron Fuller, Jr. – 50th Reunion Essay

Thomas Byron Fuller, Jr.

1233 NE Schuyler Street #4

Portland, OR 97212-4301

tomfuller69@aya.yale.edu

503-705-0771

Spouse(s): Rozanne Van Zyl Fuller (1971-1977); Sarah Lewis Fuller (1987-present)

Education: Yale College 1969; Pacific Coast Banking School, University of Washington, 1982

Career: Oregon Bank/Security Pacific Bank of Oregon 1969-1988; State of Oregon 1988-1991; Shiels Obletz Johnsen 1991 until present

Avocations: Member and former Director, Alumni Schools Committee of Oregon/Southwest Washington; former Board member & Treasurer, USRowing; USRowing referee since 1986; former international rowing official from 1997 through 2012; member of Class 1 of the American Leadership Forum of Oregon; volunteer for Portland Public Schools; volunteer for numerous nonprofits in and around Portland, OR

College: Berkeley

How can 50 years have passed so quickly? My journey to this point began shortly before the 1969 Eastern Sprints (I rowed for the lightweight crew) when I learned my girlfriend in Oregon had tried to commit suicide. I dated some amazing women at Yale, but always kept Rozanne Van Zyl in my memory as we had known each other since childhood. I flew back to Oregon as soon as I could, assuming I would forgo graduation to see if I could help her. Her psychiatrist told me there was no way I was going to see her, so I spent several days alone, soul-searching where I was, then asked my parents if they wanted to go to graduation—one of the best decisions I made in my life. I was the first in my family to graduate from college. As I look back over the last 50 years, I don’t know how I could have thought it was anything but one of the worst ideas I had ever had to leave and go back to Oregon. Until the day each of my parents died, they talked about what it meant to see me graduate from Yale.

I wound up marrying Rozanne, but the marriage lasted seven years. She tried to commit suicide again, and was diagnosed as bipolar and later with Parkinson’s disease. I wasn’t able to deal with the institutionalization and constant crises. I married Sarah Lewis in 1987 and we have been married ever since; many of you have met her at reunions.

I became a banker out of college, working for the Oregon Bank which was acquired by Security Pacific Bank of Oregon. I rose through the ranks to become a senior vice president and “fixed” things that weren’t working well. I left banking in 1998 to go to work for Governor Neil Goldschmidt of Oregon. I built prisons and ran a large part of the state’s economic development department, but in actuality, I again worked at fixing issues of importance to the governor and the state. I left the state in 1991 to join classmate and fellow Oregonian Rick Gustafson at Shiels Obletz Johnsen, a project management and development consulting company, and have been here ever since.

I have stayed in touch with two of my roommates, Joe Cobert and John Adams, who have been very good friends to Sarah and me. We have spent time with them, often when I have been at rowing events. I have been a rowing official for the last 32 plus years, continuing the love for the sport I developed at Yale. Rowing has allowed me to see many areas of the world and to be a rowing official at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.

I have also been involved with Oregon and southwest Washington’s Alumni Schools Committee for the last 40 plus years, chairing it for 25. Yale was a life-changing experience, and truly the friends made at Yale will be with me and us forever.