Neil Goldschmidt Portland Mayor Who Abused Teenager Dies at 83
Another sad story about someone who could have been remembered for all the good things he did. Instead, however, he’ll forever be known as someone who took advantage of his position to abuse and ruin the life of an innocent young girl. He must have thought that he was surrounded by a protective force of some kind because of his celebrity. It is a common trait of abusers. They are always mistaken.
What is never wrong is “The Law of Cause & Effect,” the fundamental Law of Nature and all human experience! These days when we hear a story like this we invoke the words, “What Goes Around Comes Around.” You can throw in “Karma” to complete the trifecta! All are attempts to explain the same concept that originated from different eras of history. Certainly, Neil had heard those words many times as we all do. Hopefully we’ll do better!
Find Rob’s book & ebook “What Goes Around Comes Around – A Guide To How Life REALLY Works” at Amazon or Audible
Kirkus Reviews says:
A stable, nonpreachy, objective voice makes the book stand apart from others in the genre. A successful guide that uses anecdotes of real human experiences to reveal powerful truths about life.
Neil Goldschmidt, Portland Mayor Who Abused Teenager, Dies at 83
While he was reviving Portland, Ore., as a vibrant, pedestrian-friendly city, he was also sexually abusing a teenage girl over three years, he later admitted.
June 18, 2024
Neil Goldschmidt, a transformative figure in Oregon politics who as mayor of Portland in the 1970s reshaped the city into a vibrant, progressive, pedestrian-friendly urban area — a period when he was sexually abusing a teenage girl, he later admitted — died on Wednesday at his home in Portland. He was 83.
A family member said the cause was congestive heart failure.
As mayor of Portland, and then as governor of Oregon from 1987 to 1991, Mr. Goldschmidt earned a reputation as a visionary architect of urban renewal. His ideas for making cities more walkable and less dependent on cars became templates for municipal officials across the country.
In Portland, he fought off federal plans for a highway that would have cut straight through the city, diverting funding for the project to the creation of downtown parks and a light-rail transit system. He also poured money into restoring blighted neighborhoods and backed mixed-use developments combining housing, retail and offices.
“He understood that if you attract new families into older neighborhoods, you provide a labor force and customers for downtown businesses,” Carl Abbott, a historian at Portland State University, said in an interview. “And if downtown businesses are strong and downtown is interesting and exciting, then that makes people want to live there.”
In 1979, during Mr. Goldschmidt’s second term as mayor, he resigned to become the nation’s transportation secretary, appointed by President Jimmy Carter. After Mr. Carter left office in 1981, Mr. Goldschmidt joined Nike, one of Oregon’s most prominent companies, as a senior executive. He won election as the state’s 33rd governor in 1986.
Viewed as a rising star in national politics, Mr. Goldschmidt stunned political observers in 1990 when he announced that he wouldn’t seek a second term and that he was separating from his wife, Margaret Wood, after 25 years of marriage.
Rumors of extramarital affairs had swirled around Mr. Goldschmidt for years.
“Serving the state I love has come at a cost to another love, my family,” he said in announcing his decision not to run.
Mr. Goldschmidt started a consulting firm and served on the Oregon Board of Higher Education.
Then, in May 2004, a scandalous 30-year secret was exposed.
As Willamette Week was about to publish its story online, Mr. Goldschmidt confessed to reporters from the daily newspaper The Oregonian during a 50-minute interview. He said the girl, a neighbor, was the daughter of someone who had worked on his campaign for mayor.
“I’m just living with this personal hell,” he said. “The lie has gone on too long.”
He also acknowledged that rumors about extramarital affairs weren’t just rumors.
“If people work hard enough, I think you’ll find indiscretions,” he told The Oregonian. “But nothing as ugly as this.”
The statute of limitations on any criminal charges that might have been brought against Mr. Goldschmidt, including statutory rape, had expired decades earlier. The woman he abused later gave a series of interviews to Margie Boulé, a columnist for The Oregonian, describing her relationship with the mayor.
The woman said the abuse first began when she was 13, on her mother’s birthday. It virtually destroyed her, she said. She attempted suicide at age 15 and later become addicted to alcohol and cocaine. She died in 2011.
“I had so much potential,” she told Ms. Boule. “I was so bright. I loved to read, I loved to learn.”
Neil Edward Goldschmidt was born on June 16, 1940, in Eugene, Ore., to Lester Goldschmidt, an accountant, and Annette (Levin) Goldschmidt.
After graduating from the University of Oregon in 1963 with a degree in political science, he moved to Washington, D.C., and worked as an intern for Senator Maurine B. Neuberger of Oregon.
Mr. Goldschmidt left Washington after a year and moved to Mississippi to work on a voter-registration drive with Charles Evers, the brother of the civil rights activist Medgar Evers.
After several months in the Deep South, he enrolled in law school at the University of California, Berkeley, and graduated in 1967. Rather than joining classmates who went on to earn large salaries at big law firms, Mr. Goldschmidt worked for the Legal Aid Society in Portland.
In 1970, he won a seat on the City Council. He was elected mayor in 1972 and 1976.
Mr. Goldschmidt married Diana Snowden in 1994. She survives him, along with his children from his first marriage, Rebecca McMillan and Josh Goldschmidt; two stepchildren, Kirsten and Neilan Snowden; his brother, Steve; and eight grandchildren.
After his confession, Mr. Goldschmidt spent the rest of his life out of the public eye.
“Although he battled many health issues for years, he was actively engaged with family and friends in discussions about school, business, politics and wine until the day of his passing,” his family said in a statement, adding that they hoped people would remember the “significant positive contributions he made to our community.”
Political figures in Oregon have struggled to define his legacy.
“In what he has done and what he has meant for this state, Neil belongs among the political icons of the past 50 years,” Angus Duncan, a former aide to Mr. Goldschmidt, told The Washington Post after the sexual abuse was disclosed. “He was a larger-than-life creature who left a durable impact on the landscape.”
After his death, the assessments were less charitable.
“Neil Goldschmidt’s abuse of a young girl destroyed her life, a horrific act that should make any other discussion of his political career moot,” Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon said in a statement. “The best response to this news would be to contribute to organizations dedicated to preventing sexual abuse, such as the Oregon Association for the Treatment and Prevention of Sexual Abuse.”
Kirkus Reviews, the gold-standard for independent & accurate reviews, has this to say about
What Goes Around Comes Around:
A successful guide that uses anecdotes to reveal powerful truths about life.
The stable, positive, non-preachy and objective voice makes the book stand apart from others in the genre.
~ Kirkus Reviews
“I’ve read a number of books that focus on sharing a similar message, including “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne, “The Answer” by John Assaraf & Murray Smith, “The Celestine Prophecy” by James Redfield, “Think and Grow Rich,” by Napoleon Hill, and I must say that I find Rob’s to be my favorite.” – Sheryl Woodhouse, founder of Livelihood Matters LLC
Neil Goldschmidt Portland Mayor Who Abused Teenager Dies at 83
Neil Goldschmidt Portland Mayor Who Abused Teenager Dies at 83
U.S. Coast Guard Academy, in New London, Connecticut between 1988 and 2006, including the revelation of leaders who discouraged disclosure. Those cases do not include at least 42 more that have been identified as not having been properly investigated. That is not to mention new Pentagon published statistics showing student-reported assaults at West Point, the Naval Academy and the Air Force Academy.
So after all the accusations and denials, the truth is finally revealed about Bill Cosby’s lifetime of raping young women, who were unfortunate enough to cross his path. The answer as to how he got away with it for so long, lies in his skill of slipping a Methaquolone pill, otherwise known as a Quaalude, into a drink he would give them. It would render them helpless to escape his subsequent sexual assault. Of course, he had also built a persona of America’s Grandpa, that was the ultimate deception.I first heard about quaaludes (‘ludes) in college in the 60’s. Apparently, he did as well! The word was that if you could slip one into a girl’s drink, she would be more compliant than otherwise. The records show that Cosby had multiple prescriptions filled at least throughout the 70’s, then apparently, subsequently found other sources. It became his “MO” and many women his victim. But that game is over now, most likely for the duration of his life! As with most abusers, Cosby felt he had a way to evade the light from shining on what he was up to. He thought he was safe and would never get caught, but If accused, he could claim it was consensual. It is what all abusers think, regardless of the form that abuse takes, and sometimes it can work for a long while. But when the light finally does shine and reveals the truth, the rule is that the longer the perpetrator got away with their nasty deceptions, the deeper the hole they will have dug for themselves. Epstein escaped via suicide. I think they’ll be keeping a close eye on Bill!