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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us February 11, 2006 Helen F. Althaus, Pioneer Woman Lawyer, dies at 95 Helen F. Althaus, a descendant of Oregon pioneers and a pioneer woman lawyer in Oregon, died Feb. 2, in Ashland. She was 95 years old. Ms. Althaus was the great granddaughter of Elijah Williams, an Ohio lawyer who brought his family to Oregon by covered wagon on the Oregon Trail in 1851. She grew up on Sweet Briar Farm in Troutdale, where she lived until she retired to Ashland in 1985. Ms. Althaus graduated from the University of Oregon in 1932. After working as a chemist, she attended Northwestern School of Law at Lewis and Clark College and was admitted to the Oregon Bar in 1945 at age 35. Ms. Althaus was the first woman to clerk for a Federal judge in Oregon. From 1947 to 1949, she worked as law clerk to U.S. District Judge James Alger Fee. She served as Deputy City Attorney for the City of Portland from 1949-53 before joining a private practice. Woman attorneys were rare in private practice, and the firm, now known as Miller Nash, used only her initials, H.F. rather than Helen on its letterhead. In 1970, Ms. Althaus formed an all woman law firm. In 1973, she worked on special assignments for the Bonneville Power Administration and later became Staff attorney in the office of the Regional Solicitor, U.S. Department of Interior. Her research for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was published as the book "Public Trust Rights," in 1980. Ms. Althaus was strongly committed to the advance of women in the legal profession, to human rights and to the theater, especially the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. She was the first woman member of the Oregon State Bar Continuing Legal Education Committee. In 1994, Oregon Women Lawyers named Helen the recipient of its Justice Betty Roberts Award, for her outstanding contribution to promoting women in the legal profession. She was a lifelong member of the ACLU, the United Nations Association in both Portland and Southern Oregon, and was active in the Oregon Bar Association World Peace Through Law Committee. Ms. Althaus was a member of the Troutdale City Council from 1973 to 1982. Helen and her mother, Lenore Althaus, began attending plays at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland in the early 1950s. On her retirement, Helen moved to Ashland where she became a valued member of the theater community, whether sitting in her favorite front row seat, occasionally performing in small local theaters or through her generous support of the Festival and its actors as a member of the Festival's Southampton Society. With her keen memory, Helen could recall in detail many past performances she had seen. Her many friends regarded her as the living memory of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival spanning the entire second half of the Twentieth Century. She inspired three generations of family and friends to love the theater in general and the Shakespeare Festival in particular. Helen is survived by her many friends in the legal profession and in the theater whose lives she enriched with her intelligence, wit and passion for the law and the theater. At her request, there will be no service. Genevieve Eleanor Wood Genevieve Eleanor Wood, 85, of Ashland died Friday, February 10, 2006 at Ashland Community Hospital. Arrangements by Litwiller-Simonsen Funeral Home, Ashland. Leo Martin A celebration of life will be held Feb. 8 for C. Leo Martin of Eugene, who died Feb. 3 of age-related causes. He was 94. Martin was born Nov. 22, 1911, in Beagle, Oregon, to James and Pearl Bass Martin. He married Frances Bennett in Roguedale (now Shady Cove) on Jan. 28, 1939. She died Feb. 26, 1999. He lived in Ashland, Port Orford, and Table Rock, before moving to Eugene in 1999. Martin graduated from high school in 1928, and worked for the Civilian Conservation Corps at Crater Lake. He was a certified orchardist who worked for Table Rock Orchard. He was also employed by the Oregon Department of Transportation and worked as a mill-wright at McGraw Brothers in Ashland. Martin enjoyed cribbage, the mandolin, bookkeeping, reading, gardening, fishing and raising show dogs. He was a member of the Rogue Valley Kennell Club, CIOIWA, Grace Community Fellowship of Eugene and First Baptist Church of Ashland. Survivors include three daughters, Ann McIntyre of La Grande, Leona Graham of North Bend and Sarah Ezell of Eugene; a brother, Cecil of Phoenix, OR; and seven grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. A service was held Wednesday, Feb. 8, at Major Family Funeral Home in Springfield. A private burial will take place at Springfield Memorial Gardens. 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