Neil Edward Goldschmidt American businessman and politician Date of Birth: 16.06.1940 Country: USA

1. Early Life and Education
2. Political Career
3. U.S. Secretary of Transportation
4. Oregon Governor
5. Later Years and Death

Early Life and Education

Neil Goldschmidt was born on June 16, 1940, in Eugene, Oregon, to Jewish parents Lester and Annette Goldschmidt. He graduated from South Eugene High School and later attended the University of Oregon, where he served as student body president before graduating with a bachelor's degree in political science in 1963.

In 1964, Goldschmidt worked as an intern for U.S. Senator Maurine Neuberger in Washington, D.C. While there, he was recruited by New York Congressman Allard K. Lowenstein to register voters for the 1964 "Freedom Summer" civil rights campaign in Mississippi. Goldschmidt married Margaret Wood in 1965 and had two children. The couple divorced in 1990. After completing his undergraduate studies, Goldschmidt obtained his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1967 and practiced law in Portland from 1967 to 1970.

Political Career

Goldschmidt embarked on his political career in Oregon in 1970, winning a seat on the Portland City Council. As a city commissioner (1971–1973) and then mayor of Portland (1973–1979), he played a key role in revitalizing the city's downtown. He led a grassroots protest against the unpopular Mount Hood Freeway, successfully building consensus among unions and other influential organizations to redirect federal funds from the freeway into alternative projects, ultimately doubling the federal money attracted to the region and securing the Metropolitan Area Express (MAX) light rail line and the Portland Transit Mall. Goldschmidt is also credited with opening city government to neighborhood and minority activists and appointing women and African Americans to City Hall.

Goldschmidt was a key figure in addressing Portland's transportation needs. In 1973, Governor Tom McCall appointed him to the Governor's Task Force charged with studying regional transportation solutions. The task force found the deal to fund the Mount Hood Freeway, which would have bisected southeast Portland, to be unpopular. The deal, which would have been 90% federally funded, was killed when the Multnomah County Commission and then the Portland City Council reversed their support. Goldschmidt initially resisted diverting the funds to light rail, favoring busways and more modest local roadway projects instead. However, as the 1981 deadline to reallocate the funds approached, a high-speed streetcar emerged as a more attractive option. Ultimately, the light rail was included in the final plan, with the total federal money originally intended for the Mount Hood Freeway still applied, but doubled in amount, and the first MAX line was approved and eventually completed in 1986.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation

In 1979, Goldschmidt was appointed as the sixth U.S. Secretary of Transportation by President Jimmy Carter. His appointment was part of a mid-term cabinet-level restructuring of the administration and was made on July 27 of that year. The U.S. Senate confirmed his appointment on September 21, and he was sworn into office on September 24. As Secretary of Transportation, Goldschmidt made his mark by working to revitalize the automobile industry and pursuing the deregulation of the airline, trucking, and railroad industries.

Oregon Governor

After an unsuccessful re-election bid by Carter, Goldschmidt left the administration and briefly worked as a senior executive at Nike, Inc. In 1986, he was elected as the 33rd governor of Oregon. As governor, he faced numerous challenges, including a rising anti-tax movement and a doubling of the state's prison population. He worked along party lines to reduce regulation and rebuild the state's infrastructure. His reforms to the State Accident Insurance Fund Corporation (SAIF), a state-chartered workers' compensation insurance company, were praised at the time but came under fire in later years.

Later Years and Death

In 2003, Governor Ted Kulongoski appointed Goldschmidt to the Oregon State Board of Higher Education, a position he resigned from after admitting to having had a sexual relationship with an underage girl 30 years earlier. Goldschmidt passed away on June 12, 2024, at his Portland home due to heart failure, just four days before his 84th birthday.