Kurt Krause, 1933-2026, who spent his life walking almost every day, walked off of this earth on October 17, 2026. His service to our board will never be forgotten. His soft spoken, insightful contributions were valued and gently inspired us to be our best.
Memorial service will be held at Wilhelm's Portland Memorial Funeral Home (6705 SE 14th Ave., Portland), Sunday November 15, at 10 a.m., and livestreamed at tinyurl.com/36s6b3r6.
Kurt Terry Krause was born in Portland, the second of three children, and moved to Durham while still in elementary school. While still in high school, Kurt began commuting into downtown Portland to work as a busboy at the Heathman Hotel, bringing dining-room leftovers home to the family while saving up to buy a car.
He enrolled at Oregon State but left to enlist in the U.S. Air Force for four years, serving as a flight-simulator training instructor. After being discharged, Kurt married Eleanor (Bowman) and enrolled at Portland State.
Kurt graduated from PSU in 1963 with a B.S. in Psychology and two young sons. The following year they all moved to California, where he attended graduate school at San Francisco State University.
He left just shy of a master's degree and began his career in Human Resources with stints at P.I.E. trucking, Schlage Lock, Arcata Graphics, and Cartridge Television.
The family moved across the Bay to a Victorian on the island of Alameda, where they lived for more than 20 years.
Then his career in high technology began. Commuting to the Silicon Valley, he was Director of Industrial Relations at Amdahl Corporation, then moved to Fujitsu America, where he eventually rose to become Vice President of Human Resources.
In his spare time, Kurt worked extensively on the family home, took up running seriously, and took the family on several adventurous vacations-rafting on the Rogue River, multiple driving tours of Mexico, and more.
In 1985, Kurt and Eleanor moved back to Portland, where he served as Vice President of Human Resources for Fujitsu's new manufacturing facility in Hillsboro until he retired in 1989.
Kurt was active in a wide variety of civic and local organizations, including the City Club of Portland, the Tualatin Historical Society, the Friends of the Multnomah County Library, and the Eastmoreland Neighborhood Association. He also maintained close relationships with family, neighbors, fellow alumni of Tigard High School, and people who shared his enthusiasms for wine, good food, good conversation, and movies.
For years, he walked 3-4 miles a day, and still maintained a regimen of 1-2 miles a day until just a couple of months before he died.
Fifteen days after his 93rd birthday, Kurt succumbed to complications from recurrent pneumonia and late-onset Alzheimer's dementia.
He is survived by both sisters, three nephews, three nieces, his three sons, and two granddaughters.
