Don Tykeson

Donald Erwin Tykeson (April 11, 1927 – July 12, 2017) was an American businessman and philanthropist. The owner of BendBroadband, he was also a founding board member of C-SPAN.

Early life and education The son of O. Ansel Tykeson and Hillie M. Haveman, Don Tykeson was born April 11, 1927, in Portland, Oregon. He was reared on his family's farm near Newberg, Oregon. Tykeson began his education at the Mountain Top one-room school, and he won a statewide Future Farmers of America public speaking contest.

He met Rilda M. "Willie" Steigleder, another student at the University of Oregon, and they married in 1950. The couple had three children.

Career and philanthropy Tykeson worked in the communications industry throughout his adult life, beginning in sales at The Oregon Journal, and then managing and buying minority interest in Liberty Communications/KEZI of Eugene, Oregon. He purchased Bend Cable in 1983, which became BendBroadband.

By 1983, when his firm was sold for US$186 million to Tele-Communications Inc., it "had become one of the top 20 cable operators in the nation." Oregon State University also has named a building "Tykeson Hall" at the Cascades campus in Bend, Oregon.