Gordon Faber

Gordon C. Faber (April 2, 1931 – August 18, 2014) was an American politician and businessman in the U.S. state of Oregon. A native of Pennsylvania, he grew up in Hillsboro, Oregon. He joined the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War and was a small business owner before becoming a real estate agent and entering politics. He served on Hillsboro's budget committee and city council before serving two terms as mayor from 1993 to 2001. The Gordon Faber Recreation Complex in the city's northeast corner is named in his honor.

Early life Gordon Faber was born on April 2, 1931, in Greensburg, Pennsylvania to Ben Faber. He attended the local schools and graduated from Hillsboro High School in 1949 before enrolling at Lewis & Clark College in neighboring Portland. and in time the couple had three children (Mark, Rod, and Bob). Later he bought out his brother and then father from the business, but sold it in 1985.

Political career Faber's political career began when he served on Hillsboro's budget committee. After a two-year absence he returned for a second four-year term in 1987, followed by another term that would have run until 1995.

During the campaign season he openly opposed the Oregon Citizens Alliance’s ballot measure that was seen as anti-gay rights. Faber took office in 1993, and left the city council at that time after spending ten years on the council.

Mayor

As mayor in April 1995, he cast the tie-breaking vote that allowed for the construction of an apartment complex in the Jackson School neighborhood that was opposed by the neighborhood, but allowed by the existing zoning of the property. Hillsboro mayors do not hold a vote on the city council, but do break ties. Later state legislators Jim Hill and Bruce Starr also voted in favor of allowing the complex, while later mayor Jerry Willey voted against the complex. He presided over the ribbon cutting at the apartment complex when it opened in August 1996, and later called the vote the toughest decision he had to make as mayor.

In the November 1996 election he defeated retired sheet metal worker Gordon B. Sherman, winning 84% of the vote. He advocated for the expansion of the urban growth boundary, including bringing in the South Hillsboro Reserve area. The Wilsonville location was selected in May 1997, though the prison (Coffee Creek Correctional Facility) was later built north of the former state hospital. Faber joined Kitzhaber in 2000 on a visit to Japan, where Faber visited Hillsboro's sister city of Fukuroi as well as the headquarters of many of the Japanese-based companies with facilities in Hillsboro.

On January 2, 2001, he left office and was succeeded by Tom Hughes. While Faber was mayor, the city grew from approximately 40,000 residents to 72,630 and became the fifth most populous in the state. His marriage to his first wife, Barbara, having ended, Faber remarried in 1990 to B. J. Jeddeloh (also Barbara). In 2014, he began receiving hospice care at home due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Gordon Faber died on August 18, 2014, at home at the age of 83 due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.