Orval Etter

Born in 1915, Orval Etter is a former lawyer and Professor Emeritus of Planning, Public Policy and Management who retired in 1980 from the University of Oregon in Eugene. An amateur musician, he assembled groups of other amateurs to perform in public before co-founding, with Caroline Boekelheide, the Eugene Symphony Orchestra in 1965. The Emerald Chamber Players in Eugene also continue to perform as an offshoot of his early musical groups.

He is a pacifist, a longtime social activist, and was an outspoken conscientious objector during World War II. He became a figure of controversy in his 90s when a peace education discussion group he founded, Pacifica Forum, was opened up in the interest of freedom of speech to any speaker who wanted an audience. After it hosted a series of right-wing speakers, including Holocaust deniers, white separatists, and "revisionist historians," Pacifica Forum was listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an accusation that Etter denies.

His writings include a series of volumes on Municipal Home Rule in Oregon as well as many articles and pamphlets on history, law, politics, and peace education. In 2011 he donated most of his unpublished writings to the University of Oregon where they are archived in the Special Collections. He continues to work on his memoirs of his childhood and youth, from the years between the two World Wars, a collection of short pieces whimsically titled the Vignetters.

Currently in weakened health, he lives in an assisted living facility in the Eugene area where he keeps in close touch with family and friends.