Our Team: Meet the Highway 58 Herald Founders

Personal profiles of the board of directors

---

GEORGE WILLIAM CUSTER JR., president and interim editor

Date of Birth: Mar. 12, 1953, Oroville, Calif.

Education: Bachelor of Arts in business/information management; Master of Business Administration in international business

Married and residing in Oakridge since 2007

Traits: Physically fit, passionate by nature, gregarious, thoughtful, considerate, honest, trustworthy, reliable, creative

Hobbies: Running, tennis, sports in general, motorcycle riding, travel, helping my community wherever possible

Experience: U.S. Forest Service (three years) – timber management, firefighter, smokejumper, U.S. Marine Corps (15 years) – the rank of captain, honorable discharge

Owner of construction company, San Diego area (12 years) – exceeded $2 million in sales annually

President, Uptown Business Revitalization Association (10 years)

Currently, the owner of numerous commercial and residential rental properties, active in local civic groups, previous chairperson of Oakridge Planning Commission, previous member of Oakridge Economic Development Advisory Committee

Personal Goals: Stay active, travel with my wife, accept others as they are, establish more long-term friendships, always do what is right, learn to cook better.

---

JOY KINGSBURY, secretary

Joy Kingsbury entered the business world as a teen and has spent her working life in small business – buying, remodeling and working various small enterprises. At last count there were 12 of these, mainly in the service industries, giving her the opportunity to live in various parts of the country.

Born in California and raised in Las Vegas, Kingsbury moved to Oakridge from Carson City, Nev., in 1991 – lured to the area by the beauty of the majestic Cascade Mountains, green forests, and free-flowing rivers and streams. Not only was it a nice change from a desert environment, but the move also presented opportunities for growing small businesses.

Since the move to Oakridge, Kingsbury has been an innkeeper, property manager, and Realtor for buyers and sellers of all varieties of property. She also has remodeled homes and offices, and she has built two storage unit complexes.

Kingsbury has been civically active the entire time since arriving in Oakridge. She is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, Business Advisory Team, Kiwanis, Beta Sigma Phi, and the Oakridge Economic Development Advisory Committee. Over the years she has served stints on the city planning commission and various other boards and committees in the community.

About 15 years ago, with no training in journalism, Kingsbury began writing reports on Oakridge City Council meetings, hoping to stimulate interest in attendance from the citizenry. These reports were published in the now-defunct local newspaper. Since she began providing that service, more community residents have been taking an interest and participating in the business of local government, which to Kingsbury is very rewarding.

---

SUSAN KNUDSEN OBERMEYER, treasurer

A lifelong resident of Oakridge/Westfir.  Been married to Bob for going on 42 years.  Raised two children in Oakridge – Jeff and Tori.  Jeff lives in Oakland, Calif., with his wife, Mirian, and children Sofia and Robert.  Tori, her husband Clint and children June and William live in west Eugene.  They are what keeps me going.

Retired from the U.S. Forest Service in 2011 after 35 years. Was the operations staff officer, responsible for timber operations, presale, silviculture and special forest products.  Also was a member of the NW Oregon Type II Fire Team.  Been involved in PTA, Oakridge School Board for 12 years, SMART Reader, coached T-ball, refereed high school volleyball, classroom volunteer, Outdoor School, Oakridge Cream Puff, coordinated Mini Olympics during Tree Planting Festival, and along with my husband, coordinated Senior Citizens Christmas Baskets for 35 years.

Since retirement, have taken on new adventures.  Appointed to the Lane Electric Cooperative Board in 2013 to fill a vacancy.  Joined the board/steering committee of Southern Willamette Forest Collaborative in 2016.  Selected to serve on the State Forestry Advisory Committee in 2018, mostly dealing with state forests north.  My husband and I share a seat on the Oakridge Museum Board. We volunteer with Positive Community Kitchen as delivering angels with healthy food for people going through treatments or homebound because of illness.

Took some college classes and was fortunate to work for the Forest Service where many leadership training, self-help, and computer classes were available.  Prior to being in management, I was a union steward and represented employees.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

HANS EDWIN WEIH

Edwin Weih, PA-C, is a dedicated healthcare professional with a distinguished background. A graduate of the Emory University School of Medicine PA program in 1977, Edwin practiced medicine in Oakridge, OR from 1992 until 2020. He owned and operated Five Rivers Family Practice in Oakridge, providing dedicated care to the community. Recently, Edwin joined the board of directors of the Highway 58 Herald, contributing his vision and leadership to the evolving media landscape. Outside of work, Edwin enjoys tractor work, woodworking, and spending time with his grandchildren. He is happily married to Amy Weih.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

GARY CARL

Gary was born in 1943 in Brooklyn, NY.  He graduated from the Pennsylvania State University in 1965 with a degree in Liberal Arts, with a concentration in Journalism.  After working in the publishing industry for several years, Gary went to work for the stock brokerage firm of Dean Witter & Co. as a Registered Representative.  In 1977 Gary moved with his family from the East Coast to Eugene, OR where he became an independent licensed contractor.  In 1983 Gary was accepted into the University of Oregon Law School and graduated with a JD Degree in 1986.  Upon passing the Oregon Bar Exam, Gary practiced law in Eugene until 2005.  Eventually retiring from his law practice in 2005 he was appointed by then Governor Ted Kulongoski as a Justice of the Peace for Lane County.  By 2012 Gary retired from his judicial position and along with his domestic partner, Lynda Kamerrer, owned and operated the Oakridge Lodge & Guest House, The Uptown Bistro and The Cedar Creek Café & BBQ, all of which are located in Oakridge, OR.

Currently, Gary & Lynda enjoy traveling domestically and abroad, reading, and keeping up the garden.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

LAURIE PATTY, Community Member At Large

Laurie grew up in Pennsylvania and studied pharmacology at Temple University. Laurie moved to Oakridge thirty years ago and stayed to raise her two children. As previous owner of the Postal Pharmacy, Laurie has been involved in Oakridge community organizations for many years and was a driving force behind bringing the Orchid Health Clinic to Oakridge. Laurie is a founding member of the SWFC. In her spare time, Laurie likes to run, hike and explore the mountains.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Former Highway 58 Herald board members

TEIRI FREBORG

Teiri Freborg is a retired commercial credit professional who resided in Oakridge for 10 years and now lives in retirement in Oregon’s Polk County community of Dallas.  She obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from San Diego State University before embarking on a 40-year banking career in which she assisted mostly small businesses with all aspects of their banking — loans, deposits and business structure.  She has strong experience in all aspects of commercial lending and structure, and she served several years as vice president of commercial lending for Citizens Bank of Oregon.

She worked with many business owners to use their financial information as a management tool. (She is also a published author: “Buddy, the Best Dog Ever,” available on Amazon Kindle.)

Continued learning is her passion, and she has extensive continuing education through professional organizations. She is mostly self-taught in MS Excel, Word, Power Point and CASH Suite.

Languages spoken fluently: English, Banker, Curse.

Volunteering:  Risk Management Association, past Eugene board member and president; Kiwanis, Girl Scouts, Oakridge Uptown Business Revitalization Association, American Legion Auxiliary, city budget committee (Oakridge, chair; Dallas, member), Oakridge Planning Commission.

---

SANDY THOELE

Sandy Thoele of Cheshire is the former co-publisher/owner of Junction City and Veneta’s weekly newspapers, which she operated with her husband, a long-time Oregon journalist. The couple met while working on the staff of a newspaper in Indiana.

Throughout a working lifetime Sandy was always close to the journalism profession, including several years in which her husband, Mike Thoele, operated The Register-Guard’s Junction City news office from their home. Besides working in newspapers, she has been a book editor and a mentor for journalism students who worked as volunteer interns at the weeklies.

Across more than 50 years of living in the Northwest, she has climbed mountains, sailed Puget Sound and hiked long sections of the Pacific Cascade Trail. She served on the boards of Junction City’s Scandinavian Festival and its Habitat for Humanity chapter. She also worked several years on the selection committee for the Charles Snowden Internship Program at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication.

---

DEAN REA

Dean Rea is a retired newspaper journalist and university professor who resides in Eugene, Oregon.

He learned the printing trade as a boy, received undergraduate and graduate degrees in journalism at the University of Missouri and began his newspaper career in the Air Force, where he served as an enlisted man and as an officer.

He later edited two weekly newspapers in Missouri and then the weekly Hood River News in Oregon before joining the reporting staff at The Eugene Register-Guard.

During his career there he served in a number of reporting, editing and management positions. He interrupted that career in 1963 when he became a journalism professor at the University of Montana. Later he taught journalism at the University of Oregon and at Biola University in southern California.

Lou Rea, his wife of 68 years, died in 2019. They reared a daughter and three sons. At last count, he had 14 great-grandchildren. In March 2022 he married Ruth Boatmun of Eugene.

Rea is the author of several books of fiction, a memoir and a home-school writing textbook. His hobbies include photography and fly-fishing.

---

DOUG BATES

Doug Bates, a longtime West Coast newspaper editor and author, retired in 2009 as an associate editor at The Oregonian and a member of its editorial board. Before joining the paper in 1993, he worked as assistant managing editor of The San Diego Union-Tribune, news editor of The Seattle Times and managing editor of The Register-Guard in Eugene. He has also held editing and writing positions at daily newspapers in Spokane and Bend.

Bates is the author of two books, The Pulitzer Prize: The Inside Story of America’s Most Prestigious Award (Birch Lane Press, 1991) and Gift Children: A Story of Race, Family and Adoption in a Divided America (Ticknor & Fields, 1993).

Fifteen years after publication of his book on the Pulitzer Prize, Bates received the honor himself, along with his colleague at The Oregonian, Rick Attig. Their 15-part series on abusive conditions at the Oregon State Hospital won the 2006 prize for editorial writing along with several other national honors, including the Sigma Delta Chi and Headliner awards.

In 2008, the Bates-Attig team won more national honors, including another Headliner Award and the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism, for their editorial series on the plight of uninsured children in Oregon.

Bates grew up in Oakridge and graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in journalism in 1968. He and his wife, Gloria, met during their junior year at Oakridge High School and were married during their freshman year at the University of Oregon. In 2009 they moved back to Oakridge in retirement.