TIM 

My acquaintance with Tim began in the alley behind the Environmental Center only 2 years ago. 

I was helping to build the fence around the Kansas Avenue Learning Garden.  As I walked up the alley to enter the Environmental Center, I noticed a figure with a felt hat, and cigar leaning over the hood of his truck. “Hello”, I said, the figure acknowledged with a “howdy”, and we entered into a short conversation.  I noticed a map heavily creased, from folding and unfolding,   the gentleman was intensely studying, spread out over the hood of his truck. “What are you checking out”, I asked and he said the “Middle Fork of the John Day”. “I love that area”, I said and Tim mumbled around his cigar, simply “yes”!

As I began working with the Environmental Center more frequently, my conversations with Tim usually took place around his truck.  Parked in his usual spot, backed up outside his “Oregon Wild” office, we would briefly chat, I would ask about chukar hunting and elk spots, and he would respond briefly, always with a twinkle in his eye, and then we would go about our business.

When I began working on the Environmental Center’s 25th Anniversary Celebration last October, I would pass Tim’s office door on a regular basis. I frequently noticed a hand written note on the door “Tim will be out of office”…….. and the dates…………., will return ………and the retuning date. …. Oregon Wild’s Eugene office may be able to assist you.

On the Monday morning after our big Celebration event, we had a large amount of beer left in the kegs. They had been kept on ice and when I saw Tim at his truck that morning, “Hey Tim, we have lots of beer left, got any growlers?”  He thoughtfully flashed a quick smile and said “no, but just a minute.” He immediately went to the back of his truck, propped open the rear fold up door on the camper shell with a stick, (to keep from slamming down  on his head) and began rummaging around inside the truck. He emerged with several plastic gallon milk jugs, shaking out any old liquid substances, as he walked from his truck back to the shed where we had the kegs.  We had a great time filling those milk jugs, pouring off excess foam, and topping each jug off!

I did not have the pleasure of Tim’s company on a hunting, camping, fishing or rafting trip. Nor did I have first hand knowledge of the details of his work on wilderness preservation, nor experience “Lillebo’s Rule of Rounding” to add more acres of wilderness in a legislative trade off. Many of Tim’s long time friends and associates eloquently expressed these stories at his “Gathering of Family and Friends” yesterday at Aspen Hall. I did have the pleasure, of many brief stories, the most detailed of which was his rafting trip in Alaska last summer, the large number of bear encounters, the running low on food. You could see in his eyes the love of wilderness, of all things wild!

I developed a true feeling of Tim’s spirit, through those moments around his truck. I felt a kindred spirit, a connection that feeling the wild, knowing the wilderness brings.  Even though I only knew him through his stories, his smile, his wit, his joy of filling milk jugs with beer!

The last time I saw Tim was the week before the big snow. The hand written sign on his office door was still up “Tim will be out of office…..” but he was back! We briefly chatted and went to work.

So even now, as I miss seeing his truck parked in the usual spot, knowing that physically he is “out of office” his spirit is there, his spirit never left, and will always be with us. His spirit and love of all things wild will live with all who were so fortunate as to cross his path, or share a story.

So I raise my glass and propose a toast “To Tim Lillebo, may his spirit live on in all of us, yes, live in the wilderness forever”!

Graydon Murphy

When I was in the Coast Guard I had a boss named Allen who referred to successful underlings as “Allen trained men”. I think a lot of folks would be proud to call themselves Lillebo trained.

I met Tim in 1975 or 76 when I was a Prairie City High School student. The Wilderness Act was just over a decade old and I’m not sure there was any such thing as an environmentalist. Probably the closest in those parts was the new owner of the Oxbow Ranch, Dan Lufkin, a founder of Earth Day back in 1970. Grant County had its very own Strawberry Mountain Wilderness. The Forest Service was an entirely different organization, for better and worse, than it is today.

Tim put together an eclectic group that named itself Grant County Conservationists.  Tim’s charisma and our periodic outings to various wild places held the group together. While I knew, or at least thought I knew, a lot about that country Tim and that group taught me a lot more. I got acquainted with the writings of Edward Abbey, USFS practices, and a bigger view of conservation. He and I put together a panoramic view of the Strawberries and drew in the wilderness boundary with magic marker. Surprisingly, the wilderness was mostly rocks.

For the next 10 years a high point of coming home was catching up with Tim and doing something outdoors. Our close association faded so I can’t say what kind of statesmen he became. I can say the fire in his belly and passion of his actions made him a one-of-a-kind Viking in my book. I like to think a little of his spirit rubbed off on me.