Paul Hanneman, a former Oregon lawmaker best known for sponsoring the nation’s first law requiring beer and soda bottles to carry a deposit, died May 3.He was 81.
Hanneman served 26 years in the Oregon House of Representatives. The 1971 bottle bill he sponsored helped establish then-Gov. Tom McCall’s national reputation as an environmentalist, but in 1990 Hanneman told former The Oregonian political reporter Jeff Mapes that the maverick governor had been slow to become a supporter of the concept.
“I was always miffed at McCall for not being there earlier,'' Hanneman told Mapes.
Last year, Hanneman wrote a book, “The Inside Story: Oregon’s Beach and Bottle Bills.”
He also helped draft the state's first Forest Practices Act, which regulates logging activities, in 1969 and also worked on laws to protect tidelands.
Born July 20, 1936, in Portland, Hanneman and his family moved to Pacific City in 1945 and built a home and fishing resort on the Nestucca River. He is survived by his wife, Sandra, and their son, Kurt.
-- The Oregonian