Melvin Jack Murdock

Co-founder, Tektronix, Inc., private pilot, and aviation buff: posthumous

Jack Murdock believed in science as a main source of knowledge and the key to resolving issues. Convincing his parents to help him start a business rather than pay for a college education, he purchased a shop for the sale and service of radios and electrical appliances. No one was surprised when in 1946, he and his technician, Howard Vollum, exploited their small radio and appliance shop to found Tektronix, Inc. -- now one of the world's most prominent electronic instrumentation companies. A Portland, Oregon
native, private pilot and aviation buff, Murdock believed deeply in philanthropy and helped fund Northwest education and scientific research wherever he could. Murdock once operated a Piper aircraft distributorship at Pearson Field in Vancouver. With a strong interest in aviation safety, he initiated a umber of aircraft modifications, making them safer and more serviceable to pilots. The SuperCub was his favorite plane. Subsequent to his untimely death in a floatplane crash on the Columbia River in 1971, the M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust was established in 1975 per Murdock’s will. Focusing its funds to grantmaking allocations in the Pacific Northwest, the Murdock Trust mission focuses on enriching quality of life by funding organizations seeking to strengthen the educational and cultural programs in creative and sustainable ways. The Trust is now one of the five largest private foundations in the Northwest. It funded the creation of the Jack Murdock Aviation Center at Pearson Field in Vancouver as a lasting tribute to his life.

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