Phil Lang, Former Speaker of the Oregon House, Dies at 95

Philip D. Lang, a longtime Democratic Party leader in Portland and former speaker of the Oregon House, died Dec. 29 of natural causes at age 95.

After growing up in Portland, Lang joined the Army Air Corps in 1947 upon graduating from Franklin High School, according to his family. He served 25 months in Japan in an intelligence unit, then returned home to attend Lewis & Clark College, earning undergraduate and law degrees.

Lang worked as an Oregon state trooper and aide to then-Portland Mayor Terry Schrunk for two years before entering the insurance industry, where he would spend the rest of his career. He won election to the Oregon House in 1960 and rose to the chamber’s top position, serving as speaker in the 1975 and 1977 sessions.

Lang worked with then-Senate President Jason Boe (D-Reedsport) to develop the wings of the Capitol building that now serve as offices for members of both chambers. The House offices are in the Phil Lang Memorial House Wing.

After leaving the Legislature in 1979, Lang continued his public service on a variety of boards and commissions. Gov. John Kitzhaber appointed him to chair the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (now the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission) in 1998. Lang held that position through 2011.

More recently, Lang served on the Oregon State Capitol Foundation.

Former Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who served with Lang in the House in 1970s and later reappointed him as OLCC chair, mourned his friend’s passing.

“I respected Phil Lang very much,” Kulongoski said in an email. “I learned so much from Phil about the legislative process and how personalities affect that process. Phil’s lasting legacy to his legislative career was being the force behind the building of the legislative wings on the state Capitol building.

“As a U.S. Air Force veteran, an Oregon State Police officer, insurance executive, a legislator, and longtime chair of the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, Phil understood Oregon and its people.”

Former state Sen. Betsy Johnson (D-Scappoose) says she spoke to Lang on his birthday earlier this month and relied on him for counsel throughout her two decades in the Legislature.

Johnson felt a special bond to Lang, she says, because of the way he presided over the House and conducted himself generally. “He put his state and the institution of the Legislature over the partisanship that is so prevalent now,” Johnson says. As one example, she points to Lang’s having appointed her father, Rep. Sam Johnson (R-Redmond), to a key committee, even though Johnson was a leading Republican. “That would never happen now,” Betsy Johnson says. “Phil Lang was the kind of public servant that doesn’t exist anymore in Oregon.”

Lang is survived by his wife, Ginny, his son Phil and a nephew, Don Clark, a former Multnomah County sheriff and, later, chairman of the county board of commissioners. Lang’s family will hold a memorial mass at St. Anthony Catholic Church at 9905 SW McKenzie St. in Tigard.