Sandy’s historian

Phil Jonsrud was the grandson of T.G. Jonsrud, a State Senator in Minnesota who came west by the Immigrant Railway to California, then to Oregon in 1877. T.G. and family settled in the tiny village of Kelso where he was appointed by Clackamas County officials to be the Justice of the Peace for the territory from Damascus to Mt. Hood. T.G. helped establish the first Kelso School in the community.

Jonsrud’s parents were Robert Jonsrud and Mathilda “Tillie” Olson Jonsrud. They were married in 1902 and had three children: Eunice Roberta (1902-1973), Dorothy Elna (1906-2009) and Philip Courtney (1918-2012). The family moved to Sandy to their home across Bluff Rd. from the present day Jonsrud Viewpoint in 1922. This was Phil’s home until he graduated from college in 1942.

Phil attended Sandy Grade School and graduated from Sandy High School in 1935 at age 16. He worked his way through college during the Great Depression (1929 - 1939) and earned his bachelor's in business from the University of Oregon in 1942.

Immediately after Pearl Harbor Jonsrud enlisted in the U.S. Navy and was called to active duty in August of 1942, but was soon given a medical discharge for high blood pressure. 

Phil moved to New York City in 1944 after working in the shipyards in Portland for two years. In New York he worked for Cal-Tex, a petroleum Company which had a strategically important oil refinery on Bahrain Island in the Persian Gulf.

While in New York, Phil met Margaret “Midge” Hende of Burlington, Vermont. There they were married in 1947 and moved to Sandy where they raised three daughters: Judy, Leslie, and Laurie.

Jonsrud was a Real Estate Broker for over 30 years, on the Sandy City Council for 8 years and on the Sandy Planning Commission for about 10 years.

Phil’s wife Midge died of cancer in 1981 and in 1985 he married Ellen McLaughlin of Gresham.

Phil’s long volunteer history began in1972 when he was appointed to head the Sandy Centennial Committee; however, the majority of his service was with the Sandy Historical Society. He served on the group’s Board of Directors after 1974, held the office of Treasurer from 1983-1993, and was president from 1993-1997. He was the Society’s historian after 1987 and has authored two other books, “Whistle Punks and Misery Whips” and “80 Years in the Same Neighborhood”. This piece was taken from HOMETOWN SANDY OREGON: 36 SHORT STORIES by Phil Jonsrud, forward.