In passing: Hallie Ford, philanthropist

Philanthropist Hallie Ford, who last month made the largest arts donation in Oregon history, has died. She was 102.

Ford died Monday at an assisted living facility in Monmouth after a brief illness, her family said.

The widow of timber entrepreneur Kenneth Ford, she co-founded the Ford Family Foundation, which donated heavily to schools and communities in Oregon and in her native Oklahoma.

The foundation gave $15 million to the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland in late May. The previous record was a $6 million donation to the Shakespeare Festival in Ashland.

In 1996, Ford received the Governor’s Arts Award for Arts Patronage and Support of Arts Scholarship Programs.

Her gifts supported such projects as Stayton’s Habitat for Humanity home, Independence’s Riverview Park Amphitheater fountain and the planned Ash Creek Trail interpretive center.

During the past 33 years, she gave $14 million to Willamette University, most recently $8 million to pay for half of the new 46,000-square-foot academic building, Ford Hall, scheduled to open in 2010. An art museum on campus is also named for her.

MADISON, Wis.

Edwin Traisman, Cheez Whiz whiz

Edwin Traisman, a food scientist who created the process for freezing McDonald’s french fries and helped develop Cheez Whiz, has died. He was 91.

Traisman died Tuesday at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics following a heart attack, said his granddaughter Jenna Greene, of Chevy Chase, Md.

Born in Chicago on Nov. 25, 1915, to Latvian immigrants, Traisman was the only one of six siblings to graduate from high school. He earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Illinois in 1937.

He worked for Kraft Foods on the teams that created Cheez Whiz and individually packaged cheese slices in the 1950s. He became a division director of food research with responsibility for cheese and related projects.

Then Traisman wandered into a McDonald’s restaurant near Chicago to ask about opening a franchise, said his wife of 44 years, Dorothy. There, he met Ray Kroc.

The two became friends, and Traisman opened the first McDonald’s franchise in the Madison area in 1957. Within 14 years, he owned five restaurants.

One problem McDonald’s Corp. had was producing french fries when Idaho potatoes were not in season, Greene said. Freezing uncooked potatoes ruined their texture. Traisman eventually developed and patented a process for partially cooking the fries and then freezing them.

He also broke ground by hiring women, violating the fast-food company’s rules, his wife said.

GENEVA

Ernest Hofstetter, Everest pioneer

Ernest Hofstetter, part of the Swiss team that traced the route to “The Roof of the World” used by Sir Edmund Hillary to conquer Mount Everest, has died. He was 95.

Hofstetter died June 1 at his French chalet with a view of Mont Blanc, his son said.

He was a member of the Swiss expedition that had to turn back just short of the Everest summit in 1952 but is credited with forging the path that Hillary and Tenzing Norgay used in their successful climb a year later. The path is still used today in climbs to the 29,035-foot peak.

Acknowledging the Swiss contribution, Hillary’s team sent them a telegram after peaking: “To you goes half the glory.”

The Swiss expedition remains one of the most charming and astonishing feats in mountaineering history: During a weekly get-together in a Geneva square, climbing buddies hatched the plan to scale Everest.