Aloha medical device tycoon Lauren Parks passed away on October 13th at the age of 97. Loren Parks, a longtime Republican major donor, has all but disappeared from the Oregon political scene once shaped by his money.
But Mr. Parks’ estate is an active issue in Washington County, where his three adult children are engaged in a legal battle over his large fortune.
Parks’ children are at odds with three of his longtime allies in Washington County court (where Parks lived much of his life and died) over the terms of the trust that holds and manages his assets.
Simply put, the battle pits the Parks children, Gary Parks, Raymond Parks and Nancy Sopp, against three of the trust’s four trustees. (A fourth trustee, Parks’ son-in-law Carl Sopp, is aligned with Parks’ children.)
Parks’ children, who friends say were much closer to their mother than their father after their parents divorced, insist they should have authority over the trust.
Three of the trustees, led by Parks’ longtime friend and political adviser Greg Clapper, said Parks would leave only a limited amount of cash, real estate and other assets to his children, each in the millions. He claims that he intended to give most of his assets to his children. various philanthropic activities. The property is estimated to be worth “tens of millions of dollars,” according to court documents.
This battle shows that even a man as amazingly intelligent as Mr. Parks needs a good lawyer. Mr Parks first set up the trust underlying the dispute in 1989 and made numerous adjustments since then without proper legal advice, Mr Clapper said.
That created ambiguity, which is now a source of controversy. Mr. Clapper said Mr. Parks, his close friend of more than 30 years, should have made his wishes clear.
“If Lauren hadn’t messed things up by having an affair without her attorney’s permission, we wouldn’t be in this mess,” Clapper said. “If he were here right now, I’d be lying to this bastard. That was his arrogance. But that’s how he was.”
Lauren Parks came to Oregon more than 60 years ago to work for Tektronix, Oregon’s pioneering computer hardware company. However, he founded a medical equipment company, Parks Medical Electronics Inc., in Aloha in his 1961 year.
His company, still in production at Aloha, makes “Doppler devices” used to create images that measure blood flow in the body.
From the 1990s through the first decade of this century, Park poured some of her company’s profits into politics. One of his early efforts left an indelible mark on Oregon State. He provided much of the funding for Measure 11, his 1994 ballot initiative that created mandatory minimum sentences for violent crimes.
Critics say the measure has robbed judges of their discretion, filled Oregon’s prisons and perpetuated racial and class inequality. Supporters say it has contributed to a decades-long decline in crime.
Bill 11 was President Park’s biggest victory, but he consistently wrote large checks to fund conservative goals. (His views were libertarian, and he also supported Oregon’s pioneering Death with Dignity Act and Planned Parenthood Act.)
Parks has donated more than $10 million to Republican candidates and causes over the years, often supporting voting initiatives led by Bill Sizemore and Kevin Mannix. Because he frequently wrote large checks, he helped revitalize Oregon’s public employee unions, which increased their contributions and sharpened their tactics in response.
Tim Nesbitt, who led both the state’s largest public employee union, the Service Employees International Union, and later the Oregon AFL-CIO, said Parks’ big move forced the unions to step up their efforts. says.
“By the late 1990s, Oregon’s public employee union members were collecting more per capita income than any other state in the country,” Nesbitt says. “He was the best enemy.”
Mr. Parks made his last political donation in Oregon in 2015, but as he entered his mid-90s, his mental health deteriorated. In July 2020, doctors determined he no longer had the capacity to make financial decisions.
The decision appears to have sparked a controversy that has since raged, according to court filings.
Mr. Clapper, a former radio personality and station owner known for writing and narrating sarcastic political ads, filed a lawsuit in 2021 asking the court to appoint an independent representative to oversee Mr. Parks’ trust.
In the lawsuit, Mr. Clapper accused fellow trustee Carl Sopp (husband of Ms. Parks’ only daughter, Nancy) of attempting to divert funds from the trust for the benefit of Parks’ children. (An attorney for the Sopp family did not respond to requests for comment, as did an attorney for the Parks sons.)
In November 2022, Nancy Sopp countersued, arguing that the Parks trust was permissible and asking that Clapper be removed as a trustee.
Mr. Clapper said it was just a money-maker. “The purpose of this plan is that unless the co-trustees agree to acquiesce or at least advocate for the distribution of tens of millions of dollars of trust assets to themselves that Mr. Parks intended for charitable purposes, and to remove all co-trustees other than Trustee Sopp.’I oppose such a distribution,” Clapper responded in a court filing.
The other two non-family trustees are Jerry Dove, a former Tillamook County commissioner and founder of the conservation group Tillamook Anglers, and Nicole McCombie, a longtime sales manager for Parks Medical Electronics. I took Mr. Clapper’s side.
Since the first application, the parties have been arguing over the same key points. Who should have the authority to make decisions about Mr. Parks’ trust assets: his children or the trustees? The issue has been the subject of numerous lawsuits over the past two years, but remains unresolved.
The court appointed an agent to closely monitor Parks’ interests. The person representing him, Portland attorney Tim McNeil, may be the closest thing to a disinterested party in the case.
In June, Mr. McNeil filed a motion with the court clarifying his position on the trust. Parks’ children do not have the power to remove the trustee, and the trust does not give them any say in where Parks’ funds go, he wrote.
The stakes are high. A valuation by financial forensics firm Cogence Group estimated Parks Medical’s value at $25.5 million. The trust also includes other unspecified assets, including cash, real estate, and another company, Parks Metal Products, Inc.
Parks’ friends say he has given far more to charity than to political causes, and that the bulk of his fortune (after designated payments to his children) has always gone to charity. He said he was planning to donate.
“Lauren Parks has a long history of making significant charitable donations each year,” McCombie says. WW. “Lauren always made it clear to her friends, colleagues, and lawyers that she wanted to donate all of her wealth to charity.As trustees, the three of us (Nicole, Jerry, and Greg) were committed to Lauren’s intentions. We believe and recognize that it is our duty to ensure that this is carried out.”
Dove, director of Tillamook Anglers, said Parks has supported dozens of projects that conserve or improve salmon habitat along the Oregon Coast. He purchased habitat along the Nehalem, Trask and Miami rivers to improve conditions for salmon.
Dove said he spent countless days on the small boat with Parks. They often talked about what would happen if Parks died.
“Clapper and I knew him better than anyone,” Dove says. “I sat with him for eight hours every day on a fishing boat for 40 years. He told me 1,000 times, ‘The kids don’t get anything more than what’s listed in the trust. “and.”
Dove said Parks would be disappointed in the legal battle. “If he was here, he would blow the stack,” Dove says.
The parties will next appear in court on November 17th.
