Barbara Burnham

Barbara's passion was helping others. From her days as a nurse at OHSU to her countless volunteer hours over the years, she worked tirelessly to make life better for others in her own community and around the world.

She grew up in Nyssa, Oregon and attended the University of Oregon until the outbreak of World War II when she supported the war effort by working in the shipyards. After the war, she graduated and became a nurse at OHSU working her way up to Associate Direct of Nursing.

She married Irvine Burnham in 1979, and after he passed in 1983, she spent years volunteering in both in the United States and abroad. Her passions included working with Ten Thousand Villages, a non-profit fair trade store, and tutoring young students in at Peninsula Elementary School, travelling, and OPB.

For the last 25 years, she traveled with her companion, Carroll Hutchinson, all over the world. After travelling to many third world countries, they decided to focus their travels on helping the people in those countries and began doing volunteer work with Cross Culture Solutions, an organization dedicated to international volunteer work. Barbara and Carroll made several trips to work with senior citizens at the Mother Teresa's Home for Destitute and Dying. Barbara was recognized for her volunteer work by Cross Cultural Solutions during her last trip to Guatemala.

OPB was important to Barbara as one of her media sources for entertainment and learning. She depended on OPB and it was important to her that OPB thrive in the future. Barbara included OPB as part of her estate plan to ensure the programming she valued would be there for future generations.

Barbara was a citizen of the world helping others and she continued that legacy through her will with a gift to OPB that ensures our programming is available and accessible to educate, entertain and enlightening our communities far into the future.