Prominent federal officeholders from Oregon include Senator Charles McNary (1874–1944), a leading advocate of federal reclamation and development projects and the Republican vice-presidential nominee in 1940; Senator Wayne Morse (b.Wisconsin, 1900–74), who was an early opponent of US involvement in Vietnam; Representative Edith Green (1910–84), a leader in federal education assistance; and Representative Al Ullman (b.Montana, 1914–86), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee until his defeat in 1980. Recent cabinet members from Oregon have been Douglas McKay (1893–1959), secretary of the interior; and Neil Goldschmidt (b.1940) secretary of transportation.
A major figure in early Oregon history was sea captain Robert Gray (b.Rhode Island. 1755–1806), discoverer of the Columbia River. Although never holding a government position, fur trader Dr. John McLoughlin (b.Canada, 1784–1857) in effect ruled Oregon from 1824 to 1845; he was officially designated the "father of Oregon" by the 1957 state legislature. Also of importance in the early settlement was Methodist missionary Jason Lee (b.Canada, 1803–45). Oregon's most famous Indian was Chief Joseph (1840?–1904), leader of the Nez Percé in northeastern Oregon; when tension between the Nez Percé and white settlers erupted into open hostilities in 1877, Chief Joseph led his band of about 650 men, women, and children from the Oregon-Idaho border across the Bitterroot Range evading three army detachments before being captured in northern Montana.
Other important figures in the early days of statehood were Harvey W. Scott (b.Illinois 1838–1910), longtime editor of the Portland Oregonian, and his sister, Abigail Scott Duniway (b.Illinois, 1823–1915), the Northwest's foremost advocate of women's suffrage, a cause her brother strongly opposed. William Simon U'Ren (b.Wisconsin, 1859–1949) was a lawyer and reformer whose influence on Oregon politics and government endures to this day. Journalist and Communist John Reed (1887–1920), author of Ten Days That Shook the World, an eyewitness account of the Bolshevik Revolution, was born in Portland, and award-winning science-fiction writer Ursula K. LeGuin (b.California, 1929) is a Portland resident. Linus Pauling (1901–94), two-time winner of the Nobel Prize (for chemistry in 1954, for peace in 1962), was another Portland native. Other scientists prominent in the state's history include botanist David Douglas (b.Scotland, 1798–1834), who made two trips to Oregon and after whom the Douglas fir is named; and geologist and paleontologist Thomas Condon (b.Ireland, 1822–1907), discoverer of major fossil beds in eastern Oregon.