For years, local philanthropist Jim McClaskey supported people who were grieving over the loss of a loved one. He and his wife, Kay, donated money to PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center’s Ray Hickey Hospice House and the hospital’s family bereavement retreat.
Now, Jim’s friends and family are on the receiving end of that grief. He died late Saturday at age 75 after a yearslong battle with cancer. The retired Vancouver attorney was the son of Tod McClaskey, co-founder of the Red Lion hotel chain and a well-known philanthropist.
“Jim put his money and his time where his mouth was,” said Jennifer Rhoads, executive director of the Community Foundation for Southwest Washington. “When he said he was going to get (involved), he did. He made a true commitment.”
His large monetary donations were often coupled with lots of volunteer hours. Jim and Kay McClaskey were named the Community Foundation’s philanthropists of the year in 2013.
In October, the three-day bereavement retreat that helps families cope with the loss of a loved one was renamed the Jim and Kay McClaskey Bereavement Retreat. The camp, held at a conference center in Canby, Ore., typically hosts 20 families (about 75 people) along with 20 staff and volunteers, said Jodi Wicks, manager of the hospital’s bereavement center. Although it costs almost $20,000 to put on, there’s little to no cost for families to attend because of the McClaskeys’ donation, Wicks said.
She recalls giving the couple a tour of the bereavement center many years ago when they were looking to learn more about supporting the hospital.
“When I started talking about the camp Kay’s eyes lit up,” she said, adding that Jim asked lots of financial questions.
The couple began donating money to support the bereavement retreat in 2003 and began fully funding it in 2008. Jim set up a gift in his estate plan that continues to pay for the bereavement center for several more years.
“It’s such a loss for us,” Wicks said. “We’re all just saddened.”
The McClaskeys have supported PeaceHealth since 1994; their donations helped build the Firstenburg Patient Tower.
Rhoads has known the McClaskeys for 20 years, long before she began working at the Community Foundation. Jim McClaskey was a longtime member of the foundation’s investment committee, which helped manage the foundation’s assets.
“He took it very seriously,” Rhoads said. “He felt that leadership was just as important as any money you could give to an organization.”
Jim enjoyed fishing on the Columbia River with friends, he was an avid golfer and a huge fan of the Oregon Ducks, Rhoads said. He had lived in Vancouver’s Riverview neighborhood for more than three decades.
He is survived by his wife and his four sons.
