Robert Pamplin Jr. admitted to violating business law in a federal lawsuit. Several institutions still bear the Pamplin name.
The University of Portland has removed Dr. Robert Pamplin Jr.’s name from its business school following a legal admission he broke federal pension laws.
A UP spokesperson provided a statement saying the “association of Dr. Pamplin’s name with the University of Portland School of Business was subject to an agreement that has concluded.”
“That’s really all I can say about it,” said Dan Christopherson, UP’s director of public affairs, declining to provide specifics.
The Oregonian was first to report the name change earlier this week.
Long an influential Oregon businessman, Pamplin’s legacy has been clouded over the past three years with reports by Willamette Week and allegations by regulators that he saddled pensioners from his various companies with real estate said to be overvalued, polluted or otherwise unsuitable as investments for a pension fund.
Pamplin, 83, was the subject of a lawsuit by the federal government that alles he underfunded his employees’ pension fund by transferring more than 100 real estate holdings to the fund at inflated values. In late December, that case brought by the Department of Labor concluded with Pamplin admitting in a court filing he and his business, Pamplin Corp., violated pension laws numerous times and promising to restore the $100 million pension fund to the value it would have held without Pamplin’s various real estate transactions.
The Oregon Journalism Project quoted Department of Labor officials earlier this year who said they told Pamplin to cease the transaction but he refused.
A trustee is now responsible to liquidate various parcels on behalf of the pension fund and several of the most egregious property transfers were canceled as a result of settlement conditions, including sales of Ross Island and a defunct concrete plan on the east side of the Willamette River.
UP’s school of business was founded in 1939. It’s one of six business schools in Oregon accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. It awards a bachelor of business administration as well as various master’s degrees including a master of business administration.
Though the business school is now called the University of Portland School of Business, traces of the Pamplin name can still be found around UP like in its course catalog.
The son of a wealthy industrialist, for decades the younger Pamplin ran Ross Island Sand & Gravel and founded a chain of newspapers in 2001. Along with media, Pamlin’s businesses work in agriculture, manufacturing and wine. He remains chairman and CEO of the R.B. Pamplin Corp. though he sold his newspaper chain last year to a Mississippi-based media conglomerate.
Pamplin earned master’s degrees in business and education from the University of Portland.
Several institutions still bear the Pamplin name. A sports complex for Lewis and Clark College is named for Pamplin’s father, Robert Pamplin Sr.
“We do not have any plans to rename the sports center,” a spokesperson writes to Oregon Business.
Virginia Tech has not changed the name of its Robert Pampin College of Business, which is named for both the elder and younger Pamplin, who gave a combined $25 million to the college. The school did not reply to an email seeking comment.
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