Norma Paulus, a pioneering Oregon Republican who was the first woman elected secretary of state in Oregon, died Thursday at age 85.

Paulus was a member of the Legislature, Oregon’s secretary of state from 1977 to 1985, her party’s nominee for governor in 1986 and the state’s elected superintendent of schools for two terms in the 1990s. Fiscally conservative, she was a feminist and an environmentalist who crafted bipartisan legislation with Democratic women in the House in the 1970s and championed government transparency and the auditor’s role in the secretary of state’s office.

As the state’s top elections official, she helped bring about a fair election when the Rajneeshees tried in 1984 to bus in homeless people to hijack a local Wasco County election, a stance for which she gained national attention. And she first instituted vote by mail in Oregon, championing its use in normally low-turnout special elections.

As an environmentalist, she required recycling in state office buildings, wrote legislation to limit the use of off-road vehicles on state lands and, according to her autobiography, played a key role in preserving Cape Kiwanda as a state-owned natural area when PGE was targeting it as a nuclear power site.

She died early Thursday after spending time in hospice for health problems related to dementia, according to Kerry Tymchuk, a longtime friend of Paulus’ and director of the Oregon Historical Society, a job Paulus once held as well.

12 Norma Paulus through the years

Paulus grew up in grinding Depression-era poverty in eastern Oregon and never got a chance to go to college. But through a hometown connection, she got a secretarial job in Salem and was soon working for the chief justice of the Oregon Supreme Court.

Eventually she was admitted to law school at Willamette University where she studied part-time while holding down her secretarial job. While in law school, she married William “Bill” Paulus and gave birth to her daughter, Elizabeth, before graduating with honors in 1962. The couple’s son, Fritz, was born the next year.

Paulus won a seat in the Oregon House of Representatives representing Salem in 1970, at a time when the Legislature had only a handful of women.

“She was a pathbreaker and a history-maker,” Tymchuk said.

Speaking from the Oregon Capitol, Senate President Peter Courtney recalled her Thursday, saying “She blazed trails for women here. She was a founding member of the Oregon Women’s Political Caucus and helped push the Equal Rights Amendment in Oregon.”

Jackie Winters, a long-serving state senator from Salem, said Paulus personally inspired her and served as "a role model as I decided to seek elected office."

“She paved the way for so many women in Oregon,” Winters said. She called Paulus “a true force to be reckoned with” and “a true servant to all Oregonians.”

Paulus’ autobiography, written largely by Gail Wells and Pat McCord Amacher after Paulus’ health and memory began to fail, is titled “The Only Woman in the Room.”

As a legislator and secretary of state, she often was literally the only woman in whatever hall of power she occupied, said Tymchuk.

That put pressure on Paulus, but she was tough enough to take it, Tymchuk said. "You have to perform so skillfully so you don’t ruin the chance for other women.

“She did so with intelligence, integrity, a quick wit and great sense of humor. She was a callback to a different era of Oregon politics, a gentler era where there was more bipartisanship."

In 1986, Paulus easily won the Republican nomination for governor. But in the fall, she narrowly lost her hard-fought campaign battle with Neil Goldschmidt, then one of the most popular politicians to seek the governorship in the modern era.

Ron Saxton, a lawyer and politician who advised Paulus during the campaign decades before he also became his party’s nominee for that office, said she didn’t like to call herself a feminist. But, he said, “she was the most feminist person I ever met, in terms of pounding away at opportunities for women.”

In 1990, Paulus was elected superintendent of public instruction and, over her two terms in that office, she championed revamping the state’s educational system to place greater emphasis on performance standards and school accountability. Having grown up in the small-town schools of Burns fueled her passion to make sure a higher quality of education was available to disadvantaged children in Oregon, said Saxton, who served on the Portland school board during much of Paulus’ tenure over the education system.

In 1995, Paulus entered the Republican primary to fill Bob Packwood’s seat in the U.S. Senate but lost to Gordon Smith. She continued as superintendent until her term ended in January 1999. She had contemplated retiring early to care for her husband, who had been diagnosed with brain cancer. But he refused, insisting she finish her service, according to Fritz Paulus. Bill Paulus died in March 1999.

Paulus served as director of the Oregon Historical Society from 2001 until her retirement in 2003.

Fritz Paulus says he and other family members remember his mother as “a politician with integrity and determination.”

“She fought for what she thought was right and was willing to stand up for that and speak out for that. She embodied the Oregon spirit, and she helped bridge the divide between east and west of the state. She really got a sense for both sides of the mountains.”

Saxton, who traveled the state with Paulus during her campaign for governor, said he was amazed at how she knew the people and geography of every part of the state.

“Her knowledge of Oregon was unbelievable. She went everywhere all the time. One time we were driving in the middle of nowhere and she pulled over, ‘Let’s go up this trail. I really have to show you something.’ She was in a dress and I was wearing a suit, but she led us on a hike up an unmarked trail for half an hour. She would say, ‘I know the state like the back of my hand.’ And she did. The people, the hills, the creeks. She was really proud of that. Traveling the state with her was ones of the most fun things I did.”

She is survived by daughter Liz Paulus; son Fritz Paulus and his wife Jennifer Viviano and their son Will; and her sister Gerri Pyrch and brother Paul Petersen.

A public memorial service will be held in Salem at Willamette University’s Smith Auditorium on April 27.

Gordon Friedman contributed to this report.

-- Betsy Hammond

betsyhammond@oregonian.com