Work is underway to improve the sidewalks and entry to the Nyssa Public Library.
And the legacy of Clarice Poor lives on.
The Nyssa woman died more than three years ago but her bequests continue to impact lives across Malheur County and, indeed, in the state.
Poor spent a lifetime as an educator, much of it in Nyssa.
In her later years, she donated, without fanfare, to one local cause after another.
She helped, for example, fund scholarships at Nyssa High School. She gave to the Adrian School District’s gymnasium. And her donation helped build the Laura Moore Cunningham Science Center at Treasure Valley Community College.
The giving continued after she died in January 2021, and that leads to the front door of the Nyssa library.
Poor directed that upon her death, her estate donate $369,000 to the library.
City Manager Jim Maret said the library advisory board decided to use much of that to fix sidewalks and replace the front entry.
The gift was unexpected.
Vikki Price and her husband Joel were Poor’s caretakers, not that she needed much care.
“She was bright as a penny right to the end,” Price said. “She lived to be almost 102. She kept track of world affairs. She kept track of local affairs. She loved to hear about kids.”
Poor became legally blind but remained in her Nyssa home her entire life.
“She was amazing,” Price said. “She took care of herself.”
Poor put herself through school to become a teacher. She started at what was then Washington State College in Pullman, Washington, but she ran out of money and moved in with an aunt in Portland. She took correspondence classes from the University of Oregon, attended night classes at Portland State University, and graduated in 1944 with an elementary education degree from what is now Eastern Oregon University in La Grande. Ten years later, she earned a master’s degree.
Her 31-year career in education took her from Portland to Hood River to Nyssa. She taught second grade in Nyssa from 1958 until 1970, when she became principal of the elementary school. She moved on to another administrative post in the Nyssa district before retiring in 1978.
Price said Poor built an estate because “saved and saved and saved. She lived very frugally.”
Her husband Del, a mechanic, died in 1990.
Poor had a lifelong interest in students and schools.
“She saw education as the way forward for most people,” Price said. “She tried to support education every way she could.”
After she died, she gave away her entire estate, Price said.
The Nyssa library was one recipient, as was the Nyssa Senior Center and the TVCC Foundation.
She also gave for Cow Hollow Park, a county-owned park southwest of Nyssa.
The property was a Civilian Conservation Corps camp in the 1930s, became an internment camp during World War II and now is a campground and recreation site.
One of Poor’s early friends was the daughter of Elmer Cloninger, the commander of the Conservation Corps base.
Poor also gifted $335,753 to the State Library of Oregon for use in its Talking Book and Braille Library.
In 2007, she resorted to the library’s recorded books after she lost her sight.
“She gave modestly from the time she started using the library all the way until her passing,” said Joel Henderson of the State Library. “We were surprised and delighted by the news of her bequest.”
Poor looked forward to getting the audio books, Price said.
“Oh, she’d just squeal – ‘What have I got to read now?’ She would sit and listen to those, take a nap and listen some more,” Price said.
Poor “read about all of the past presidents. She liked historical stuff,” Price said.
Her gifts were made quietly, Price said.
“She wasn’t the one that wanted a lot of publicity. She was a very private person,” she said. “It was probably a surprise to most of them.”
Poor was “a wonderful, generous woman who left her entire estate to entities that made a difference,” Price said. “She’d be an inspiration to anyone who met her.”
Maret agreed.
“She was a woman that Nyssa should thank and be proud and happy she lived in our community,” he said.
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