Donald Erwin Tykeson (April 11, 1927 – July 12, 2017) was an American businessman and philanthropist. The owner of

BendBroadband BendBroadband is a cable television and internet provider in the U.S. state of Oregon. Based in Bend, it serves Central Oregon and also owns several television stations and a data center. As of September 2014, the company became a wholly owned s ...

, he was also a founding board member of

C-SPAN Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American cable and satellite television network that was created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a nonprofit public service. It televises many proceedings of the United States ...

Early life and education

The son of O. Ansel Tykeson and Hillie M. Haveman, Don Tykeson was born April 11, 1927, in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

. He was reared on his family's farm near

Newberg, Oregon Newberg is a city in Yamhill County, Oregon, United States. Located in the Portland metropolitan area, the city is home to George Fox University. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 25,138 making it the second most populous city in the ...

. Tykeson began his education at the Mountain Top one-room school, and he won a statewide

Future Farmers of America National FFA Organization is an American 501(c)(3) youth organization, specifically a career and technical student organization, based on middle and high school classes that promote and support agricultural education. It was founded in 1925 at Vi ...

public speaking contest. He met Rilda M. "Willie" Steigleder, another student at the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...

, and they married in 1950. The couple had three children. At age 30 Tykeson was diagnosed with

multiple sclerosis Multiple (cerebral) sclerosis (MS), also known as encephalomyelitis disseminata or disseminated sclerosis, is the most common demyelinating disease, in which the insulating covers of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord are damaged. This d ...

(MS). He called MS his "old friend," crediting it with pushing him to "concentrate on what mattered most".

Career and philanthropy

Tykeson worked in the communications industry throughout his adult life, beginning in sales at

The Oregon Journal ''The Oregon Journal'' was Portland, Oregon's daily afternoon newspaper from 1902 to 1982. The ''Journal'' was founded in Portland by C. S. "Sam" Jackson, publisher of Pendleton, Oregon's ''East Oregonian'' newspaper, after a group of Portlander ...

, and then managing and buying minority interest in Liberty Communications/

KEZI Kezi may refer to: * Kezi, Iran * Kezi, Zimbabwe See also * KEZI Kezi may refer to: * Kezi, Iran * Kezi, Zimbabwe Khezi is a village in Matobo District, Matabeleland South province in zimbabwe,https://www.mindat.org/feature-888965.html located ...

Eugene, Oregon Eugene ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast. As of the 2020 United States Census, Eu ...

. He purchased Bend Cable in 1983, which became

. By 1983, when his firm was sold for US$186 million to

Tele-Communications Inc Tele-Communications, Inc. (TCI) was a cable television provider in the United States, and for most of its history was controlled by Bob Magness and John Malone. The company was started in 1958 in Bozeman, Montana as Western Microwave, Inc. and C ...

., it "had become one of the top 20 cable operators in the nation." Tykeson was a founding board member of

. Tykeson and his wife were major donors to the University of Oregon,

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering co ...

Oregon Health & Science University Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) is a public research university focusing primarily on health sciences with a main campus, including two hospitals, in Portland, Oregon. The institution was founded in 1887 as the University of Oregon Medi ...

, Sacred Heart Medical Center in Eugene, and

Lane Community College Lane Community College is a public community college in Eugene, Oregon, with additional facilities in downtown Eugene, Florence, Cottage Grove, and the Lane Aviation Academy at Eugene Airport. Lane serves more than 26,000 credit and non-credit ...

. His daughters estimated their parents have donated "tens of millions of dollars to organizations involved in education, science, health and the arts". The

National Multiple Sclerosis Society The National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS) is a nonprofit organization that was founded in New York City as the Association for Advancement of Research on Multiple Sclerosis on March 11, 1946 by Sylvia Lawry. Ms. Lawry was a lawyer looking fo ...

noted, "Their support of the National MS Society has included funding MS research at Oregon Health and Science University and supporting programs and services for people with MS throughout the Pacific Northwest."

Awards and legacy

The

constructed a new student advising center named "Tykeson Hall" after Tykeson and his wife Wille, with construction completed during Summer 2019 and its grand opening on October 25, 2019.

also has named a building "Tykeson Hall" at the Cascades campus in

Bend, Oregon Bend is a city in and the county seat of Deschutes County, Oregon, United States. It is the principal city of the Bend Metropolitan Statistical Area. Bend is Central Oregon's largest city, with a population of 99,178 at the time of the 2020 U.S ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tykeson, Don 1927 births 2017 deaths American cable television company founders 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople American media executives American chief executives in the media industry Businesspeople from Portland, Oregon Businesspeople from Oregon