Harold & Margaret Taylor Foundation

Platinum Sponsor Bill Taylor says:

PIL HoF Platinum sponsor, Bill Taylor

I have to say that I have enjoyed sports since I was a small boy.

My father, Harold Taylor, started coaching baseball when I was nine-years-old and continued until I reached high school.

Small played a factor in that, as much as I loved football, I soon found out that I was better suited for wrestling, baseball and skiing! Skiing eventually won out but I’ve always been a baseball fan as well as anything U of O Ducks!!

My dad always told me that if he had enough money, he would have gone to OSU. Well, he didn’t and years later he was introduced to a man named Len Casanova and the rest is, as they say, history.

I was truly blessed to have the parents that I did. They were kind and thoughtful and let me have free reign to do what I wanted (within reason). I learned so many valuable life lessons from them.

Being so interested in sports as well as the development of youngsters, my father started sponsoring the Putnam High School summer baseball program around 1965 and we continue this sponsorship to this day. I can hardly believe it’s been 55 plus years!

There have been many other events we have been fortunate to be involved in such as Pop Warner football, the famous Portland Lobo semi-pro baseball team of the ‘70s which produced so many fine young men who went on to teach and coach the next generation—or two—of student athletes.

I have found much satisfaction and enjoyment in participating in and awarding scholarships to students in the North Clackamas and Estacada school districts for the Harold Taylor Scholarship Fund and a fairly new fund at South Wasco County High School, all for students who have had some difficulties in school but are determined to better themselves with further education in academics or trade school. We also actively support programs at the U of O, OSU and the Oregon Humane Society to name a few.

It has also been a pleasure to be involved with the PIL in helping sponsor the Mel Krause Memorial Golf Tournament. My dad was a friend of Mel and it seemed a perfect fit. I have also found it enjoyable to contribute to middle school sports programs, through the PIL Youth Sports Foundation.

It was my father’s firm belief—and mine—that sports can be a window to the future.