Robert B. Pamplin Jr.

In February 2022, Willamette Week detailed alleged mismanagement of Pamplin’s employee pension fund.

In 2007, Pamplin donated 45 acres (18 ha) of the 400-acre (160 ha) Ross Island to the city of Portland, which plans to manage the property as a natural area. The island contains considerable natural habitat, but also contains industrial waste and toxic fill dirt and is listed for cleanup by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. The portions donated to the city, however, are thought to be pristine and contain habitat for a wide variety of wildlife, including bald eagles.

A longtime Oregonian, Pamplin is chairman, president and CEO of R.B. Pamplin Corporation, a family-owned company headquartered in Portland. It is one of the largest private corporations in Oregon. He has appeared on the Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans. In 2001, he was reported to be the third-wealthiest person in Oregon.

Pamplin's ownership of both media and major business interests in the Portland area has had some controversy, as his media holdings have been said to be engaged in a "newspaper war" over local circulation with The Oregonian and its affiliated papers. When the Tribune was launched in 2001, and again as of fall 2012, his planned donation to the city of Portland of part of Ross Island, where his concrete and asphalt company is located, became controversial when industrial contamination was discovered on parts of the island.

Pamplin established Pamplin Historical Park in 1993. The park contains the NRHP-listed Petersburg Breakthrough Battlefield; and the National Museum of the Civil War Soldier (established 1999), and has preserved critical aspects of the Civil War.

In 1976, at age 35, Pamplin started his own business and managed the R.B. Pamplin Corporation. As Chairman, President and CEO of the R.B. Pamplin Corporation, Pamplin oversees several subsidiaries across three industries, including textile manufacturing, construction and media.

Pamplin has also served on several state and presidential appointed commissions, and college boards of directors. He is a past trustee of five college boards, and past chairman of three, including Lewis & Clark College, Western Seminary and the University of Portland. He served on President Gerald Ford's National Advisory Council on Vocational Education from 1975 to 1980. He was appointed by two governors to the Oregon State Scholarship Commission, serving from 1974 to 1980.

In 1965, while in college, Pamplin became a licensed stockbroker and transformed a modest inheritance into his first million dollars through careful investing.

After graduating from Lincoln High School in Portland, Pamplin studied at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, ultimately transferring to Lewis and Clark College in 1962 to complete his undergraduate training. Pamplin has received eight degrees, including two doctorates:

In 1953, Pamplin moved with his family to Oregon. As a 10-year-old recovering from a year-long bout with hepatitis that made him bedridden, Pamplin began training in the Charles Atlas weightlifting method to regain his strength. In high school, he became an AAU Olympic Lifts weightlifting champion which led to a lifelong commitment to fitness.

Robert Boisseau Pamplin Jr. (born September 3, 1941) is an American businessman, philanthropist, and minister. He is also noted as an educator, historical preservationist and author.

Pamplin was one of the backers of the effort to preserve Shaniko, Oregon, a former central Oregon sheep's wool transportation terminus of the Columbia River Southern Railway Company (1900 c. 1911) boomtown that is now considered a ghost town.