Gretchen Miller met and married Stephen Kafoury while attending Whitman College in the early 1960s. She graduated from Whitman in 1963,[3] with a Music degree.[4] The couple moved to Portland in 1965,[5] but soon afterward they joined the Peace Corps, and Gretchen Kafoury spent two years in Iran, teaching English as a Peace Corps volunteer. They returned to Portland in 1967, and Gretchen Kafoury became a teacher at Portland State University.[3]
Kafoury co-founded the Oregon chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1970 and the Oregon Women's Political Caucus in 1971.[6] In 1972, she was one of a small group of women (also including Mildred Schwab[7]) who protested the City Club of Portland's policy excluding women members, effecting a change in the club's policy of more than fifty years.[8]
By 1975, Gretchen and Stephen Kafoury had divorced, but Gretchen continued to use her married name.[9] She subsequently married two more times,[10] her last marriage ending in 1998,[11] but continued to use the name Gretchen Kafoury or Gretchen Miller Kafoury.
Gretchen Kafoury's ex-husband, Stephen Kafoury, preceded her in the legislature, and her daughter Deborah Kafoury served two terms there as well, including one as minority leader.[12]
She was elected to the Portland City Council in 1990,[5] and served on the council from 1991 to 1998.[13]
Beginning in 1999, Kafoury was an instructor at Portland State University, teaching classes related to homelessness, poverty, and community development.[14]
She died on March 13, 2015, aged 72, of natural causes at her Portland home.[4][13]
^ abAnthony, Roger (December 28, 1998). "After 30 years in politics, Kafoury lets go Kafoury: She still ponders solutions for the issues of life". The Oregonian. p. B1.
