THE DRAGGING THE GUT   FESTIVAL

​Few in this generation in Yamhill County are as respected and beloved as retired insurance man and community icon Mike Hamilton. We're proud to honor Mr. Hamilton as the Grand Marshall at the 2012 Dragging the Gut Festival.



Here's an article about Mike Hamilton:

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"A policy of service" Mar 6, 2010 By Karl Klooster of the News-Register

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As long as Hagan Hamilton continues to go by that name, McMinnville resident Mike Hamilton will bask in the reflected glow of its prominence on the local business scene.

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When Hamilton joined forces with Merrill Hagan to purchase the agency, it already had roots that could be traced back to the early 20th century. Though Hamilton hasn't been associated with the agency since 1983, the 30 years he spent there were marked by a solid record of success and continuous service to the community.

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Hagan started out in the employ of Gordon Carey, a local insurance man who had been in business since the early 1930s. Carey had himself bought the agency from an earlier owner.

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When Carey died in August 1953, operation of the agency fell to Hagan. He realized he needed an associate, and Hamilton, then a Prudential agent, was recommended to him by his good friend and neighbor, Waldo Sears of Oregon Mutual.

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The two hit it off immediately. However, because Carey's estate was in an irrevocable trust, they ended up working essentially as US Bank employees for the next eight years.

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Finally, in late 1961, they were able to negotiate a deal with the bank and, with the consent of Carey's widow, amicably break the trust and buy the business. As commercial and industrial insurance specialists, they were well positioned to capitalize on the town's accelerating growth.

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Little more than a year after the purchase, Hagan Hamilton moved out of its overcrowded quarters at Third and Davis and into a leased building down the block at Fourth and Davis. The partners had it totally remodeled for their staff of eight.

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Hamilton immersed himself in community service over the course of those years. He served as president of the McMinnville Area Chamber of Commerce, the McMinnville Rotary Club and Mid-Valley Rehabilitation, where he remains an honorary board member.

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He served on the board of the local Community Chest and became the first president of its successor organization, United Good Neighbors. In that capacity, he spent five years helping raise money for organizations like the American Red Cross and Boy Scouts of America.

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He said serving as president of the community-wide charity was like holding a second full-time job.

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Though McMinnville has embraced Hamilton like a native son, the route that brought him here 61 years ago took a series of twists and turns.

Both circuitous and colorful, the journey began in the South Carolina community of Dillon, where he was born. He grew up with the father of current Federal Reserve Board Chairman, Ben Bernanke.

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If nothing else, that connection serves as a segue for Hamilton's own odyssey that ultimately ended in Oregon.

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His first stopping off point was North Carolina's Chapel Hill, home of the University of North Carolina.

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Arriving in the fall of 1942, the eager young freshman had scarcely settled into his class routine before Uncle Sam came calling. The war saw him serve as a sailor in the Pacific until 1945.

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He returned to Chapel Hill to resume his studies, but the maturing experience of three years half a world away at war had changed his priorities.

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"At the end of the school year, I decided I wanted to do something different," he said. "I was grateful to be back, but worn out."

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So he borrowed a few dollars from his mom and thumbed his way across the country to the Eastern Oregon wheat and cattle town of Pendleton.

Why Pendleton?

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"A Navy buddy had told me about it, and I was intrigued," he said. "I had no idea what lay ahead, but I hitchhiked to the Pennsylvania Turnpike and slowly made my way west."

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When he reached Manhattan, Kan., in the dead center of the U.S., a fortuitous break made the rest of his trip a breeze.

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"I hitched a ride with a guy who was driving to Walla Walla," he said. "The two cities are just 35 miles apart."

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Hamilton spent the summer in northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington, first working on a rail gang laying track between Pendleton and La Grande, then picking peas. "I thought I knew what hard work was," he said, "but this was something else."

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When the season finally slowed, he and a couple of buddies went to Spokane to look for work. Finding nothing there, one of them suggested they try Portland.

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He eventually ended up in Grand Ronde, where he spent a year and half working in a grain warehouse.

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"The first time I got a day off, I asked where I could go to have a little fun," he recalled. "'McMinnville' was the immediate reply."

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It was the beginning of what grew into an enduring affinity for the Yamhill Valley in general and McMinnville in particular.

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In the fall of 1947, he returned to UNC for his junior year. After completing it, he headed back to Grand Ronde and a good-paying, summer job with Murphy Timber.

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A Spanish class had pressed his wanderlust button again and piqued his curiosity about the University of Americas in Mexico City. He earned enough through his summer-long labors to buy a 1936 Chevy, and he promptly set out in it on "una aventura grande" south of the border.

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He switched his major to Latin American studies and spent his senior year at the prestigious university in Mexico City. It was, he said, "One of the best years of my life."

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Now he had to decide where to live. He quickly settled on McMinnville. The town of then 6,000 had captured his heart.

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He eventually found his way into life insurance sales. He admits not liking it all that much initially, but it grew on him. Then, the opportunity to partner with Merrill Hagan arose. And the rest, as they say, is history.

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Hamilton might very well have enjoyed a much longer association with the company that bears his name had he not acted on a doctor's advice in 1983. "I contracted rheumatic fever," he said. "My physician told me I should do something less stressful."

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That something was real estate. Though it brought moments as tense as anything insurance could conjure up, he stuck it out, operating Mike Hamilton Real Estate Services for 10 years, until 1999, when he sold the brokerage to Gordon Hall.

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He had up to a dozen agents under his roof at one time, several of whom went on to long and prosperous careers in the valley.

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Slowing down some after that, he worked for Curtis Pratt, then West Hills Realty. He finally took down his shingle for good on Oct. 31, at the age of 84.

Of all the things Hamilton can look back on over his five decades of community service, he is proudest of his long-standing membership on the Yamhill County Community Corrections Policy Committee.

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About 35 years ago, the Oregon Legislature passed the Community Corrections Act, giving each county the option to handle its own parole and probation work. Yamhill County opted in.

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The county's oversight board consisted of the four county judges, the chair of the county board of commissioners and one private citizen. "I was asked to be that citizen," Hamilton said, "and I've been doing it ever since."