Oregon Public Broadcasting

Eighty thousand people have flocked to the Portland Art Museum this fall to see images of the Columbia Gorge. But as April Baer reports, the man who brought those pictures together has died.

Terry Toedtemeier was in Hood River Tuesday, talking about his latest curatorial work, Wild Beauty.  It's a collection of  historic images of the Columbia River Gorge.

He'd just finished a reading from the companion book. Leaving the stage, he collapsed and died.

Toedtemeier's tenure at the Portland Art Museum reaches back to 1985, and he had many ties with the arts community, including an appointment at the Pacific Northwest College of Art.

The Museum's Chief curator Bruce Guenther called Toedtemeier's contributions "immeasurable".

Bruce Guenther:   "Terry Toedtemeier was one of the most disarming, funny, and smart men I'd met in Portland. He preferred images that told us something about the place, the time, and the technology of its age."

The exhibition that proved to be his last runs through January 11th.   He was 61.