Oregon Public Broadcasting

State Treasurer Ben Westlund has died of lung cancer.  A statement issued by the Treasurer’s office says he died early Sunday in Bend.  Westlund was 60 years old.

Ben Westlund was born in Apple Valley, California.  After graduating from Whitman College in Washington state, he began several businesses in Oregon, including a mining venture and a marketing company.

Westlund was elected to the Oregon House in 1996 as a Republican, and was appointed to the state Senate in 2003.

Westlund survived a bout of lung cancer in 2005 and went on to seek election as the Democratic nominee for state treasurer in 2008. 

He won with 51 percent of the vote, and is the first treasurer elected from east of the Cascades in years.  

Governor Ted Kulongoski will name a replacement until the seat is filled in the November 2010 general election.

The last state official to die in office was Governor Paul Patterson, who collapsed and died of a heart problem in 1956.