Skip to main contentLast week, when Dr. Dean Brooks, the former longtime head of the Oregon State Hospital died at 96, Gov. John Kitzhaber issued the following statement:
For newcomers to Oregon or those not versed in the history of evolution of mental health care in this state, Brooks' might not have been a familiar name.
But a subsequent lengthy obituary in the New York Times explained why Kitzhaber would comment on the passing of an official gone from public life for decades.
Part of the reason was Brooks' willingness to cooperate in one of the best known movies ever shot in Oregon, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. That film, shot in 1975 and based on the 1962 novel by Oregonian Ken Kesey, made a character of the the hulking form of the state hospital.
The Times explains:
WWeek 2015