About Claire Argow

Former Pacific University professor Claire Argow was a tireless prisoners rights advocate known for her work to abolish the death penalty and reform the penal system.

She was driven by the belief that people convicted of crimes still deserve to be offered opportunities and treated humanely.

She was the executive director of the Oregon Prison Association from 1945 to 1960, the only U.S. woman to hold such a position in a state prison association during that period. In that role, she visited prisons, lobbied public officials, sent letters and gave speeches.

Argow led the successful campaign for the repeal of the death penalty in Oregon in 1964, drove the state to separate youthful offenders from adults, and to establish separate prisons for women.

Said Argow in 1983 on Oregon Public Broadcasting’s “Front Line” program:

“You don’t get rich when you do the kind of work I’ve done all my life, but you get a satisfaction. I have a gal who still writes to me, who came to us as a murderer in the penitentiary, who tells me that she could never have made it, in or out, if it hadn’t been for me. Now where do you get rewards like that?”

Two wings of the Multnomah County (Ore.) Juvenile Detention Center were named the Claire Argow Center.

At Pacific University, Argow was an associate professor of sociology. She also directed the university’s Upward Bound program, intended to help low-income and rural high school students prepare for college.

In 1991, she created the Claire Argow Endowed Scholarship Fund to support students planning a career in social services or law enforcement. After her death in 1997, her son Keith has continued to generously support the scholarship fund. In 2020, the Pacific University Social Work Program was named in honor of former professor Claire Argow.