Murata

On December 4, 2016, friends and family of Toshihiko Murata will celebrate his life with a memorial service at 2:30 p.m. at the Pendleton Center for the Arts, 214 N. Main Street, Pendleton, Oregon.

Toshihiko Murata was born February 26, 1963, in Kobe, Japan, and was raised in Otsu-shi, Shiga, Japan. He first came to the United States in 1981 to participate in the World Peace March, where he met his future wife, Mary Jane Bagwell. He returned to Oregon in 1984 to pursue his education, earning a Bachelor of Science degree (1988) at Pacific University in Forest Grove and his doctorate in sociology (2001) at the University of Oregon in Eugene.

Toshihiko worked for Blue Mountain Community College (BMCC) as the associate vice president of institutional effectiveness, beginning in October of 2015. He was a research analyst and the adult basic education accountability coordinator for the Oregon Department of Community Colleges and Workforce Development for more than nine years before accepting the AVP position at BMCC and moving to Pendleton. Prior to working for the State, Toshihiko was a partner at Northwest Survey and Data Services, a survey research firm in Eugene. He also worked with Oregon Survey Research Laboratory at the University of Oregon.

After 20 years together, Toshihiko and Mary Jane married on November 24th, 2000. They have been best friends and inseparable companions for more than 35 years. Toshihiko and Mary Jane began their relationship on the World Peace March, walking from Venice Beach, California, to New York City in 1981-82. The trek lasted eight and a half months. In 1983, Toshihiko published a book documenting his journey: “I Walked 7000 kilometers Across America … A March for Peace Across the Continent.”

Toshihiko had a number of talents and was accomplished in many different areas and hobbies. He enjoyed running, reading, and writing poetry. He was a talented artist, creating pieces in watercolor, pencil and ink, woodworking, metal arts and jewelry and clay. He studied horticulture and took great pleasure in caring for his orchids and African violets, as well as the green onions he grew for his morning soba. Toshihiko was an avid cyclist and enjoyed building bicycles for specific purposes. He was also a member and officer in Toastmasters while living in Salem.

His friends commented that Toshihiko was a brilliant thinker. BMCC President Cam Preus, who had known and worked with Toshihiko for a number of years, offered this special observation: “He was a person who kept his own counsel,” she said. “He was quiet. He spoke when he had something to offer.”

Toshihiko is survived by his wife, Mary Jane Bagwell; his mother, Atsuko Matsukawa Murata; his sister, Hiroko Hiroi, brother-in-law Takaaki Hiroi and neices Misako Hiroi and Ayako Hiroi; and sister-in-law Alice Gachupin, nephew Courtland Gachupin and niece Apple Freeman of Portland. He is also survived by an uncle, Noburo Murata, and aunts Kyoko Kanzaki, Noriko Murata and Yoshiko Yamamoto.

He is preceded in death by his father, Ryuichi Murata, and by his paternal and maternal grandparents.

In lieu of flowers, the family wishes that donations be made in Toshihiko’s name to the BMCC Foundation to support student scholarships. Please contact Margaret Gianotti at 541-278-5775.

Online condolences may be shared with the family at www.pioneerchapel.com