The OregonianThe critic of government, business and news media served as editor of the Portland Free Press, wrote of conspiracies.
Ace R. Hayes of Sherwood, a life long political activist and editor of the Portland Free Press news magazine, died Friday, Feb. 13, 1998, of a brain aneurysm at a local hospital. He was 58.
Mr. Hayes, a harsh critic of government, news media and the corporate world, became known in Portland for his "Secret Government Seminar" sessions held monthly since the 1980s in Southeast Portland. "So many people would come to him for his analysis of what was going on in his world," said Hayes' wife, Janet Marcley.
He lived in Nicaragua during the 1970s and worked for the Sandinista-led independence movement. The Oregonion reported in 1991 that Hayes had helped provide guns to Sandinista rebels.
He was born Jan. 7, 1940, in Oak Ridge. He worked as a logger until joining the U.S. Navy in the late 1950s. Mr. Hayes then enrolled in Portland State University, graduating in 1968.
Embittered by the expansion of the Vietnam War during the 1960s, Mr. Hayes led anti-war demonstrations at Portland State and organized on behalf of the United Farm Workers union.
He later was a self-employed machinist while continuing his political activities. Mr. Hayes had been editor and lead reporter of the Portland Free Press since 1993.
Marcley didn't expect the publication to continue without her husband. "I really can't see that it will go on because it was so much him," she said.
One of the publication's slogans is that it is "read and quoted by the CIA, among others - not, of course, with any great pleasure." He was considered one of the city's leading conspiracy analysts and referred in his writings to a "secret state" that plotted and carried out political assassinations, bombings and airliner crashes. "He can orate articulately for four or five hours at a time, can savage politicians with searing one-liners, and he certainly can annoy people - even people who, like him, are highly critical of the status quo," The Oregonian reported in a 1991 profile of Hayes. He is survived by his wife. Contributions to the Ace R. Hayes Memorial Papers Project are welcome at P.O. Box 1327, Tualatin, Ore. 97062
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