Somebody posted on another board that the ultraliberal OR Republican Gov. Tom McCall claimed he did not want to live by artificial means either, but when he faced death, Mr. McCall changed his mind.
McCall left office on January 14, 1975. Despite his famous 1971 quote imploring people not to move to the state, Oregon's population grew 25% during his eight years in office. He took a job as KATU television's news analyst, and also traveled nationwide supporting other states' efforts to enact bottle bills similar to Oregon's. He also actively opposed a 1976 effort to abolish the LCDC, and another effort to dismantle it in 1982. In February of 1978 McCall announced he would once again run for governor, however his campaign suffered from a lack of both funding and focus, and he was defeated by Victor Atiyeh in the Republican primary.
In December 1982 he was hospitalized, and on January 8, 1983 Tom McCall lost a long battle with cancer. He was buried in Redmond Memorial Cemetery