Robert and Marna Porath - 50TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY

Robert and Marna Porath of Amity are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this year by inviting friends and family to do good deeds. The good deed could be just about anything, and a stipend is provided. “Good deeds make our anniversary celebration meaningful,” they said.

In eighth grade, the couple met in honor orchestra. As a result of a computer dating list in their senior year, Robert asked Marna out, and they’ve been together ever since. They were married April 6, 1974, in West Linn, Oregon.

Robert and Marna lived in Oregon all their lives, together two years each in Portland, Corvallis and Salem, 16 in rural Marion County, and 28 so far in the Eola Hills near Amity. The couple have loved backpacking, cross-country skiing, white-water rafting and kayaking, hiking, tent-camping, and traveling. They were involved in community theater in Salem and McMinnville, and have long been active in 12-step groups.

Robert was a hospital pharmacist for 36 years, serving at Salem Hospital and Willamette Valley Medical Center, until his retirement in 2015. In his younger years, Robert enjoyed long-distance running. He is an accomplished pianist and musician, and has recorded three albums of original music. He has volunteered in jails, prisons and the Oregon State Hospital for 36 years. To feed their woodstove, Robert has thinned timber from their Amity property.

For seven years, Marna was a CPA in management for an international accounting firm and continued private accounting for five years in Salem. She used to perform as a dancer and in ballets, and took horseback-riding lessons for five years. In her 40s, with Robert’s encouragement, she switched careers to journalism and visual communications. She wound up at the News-Register for 17 years, including layout and editing of the opinion pages. In retirement, she grows vegetable and fruits. She loves photography and takes yoga classes.

Inspired by their Amity property, they studied native plants and mushrooms, and volunteered with the Native Plant Society of Oregon. Marna attends monthly work parties at the Native Plant Garden at the McMinnville Public Library. The couple enjoys caring for their forested property, watching wild birds and critters, reading aloud to each other, sharing their small home with their two cats, and playing games with each other, family and friends. Together, they wrote a newspaper column called “Couple in the Country.”