This story was produced by the Oregon Journalism Project, a nonprofit newsroom covering the state.

You might think Don Vollum would have made peace by now with the slow vanishing of Oregon-based corporations.

Then came the March announcement that the new owners of Tektronix would move the headquarters of Oregon’s legendary technology company from its Beaverton campus to Raleigh, N.C.

The idea that Tektronix, once the state’s largest employer, would leave Oregon is as daunting as the possibility that Nike, or Columbia Sportswear, would someday give up on its home.

That’s because the Portland-born founders of Tek, Howard Vollum (Don’s father) and Jack Murdock, were deeply rooted in Oregon when they created it in 1946, some 700 patents ago.

“Tek was in Portland because my dad and Jack Murdock were from here,” Don Vollum says. “It had nothing to do with economic development, lower taxes or a better work force. The same is true with Phil Knight [and Nike].”