Longtime Wallowa County Commissioner Susan Roberts dies at 78

Published 2:30 pm Monday, August 4, 2025

Public service, love for community were her legacy

ENTERPRISE — Wallowa County Commissioner Susan Roberts, 78, died late Wednesday, July 30, at Wallowa Memorial Hospital in Enterprise, after a lifetime of service in and to Wallowa County.

The Position 2 commissioner was reelected to the post in November, but attended only a couple meetings this year, being on sick leave the rest of the time.

Voters first elected Roberts to the Wallowa County Board of Commissioners in 2008. In 2024, she won a fifth term, which she said then would be her last. Preceding her time on the board, Roberts served as an Enterprise City Council member and as the city’s mayor.

Over the course of her long tenure in public service, Roberts became well known throughout Oregon as a champion of rural communities. At home, she was known for her no-nonsense straight talk, her sense of humor, and her love for Wallowa County and its people.

Whether she was dealing with wolves, forest management, or wildfire, Roberts engaged with landowners, agencies and local organizations, finding solutions to the challenges of natural resource management. As co-chair of the Blue Mountains Intergovernmental Council, she represented the desired future condition of the Blue Mountain forests from the perspective of the people who live there.

As she was overseeing the county’s road department, Roberts secured funding to repair roads and bridges, many leading to the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest. Because access to the national forest is critical to the people of Wallowa County, she worked closely with state and federal agencies to keep Wallowa County’s forest roads open and maintained.

The board of commissioners, aware of Roberts’ illness, planned a special meeting for Monday afternoon to determine how they would go about replacing her.

Hundreds of well-wishers packed the auditorium of Enterprise High School to honor Roberts on June 11 at a farewell party. In addition to general members of the public were her three brothers — with whom she grew up in Wallowa, current and former commissioners, state Sen. Todd Nash and state Rep. Bobby Levy. Also there were “my boys,” the men who worked the county road department.

A true patriot and Vietnam-era veteran of the Marine Corps, Roberts managed to rise from her wheelchair during the Pledge of Allegiance, which started the event.

Nash, who until January served as a county commissioner with Roberts, was hit hard by the loss.

“There’s no replacing Susan. She was a great mentor, a tremendous base of knowledge,” Nash said. “She was someone who was so well respected here, whether it be on a local, state or federal issue.”

The other two commissioners, John Hillock, who has been on the board six years, and Lisa Collier, who is new this year, also grieved for Roberts.

“Where do you start?” Hillock said of Roberts’ legacy. “There’s never been a person on the board who’s cared so much for the county and been so patriotic. She instilled that in other people. She had a huge knowledge of natural resources. The big thing for me was her patriotism. A huge issue was with her public service and her love for the community.”

“It’s not the outcome we were hoping for,” Collier said. “I had hoped to be working with her and wish I could have. Her impact here has been huge.”

Roberts is survived by two daughters, Stephanie Magara and Alicia Hays, and multiple grandchildren.

Loveland Funeral Chapel and Crematory will handle the arrangements.