GEARHART, Ore. (AP) - Bob Bacon has done a lot in his 90 years. He received a Ph.D. in zoology from Yale University and taught anatomy at Stanford University, Johns Hopkins and Oregon Health & Science University.

He researched embryology and cancer. He's even taught classes on whales for the Clatsop Community College Elderhostel Program.

"I've done a lot of things in my life," Bacon said. "But the Oregon Beach Bill was, I think, the most important thing I ever did."

He calls his involvement to protect the beaches for the public "quite an experience."

Although he has health problems, Bacon, who lives with his wife in Gearhart, glows whenever anyone asks him about the bill that opened more than 360 miles of Oregon coastline to the public.

He talks about the day in 1967 when he was talking with Larry Bitte, a biochemistry student at the University of Oregon Medical School (now the Oregon Health & Science University). Bitte was enraged, Bacon said.

He had an uncle in Portland who came down to Cannon Beach and brought a picnic lunch. When they went out in front of a motel, they were asked to leave.

"The owner said it was private property and only their clients could picnic there," Bacon said.

Bitte, who came from New Jersey where the beaches were mostly private, loved the ocean, and he loved to fish. He asked for Bacon's assistance. At the same time, House Bill 1601, a bill "concerning public lands," was languishing in the state Legislature. By the time Bacon and Bitte's wife arrived in Salem, the bill was receiving its last public hearing and was expected to die in the House Highway Committee.

The committee's chairman, Sid Bazett, told them that they were the only representatives from the public at the hearing.

"The rest were motel owners and developers," Bacon said.

After their testimony, Bazett told them he would ask the Speaker of the House for permission to conduct more meetings.

"Well, everybody in the room turned to look at us," he said. "We were instantly hated. Our job was to get the word out to the public. There had been nothing in the newspapers."

Bacon knew a freelance writer who wrote letters to editors. News stories began surfacing and a television graphic depicting a fence around Haystack Rock sparked a public outcry - viewers were told to write to their legislators. The result: 35,000 letters and telegrams were sent to the Capitol building.

"The response was unprecedented, literally unprecedented," he said. "There had never been ... so many letters and telegrams to the Legislature in all its history."

Bacon and Bitte organized Citizens to Save Oregon Beaches, and Gov. Tom McCall and state Treasurer Bob Straub urged support. At news conferences, "every TV station had a camera there and every newspaper had a reporter. It became quite a battle. There was a lot of interest, not just in this state," Bacon said.

Someone set Bitte's car on fire and Bacon was warned to "watch out at home."

Those who worked with the public beach campaign also received threats. McCall and a team of scientists visited North Coast beaches by helicopter and returned to Salem with a recommendation that the public-private boundary line be set at 16 feet above sea level, along the vegetation line.

It took 10 committee hearings before the bill reached the House floor and was passed. The Senate approved it on June 6, and McCall signed the Oregon Beach Bill on July 6, 1967.

Since then, the bill has been upheld by the state Supreme Court and by federal courts. Although Bacon helped put an initiative on the ballot to guarantee the public's right to the beaches in the state constitution, that initiative failed.

Bacon reflected on the fight for access to the beach and, ultimately, the ocean. The ocean, Bacon said, is an important psychological resource.

"Theoretically that's where we came from," he said. "There's a primitive need to have access to the ocean. To deny it to the general population is totally wrong."

After suffering a stroke and some fractures, Bacon doesn't walk to the ocean much anymore.

"I'm at an age where things can be expected to happen," he said. Still, he added, "I've had a valuable and wonderful life."

And best of all, Bacon said, he helped to save the beach for everyone to enjoy.

"Well, they have it," he added. "It's not something I can will to them."

On the Net:

Oregon Beach Bill: http://www.orgov.org/beachbill.html

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)