People out on the Navajo reservation in the community of Seba Dalkai still remember 1982 Winslow High School graduate Charles Wilhoite as the polite, brainy kid who loved to play after school. “He was just a nice kid on the playgrounds,” says fellow Winslow High School alum Jackie Riggs, recalling the days when Wilhoite’s father was principal of the school and his mother taught nearby at Dilcon Bureau of Indian Affairs Boarding School.
Back then, the Wilhoite family lived in the Bureau of Indian Affairs school housing attached to the school cafeteria and dormitory. Wilhoite spent his first seven years surrounded by Navajos, learning early what it meant, as he said in a recent interview, “to be a minority among minorities.”
Those early years, he now tells people in interviews and presentations, left an imprint—a sense of belonging, humility, and confidence. He had five siblings: two older sisters, an older brother, and a younger sister and a younger brother. My three surviving siblings still live in Winslow,” Wilhoite said.
“I was privileged to engage with a rich culture that was not mine, and to be accepted simply as another kid in the community,” Wilhoite said about his early days. “As I have shared with many people, it was very interesting being a minority among minorities. This allowed me to establish very valuable relationships and perspectives different from my own, and a feeling of “belongingness” even though I was not Native. I don’t think I could have asked for more valuable life lessons, which have informed and carried me throughout my life.”
Today, he moves in the highest circles of Oregon’s political and business life. A trusted advisor to multiple Oregon governors. He sits on the board of two publicly traded companies, and has had conversations with national figures such as Bill Clinton, former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, Nike founder Phil Knight and many others.
He’s been called the “Zelig of Portland,” a “powerbroker” by the Portland Chamber of Commerce and recently featured in a cover story for the October 22-27 issue of the Portland Business Journal.
An Instant
Conversation Starter
After moving to Winslow, his parents continued the daily 37-mile commute back to the reservation to teach while he started first grade.
He was an “A’ student all the way through high school, he said. “I remember back in middle school, I came back from school one day and I told my mother that I was going to be the valedictorian. And she started crying,” Wilhoite said about his fondest childhood memory. “She was so proud of me. It stuck with me. I lived to make my mom happy and proud. Because my dad also said, “the best thing you can do to make me happy, is to make mom happy. It made me be the best of everything I did from then on.”
Fellow WHS alumni Lowell Tyler, now a veterinarian in Paulson, Mont., remembers meeting Charles in the fifth or sixth grade, when Jefferson and Lincoln schools played each other in basketball. “Even then, everybody talked about the wiry, super smart, charmingly nice guy with thick glasses,” Tyler said. “I’m sure we also competed in a few spelling bees.”
Then at WHS, “Charles was already diplomatic, kind, confident, and as ‘distinguished’ as one could be,” remembers Tyler, who also attended Arizona State University with Charles. “I don’t recall anyone running against him for class president from sophomore year on. Oddly, we never seemed to ‘compete’ for who was smartest.”
He graduated in 1982 as class valedictorian and held many academic honors, athletic honors, membership in organizations and leadership titles such as class president and student body president. He was all-state in all three sports in high school and played in the Arizona State High School All-Star basketball game his senior year.
He often repeats a line he learned young: “It takes a village.” For him, this was literal. Coaches, teachers, neighbors and friends became part of the Wilhoite support system. “I don’t like to name people because I will leave names out. It’s been over 40 years,” he said. His siblings — five in total — were the bedrock. His late older brother, Warren, was a near-Olympic long jumper whose feats were local legend (a scratched 28 feet jump). His sisters were standout students and athletes. His younger brother Reggie starred in baseball.
“I had friends across every line. I can walk into any room and feel comfortable,” he said. “I have known Frank Guzman and Charlotte Conrad since elementary school, and Susie Nelson and Lori Reents since middle school. Frank serves as the branch manager of the BMO Bank branch in Winslow. Charlotte is an experienced nurse and serves as a distinguished faculty member in the College of Nursing and Health Care Professionals at Grand Canyon University. Lori is an IT professional, having served in the IT departments of both Northern Arizona University and ASU. And Susie, just by being herself, has improved the life of anyone fortunate enough to meet her,” Wilhoite said.
Wilhoite earned a full academic scholarship to Arizona State University, graduating in accounting and finance before launching a career in 1987 with one of the world’s largest accounting firms, KPMG.
“I was provided the opportunity and the support to develop into a professional by KPMG, for which I will be forever grateful,” he said. “I can’t think of a better environment for a young professional to experience career development and growth opportunities.”
In Winslow, you could know just about everyone, and everyone could know you, Wilhoite said. “And generally, people looked out for each other and supported each other,” he said. “The success of anyone from Winslow represented a success for everyone in Winslow.”
Tyler said. “I certainly do think there is ‘something about Winslow.” I think growing up in that ‘melting pot’ helped us all recognize people for people, not as different races, religions, stereotypes, etc.
The Portland Chapter — Leadership Through Service
Through KPMG, Wilhoite worked in their Chicago office for three years. But in 1995, he joined Willamette Management Associates in Portland, Ore., where he eventually became managing director, and has lived there ever since. His work — financial advisory, forensic accounting, valuation, expert testimony — now spans the country, touching companies from start-ups to $50-billion giants.
In October 2025, a Portland Business Journal feature described him as a man who “wants to show up well and be valuable,” someone who sits comfortably at the intersection of business acumen and civic responsibility. He has served on more than 30 boards and commissions, often as chair, influencing everything from economic development and housing to higher education, health systems, and environmental stewardship. Several of the board memberships required appointment by Oregon governors and Portland mayors.”
“My parents raised us to raise our hands and contribute whenever and wherever we thought we could make a positive difference,” he said. “I raised my hand and answered the call for service opportunities many times—consciously, and subconsciously, I’m sure, as a tribute to my parents. I have often been teased as someone who does not know how to say ‘no.’”
In 2012, Portland Monthly called him the “Zelig of Portland affairs.” His involvement brought him into conversations with national leaders — from Janet Yellen to Jerome Powell, from President Clinton to Oregon governors. In late 2024, he was named to incoming Secretary of State Tobias Read’s transition team.
And yet, for all the visibility, he says an elected office is not his path. “I decided long ago that elected office wasn’t the best way for me to make an impact,” he says. “Serving in multiple spaces — business, civic, educational — has allowed me to contribute in broader ways.
“I don’t believe I ever seriously considered running for mayor of Portland,” Wilhoite said. “My name came up in an informal survey by the Portland Business Journal as a possible candidate based on my significant business and community involvement, and the fact that I was very visible in Portland at the time. The article emphasized that I did not have a history of pursuing community engagement opportunities in the city and state, but that I frequently was sought out and invited. As a result, I found myself serving on a number of very visible boards—in the chair position—when the mayoral election was approaching, and some believed this experience, in conjunction with my extensive business background, qualified me to seek the office of mayor.” Besides, he adds, holding office would interfere with his other passion: fly fishing.
The Continuum of
Then and Now
His parents instilled the principle that education is the great equalizer — a belief he carries forward in his work on equity-centered boards such as Meyer Memorial Trust and the Northwest Area Foundation.
His advice: “Be in the room. Use your voice. Be informed. Think about equity. And make a positive impact,” he says of his personal mission.
In 2022, Wilhoite and his wife Tammy attended the 40-year WHS class reunion. “It was pure joy to connect and reconnect with former classmates, many of whom I hadn’t seen since our 10-year reunion,” he said. He plans to return to Winslow in January 2026 to visit family and friends.
“I travel all over the country and people ask me about Winslow. It’s an immediate conversation starter,” Wilhoite said. “Being young, I was not aware at the time,” he said. “But the success and accomplishments I realized during my developmental years in Winslow and later in life, I attribute directly to the support of my wonderful network of family, friends, teachers and mentors supporting me,” he said.
“I truly believe that my small-town grounding and related personal development and the associated confidence I developed, positioned me to be able to engage and navigate successfully in larger city environments. It made me appreciate Winslow even more,” he says. “Large cities offer opportunity, but they don’t offer the same connectedness.”
