Glenn Plemmons was born September 12, 1952, in Corvallis. Glenn’s family roots go back three generations to the early pioneers of this community. Both sets of grandparents came west by wagon. Charles and Mabel Leder came from Missouri in the late 1800s and settled in as farmers and ranchers near Philomath. Glenn’s father, Edgar Plemmons, died when Glenn was fifteen. His mother, Gladys Burger, continued to live in Corvallis. Glenn graduated from Corvallis High in 1970 before going on to Linn Benton Community College and Oregon State University to study business.
Even before graduation from OSU in 1974, Glenn began his own business, Plemmons Investments. Part of his enterprise involved owning a chain of retail specialty auto stores—Performance Specialties. They were involved in building show and race cars; several of their cars held national records, and many appeared in various magazines. Glenn managed his banking through Citizens Bank, where he met his future wife, Sheila Speck. Sheila’s family also has a long history in the area. Her grandparents, Maxie and Dorothy Rainey, arrived in the late 1880s from Oklahoma and settled in the Sweet Home area. Her grandfather worked for the railroad, which brought many settlers to the region. Sheila grew up in Sweet Home, the daughter of Ray and Mattie Speck, and moved to Corvallis during her senior year in high school. She was still able to graduate with her class from Sweet Home High School, after which she started work at Citizens Bank at age nineteen.
Glenn and Sheila were married May 3, 1980. Their son Jordon was born June 14, 1988. Sheila left the bank to raise their son and support Glenn with his business interests.
In 1986, Glenn decided to sell his retail stores, and at that point concentrated on his real estate development activities throughout Oregon for several years. His longtime love of the stock market continually brought him back to investing, and in 1988, he joined Salomon Smith Barney, eventually becoming senior vice president for investments.
The Plemmons family enjoys being active and shares an overall commitment to physical fitness and the outdoors. Sheila enjoys gardening and completed OSU Extension’s Master Gardener course, and Glenn is an avid outdoor photographer.
Glenn has long been an active supporter of his community. He has been involved in Corvallis Neighborhood Housing, which builds homes for lower-income families to help get them into home ownership. He helped form a nonprofit organization for employees at Smith-Barney to contribute money and labor for various projects in the community, which required quite an investment of energy setting it up and getting it funded. Smith-Barney employees have also been very successful soliciting funds from the Smith-Barney Corporation to put into the community on various projects.
Glenn has served on the board of Mentoring Works, and joined Corvallis Rotary in 1988. Through Rotary, he was appointed to the BCF board in 1995, serving as president from 1998 to 2000. He also chaired the Foundation Committee through Rotary, a liaison committee involved in coordinating partnership and communications with the Foundation. Sheila has been a strong supporter in all of these volunteer endeavors.
In Rotary, Glenn has been involved with the Student Exchange Program, finding families for students to live with and trying to make them feel at home, throwing a welcoming party, and getting other club members to take them on weekend trips and introduce them to people in the community.
Glenn & Sheila established an endowed fund with BCF to improve the lives of at-risk kids.