Victor "Vic" Krisciunas

Vic died peacefully in the arms of his loving wife, Tammie Krisciunas, at three in the afternoon on Sunday, 15 June 2025, at age 75. One year and a day after being diagnosed with an evil brain cancer, glioblastoma. In the last year, friends and family (you know who you are!) continued to surround him with the love and companionship we have treasured through our 29 years together.

Vic was born on St Patrick’s Day in Winnipeg, Canada, in 1950 to Vytautas and Jadvyga Krisciunas who, with his older brother Harvey Krisciunas, fled Lithuania during WWII. He graduated from Churchill Highschool and University of Manitoba Medical School. He moved to Portland in 1977 and built a successful Family Medical Practice with a med school classmate. Vic practiced medicine for 47 years. In addition to clinical practice, he participated in clinical studies, gave presentations, and assisted in surgery. We enjoyed working until it conflicted with pursuing the ski-bum, boat-bum life we aspired to, so we retired in 2023.

Vic was an avid athlete his whole life. He did the Fosbury flop before it was “The Fosbury Flop”. In High school, he was the captain of the football team. He was inducted into the Football Hall of Fame for his high school and for the Province of Manitoba. He was invited to play on the Canadian national rugby team, but chose medicine instead. He scored a try against the All Blacks in a demonstration game while in high school. He was offered a football scholarship to Dartmouth, but opted to do college and medical school in Winnipeg. Through demanding football and Rugby coaches, he learned to believe in himself and that he could do anything if he worked hard enough.

Skiing was his passion. We fulfilled the “ski bum” dream in the first year after retirement, skiing almost daily for 3 months in Sun Valley and Park City. It was his motivator to go to the gym. He also loved boating. We were on the third day of a four month adventure in the Salish Sea when we got the diagnosis that changed our plans. A friend said: you were doing that- now you are doing this… so we came back to Portland and had dinner parties on our back deck. Lemonade. It was a sweet final year together. Early after diagnosis, I asked Vic how he wanted to fill his remaining time. He wanted to keep doing what we had always been doing. We loved our life together.

We filled our years with lots of travel, dinner parties, skiing, and learning- most recently physics. Vic loved to share stories of our adventures. We explored various hobbies: There was the waterski-before-work era, the photography era, the forest park jogging era, the Discus fish era, the marine reef aquarium era, the house projects era, the astronomy era, the biking, hiking, golfing era, the flyfishing era, the old car era, the landscaping and gardening era, the sommelier era, the eat-at-nice-restaurants-most-every-night era. Consistent through every hobby, through all the years, are our friendships and our deep love for each other.

Vic is survived by his wife of 28 years, Tammie Krisciunas; brother Harvey Krisciunas; nephew David Highet (Tara), grandnephews Andrew Highet (Lindsey) and William Highet; and niece Elizabeth Krisciunas and grandniece Rebecca; and a ton of relatives in Lithuania and on Tammie’s side. He is pre-deceased by his parents and many relatives in Lithuania.

A Memorial Service will be held at Portland Yacht Club.

if you’d like to come to the memorial service, please email me and be sure to let me know who you are and your connection to us so I can send you the details for this event. 

RSVP to: Vicsmemorialservice@gmail.com

Vic will be buried at a private service held at Mt Calvary Cemetery.

Donations can be made in Vic’s name to Providence Neuro-oncology foundation, Dr. Ambady.

Arrangements are made through

Mt. Calvary & Gethsemani Catholic Funeral Services