Oral Histories

The USDC Oral History Program

Since 1988, the District Court Historical Society's Oral History Program has collected biographical interviews of judges, lawyers and lay persons who play a significant role in Oregon legal history. These oral histories are preserved by the Oregon Historical Society library archives and are available to both the public and researchers. At present, the Oral History collection includes more than 100 interviews. Some oral histories have been collected by professional interviewers, but many were collected by volunteers. All of the interviews are preserved on tape recordings and many include written transcripts. The U.S. District Court Historical Society is currently working to transcribe all of the oral histories in the collection. Most recently, we have begun adding a video interview with judges as a part of the collection.

Volunteers make the oral history project possible. We need volunteers willing to go through training and willing to conduct oral histories. In the past, volunteers have made it possible to collect the histories of many figures in Oregon legal history. The list is extensive and includes people such as Rupert Bullivant, Jack Collins, Tom Cooney, Velma Jeremiah, Sid Lezak, and Noreen Saltveit McGraw, to name a few.

Many of these interviews are not transcribed. In order to make them more accessible, we need sponsors for the transcribing project. If you or your firm is interested in volunteering to transcribe an oral history, to collect an interview, or in making transcription possible through a donation, please contact Stephen Brischetto, slb@brischettolaw.com or Donna Sinclair, donnas@pdx.edu.

The following firms or individuals have previously donated transcribing time, and we thank them for their support: Bullivant Houser Bailey; Cooney & Crew; University of Oregon; Jolles & Bernstein; Newcomb, Sabin, Landsverk; Scarborough McNeese O'Brien & Kilkenny; David Rhoten; Schwabe Williamson Wyatt; Dunn Carney Allen Higgins & Tongue LLP; Markowitz Herbold; and David R. Williams. Stoel Rives is also sponsoring the collection of three professionally collected interviews, including Caroline Stoel and supplements to the histories of Tom Stoel and George Frasier.

C. Girard Davidson (ca. 9 hours); Patrick Dooley (ca. 10 hours); Alice Tomkins Fee (ca. 8 hours); William Hedlund (ca. 6 hours); Carol Hewitt (ca. 1 hour); Richard Maizels (ca. 4 hours); Kristine Olsen (ca. 3 hours); George Rives (ca. 4 hours); Noreen Kelly Saltveit McGraw (ca. 8 hours); Robert Smith (ca. 8 hours); James Weatherford (ca. 9 hours); David Williams (ca. 2 hours); Jack Collins (ca. 16 hours); John Dellenback (ca. 19 hours); Robert Duncan (ca. 31 hours); Orlando Hollis (ca. 20 hours); Lee Johnson (ca. 21 hours); John F. Kilkenny (ca. 16 hours; partially transcribed); Berkeley Lent (ca. 22 hours); Roger Martin (ca. 11 hours); Lynn Newbry (ca. 10 hours). Please contact Stephen Brischetto, slb@brischettolaw.com or Donna Sinclair, donnas@pdx.edu to volunteer or make a donation to this ongoing project.