Directory entries are available to all members who wish one. Please limit entries to 100 words or less. Please contact the directory editor for additions or changes: pacificnwhistorians@gmail.com
Steve Anderson
A native Tacoman, Steve Anderson has, since the 1980s, published dozens of articles and a handful of books on Pacific Northwest’s fur trade history. As director, he helped bring Fort Nisqually’s true past to the present through programs and articles. As director of the Renton History Museum through 2005, he wrote articles on the PNW fur trade and Renton’s past. Having fully retired in 2023, he is working on several books and articles regarding the PNW fur trade, primarily those involving Fort Nisqually. [hbctrader(at)gmail (dot) com.]
Marvin J. Anderson
I am an architectural historian and architect working to discover, share, and preserve our architectural heritage. While my academic background is in the history of French and American architectural education, my work for the past decade has increasingly focused on the history of architecture in the Pacific Northwest. In addition to regularly researching the history of homes we restore, we are also involved in historical research for local, state, and national recognition of historic structures. Some of our research can be found in the capsule histories of our projects at marvinandersonarchitects.com.
Teresa Andre
I am a traveling presenter of historically based programs. I am also a Hanford B Reactor and the Pre-Manhattan Project Historical Site Docent. Many of the programs I have developed focus on the Manhattan Project site in Eastern Washington. Oppenheimer wasn’t here but there are many stories of the men and women of the Hanford Site who came to work in a secret city on a project that would impact the world.
Additional programs of Northwest history are also available. I am available to present in venues across the Pacific Northwest. For more information see www.storytellernw.com.
Kit Bakke
I am a native Seattleite and a writer with a lifelong interest in: 1) the role of dissent and activism in keeping a democracy healthy; 2) exploring the lives of historical women brave enough to make major life decisions that run contrary to what’s culturally expected of them; and 3) indulging my love of British literature and the English landscape. My three books are Miss Alcott’s Email, Dancing on the Edge, and Protest on Trial. I am a founding member of Seattle7Writers.org and can be found at www.kitbakke.com and kit@kitbakke.com.
Erik Bauer
Erik Bauer is an archivist and public historian. His research historical interests include American material culture, oral history, and legal history. His current interest relates to the history of the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia in Western Washington. Prior to moving to the Seattle area, he was an archivist at two public libraries in Massachusetts and a Visiting Lecture of History at Salem State University in Salem, MA. He holds an MA in humanities from Mt. St. Mary’s University, an MA in history from Salem State University, and a master’s in library and information science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Paula Becker
I am a writer interested personal story and Pacific Northwest history, and a historian for HistoryLink.org. My books include Looking For Betty MacDonald: The Egg, The Plague, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, and I; The Future Remembered: The 1962 Seattle World’s Fair and its Legacy; and Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition: Washington’s First World’s Fair. I am a member of the 2017-2018 Humanities Washington Speaker’s Bureau. My website is PaulaBecker.org.
Judy Bentley
is retired from teaching composition, literature, and Pacific Northwest History at South Seattle College. She writes Washington history guidebooks (Hiking Washington’s History, Walking Washington’s History: Ten Cities) and young adult nonfiction (Free Boy: A True Story of Slave and Master, most recently), all published by the University of Washington Press. She is currently working on a second edition of Hiking Washington’s History, publishing a book of letters from southern Indiana during World War II, and researching a biography of Mary Richardson Walker.
Karen Blair
I am an historian of U.S. women’s history, specializing in the role of women’s voluntary organizations on social history. I’ve written about national patterns in “The Clubwoman as Feminist” (1980) and “The Torchbearers: Women and Their Amateur Arts Associations, 1890-1930” (1994) but also about the region. “Women in Pacific Northwest History,” editions 1 and 2, are edited collections of scholarly articles. “Northwest Women: An Annotated Bibliography of Sources on the History of Oregon and Washington Women, 1787-1970” is a reference work. blairk@cwu.edu
Peter Blecha
A Seattle native who has served as a Staff Historian and Contributing Editor with HistoryLink.org since 2001. The award-winning author of eight books including 2009’s Sonic Boom: The History of Northwest Rock, 2011’sRising Tides and Tailwinds: The Story of the Port of Seattle (1911-2011), and 2017’s Chateau Ste. Michelle: The First 50 Years (1967-2017). The first historian hired by Seattle’s music museum, the Experience Music Project (EMP), serving there as a Senior Curator for 8.5 years, then on the Museum Advisory Committee (MAC) for the Northwest African American Museum (NAAM). The director of the Northwest Music Archives project since 1982.
Dollie Boyd
I am the manager of the City of Moses Lake Museum and Art Center. I have an MA in history/public history with a concentration in museum management from Middle Tennessee State University. Areas of interest and historical research are the Tennessee Valley Authority, Presbyterians in Appalachia, the Progressive Era, 19th century women’s history, and the history of Central Washington. My thesis is titled Tims Ford: A Lake, A Park, A People and chronicles three rural Tennessee communities inundated by a TVA dam project. I am always open to collaboration and networking. dboyd@cityofml.com
Susan Boyle
Susan D. Boyle is a founding principal in BOLA Architecture + Planning, Seattle. She has degrees in Art History and Architecture from the University of Washington and has served as a design instructor in its Department of Architecture. Susan is a former member and chair of the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board and holds active memberships in the Society of Architectural Historians, Vernacular Architecture Forum, Society for Industrial Archaeology, and American Institute of Architects. In her practice she focuses on landmark nominations and preservation planning projects. She is particularly interested in historic building construction, industrial and economic heritage, immigration and labor history, and mid-century Modernism.
Valarie Bunn
I have a blog about the history of northeast Seattle neighborhoods: WedgwoodinSeattleHistory.com
I can be reached at valariebunn@msn.com
Megan Churchwell
I am a museum curator with a background in Pacific Northwest history and an M.A. in Museum Studies from UW. At the Puget Sound Navy Museum, I curate exhibits connecting local Navy history to topics ranging from tattoos to baseball to 3D printing, and share PNW naval history through the museum’s social media channels. I can be reached at mchurchw1@hotmail.com.
Clay Eals
I am a writer and heritage advocate focused mainly on West Seattle as well as Seattle as a whole. I have been deeply involved in the Southwest Seattle Historical Society since its inception in the mid-1980s and was fortunate to serve as its first executive director in 2013-2017. I served as editor and production manager of West Side Story (1987), the history book of West Seattle and White Center. I also am the author of Every Time a Bell Rings: The Wonderful Life of Karolyn Grimes (1996) and Steve Goodman: Facing the Music(2007). I co-write with Jean Sherrard the “Now & Then” column for the Sunday PacificNW magazine of The Seattle Times. My website is clayeals.com.
Steve Ellersick
Born, raised, educated (PLU, WSU BS EE, UW MS Physics), working (Boeing) in Washington State. Interests include history, family history, genealogy focused on NE Washington, Pend O’reille River, North Idaho, Kalispel Indians, Jesuit missionaries. Pioneer Association of the State of Washington President www.wapioneers.com since 2019; oldest history organization in Washington State, “Dedicated to preserving family heritage and the history of Washington Territory and Washington State,” incorporated 1895, founded 1883, celebrating 150th anniversary of 1871 first gathering. Publications include: “Why the Mission Among the Kalispels Moved: Remembering St. Ignatius Mission” and “White Pine Savages: Ellersicks in the Lumber Industry.” Contact sde22ssw@frontier.com.
Robert Foxcurran
robert.r.foxcurran@gmail.com – Books and articles authored or co-authored include those on NATO project histories as well as the French Canadians and Metis in the American West. Research interest has shifted over last 40 years from trans-national enterprise of the 20th century among NATO member states to the residual demographics associated with the North American fur trade through its trans-national employee base of Indians, Canadiens, and les gens libres (freeman) in our northern borderlands.
Greg Griffith
Before retiring in 2021, Greg Griffith worked for 36 years in the Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation (DAHP). In that timespan he has worked as the agency’s historic preservation planner and implementing the Section 106 consultation process for the built environment. He later moved into the position of Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer (DSHPO). In that role he led development and implementation of the State Historic Preservation Officer’s state historic preservation plans. In 2018, Greg was elected to the Olympia Historical Society-Bigelow House Museum (OHS-BHM) Board of Trustees and since 2021 serving as board president.
Marga Rose Hancock
Marga Ink 206-550-8551 – I write biographical profiles of people engaged in community activism and design, published online and in print. Subjects have included:
*Notable Seattle design professionals, profiled on HistoryLink;
*AIA Diversity History, an ongoing chronicle of the efforts of The American Institute of Architects to engage under-represented ethnic minorities & women in the profession of architecture.
Ashley Harrison
Ashley Harrison is an amateur community-based historian affiliated with Seattle’s Black & Tan Hall. Most recently, she worked with the members of Black & Tan Hall to create the Seattle Green Book Self-Guided Tour, which can be viewed in a web browser or downloaded as a smartphone app. This multimedia tour uses listings from the Negro Motorist Green Book to explore little-known stories of Black-owned and Black-friendly businesses that operated along Seattle’s Jackson Street corridor between the 1920s and the 1960s.
Benjamin L. Hartley
Benjamin L. Hartley is an Associate Professor of Mission and World Christianity at Seattle Pacific University where he has served since the Fall of 2021. Prior to that he had a similar role at George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon and at Eastern University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is presently writing a new biography of 1946 Nobel Peace Prize laureate John R. Mott. His interest in Pacific Northwest history is new. His only scholarly contribution in this area is an article on Methodist missionaries (1830s) in The Dalles, Oregon.
Tom Heuser
I am a Seattle-based historian and preservation consultant. I earned my BA in History from University of Washington in 2008 and served as founding president of Capitol Hill Historical Society from 2017-2021. I provide historical research, assessment, and preservation services on historical buildings and other resources throughout the Puget Sound region. My work includes genealogy, biographies, historic context statements, and architectural description for landmark nominations, smaller historical reports, and broad historical surveys. I am a 4Culture grant recipient and my work has appeared on King 5, Capitol Hill Seattle blog, and Seattle Times. Visit tgheuser.co to learn more.
Anne Jenner
ajenner@uw.edu
Anne Jenner is Curator of the Pacific Northwest Collection in the Special Collections at the University of Washington Libraries in Seattle. She is co-creator of We Are History Keepers community archiving workshops that serve the Puget Sound area. She held earlier posts as Head of Library and primary cataloger at the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center in Rock Island, Illinois and Director of Archives and Special Collections at North Park University in Chicago. She holds an M.A. in Scandinavian Languages and Literature from the University of Washington and an M.L.I.S from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Daniel Kerlee
I study, write, speak, welcome correspondence re Wa. State cultural history: Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, (aype.com) the Golden Potlatch festivals and other festivals of the pre-1950 era (goldenpotlatch.com), early classical music (HenryHadley.com), including Hadley’s larger career as a composer, his major roles in the development of American film music, and Seattle’s special place in that story. Also interested in a wide variety of early Washington Territory and State historical photography. Other interests: Northwest Coast/Salish Native art and history, PNW railroading, Coastal Artillery, Russo-Japanese War history, satire and propaganda including PNW aspects, artist Marie LeBarre Bennett.
Bill Kossen
Bill Kossen is a third-generation Seattleite and a retired Seattle Times editor and reporter who often wrote about Seattle’s past and present. His interest in history is wide-ranging and Bill is a member of 14 history-loving organizations near and far. Bill graduated from Central Washington University with degrees in journalism and geography. He is a rare double graduate of Seattle Public Schools, with a diploma from Lincoln and an honorary diploma from Garfield. Email: bk@seanet.com
Patrick Lozar
is a doctoral candidate in the Department of History at the University of Washington. His dissertation project explores the experiences of indigenous communities in the interior Pacific Northwest with the imposition of the US-Canadian border in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. His work has been published in the Journal of Ethnohistory and he has presented papers on his dissertation topic at several academic history conferences. He also interns at the Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest and the Pacific Northwest Quarterly journal at UW. A Seattle transplant, Lozar originally hails from the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana. https://history.washington.edu/people/patrick-lozar
Lorraine C. McConaghy
I’m a public historian who has worked in museums and historical societies for nearly thirty years; I’ve published widely on topics as diverse as the U.S. Navy in the 1850s, Washington Territory during the Civil War, and Seattle’s World War II homefront; my program interests include readers’ theater and interactive presentations of all kinds, in and outside the museum; professionally, I conduct research and writing to meet my clients’ needs, and am currently writing a general history of Seattle for University of Washington Press. Contact me at l.mcconaghy@comcast.net.
Walter Neary
I’ve been board president of the Historic Fort Steilacoom Association twice, 1997-2001 and 2020-present, and supervise its journal. A friend and I have published two photo histories of Lakewood, Washington, through Arcadia Publishing. We are working on a book about the first U.S. Army fort in Puget Sound, which will commemorate its 175th anniversary in 2024 https://
Dave Nicandri
Director of the Washington State Historical Society from 1987-2011; member of the Board of Trustees at The Evergreen State College. Honorary doctorates from Gonzaga University, University of Puget Sound, and the University of Idaho, where I received my Master’s degree. Writing a two part study of James Cook and the Northwest Passage. “Rediscovering Captain Cook: The Origins of Polar Climatology and Reappraising His Final Voyage” is out for peer review. Currently writing the sequel: “Discovering Nothing: The Pacific Portal to the Northwest Passage and its Evolution as a Cartographic Image,” which takes the story post-Cook to include the maritime fur traders who followed his wake.
Trish Hackett Nicola
I am a public historian, certified genealogist, and family historian. I have been volunteering at the National Archives at Seattle since 2001, and work with the Chinese Exclusion Act files. In 2015, I started writing a blog featuring individual case files. I also lecture and publish articles on the Chinese Exclusion Act files. Since retiring, I have started writing articles on the Pacific Northwest historical research I did as a professional genealogist. My blog is at www.ChineseExclusionFiles.com.
Lisa Oberg
I am a librarian in Special Collections at the University of Washington Libraries. I fancy myself an amateur historian and have been focused recently on how World War I shaped Seattle and the region, in particular, the region’s Gold Stars — those who died in service — and women’s wartime roles. I regularly teach genealogy research skills to future librarians. I am an interested in the intersection between family history and history, and how those research skills overlap and inform each other. I can be reached at lisanne@uw.edu.
Adam is a master’s student in history at Boston College. He studies colonialisms in the northern borderlands of the American West, especially border-crossing settlers’ interactions with the environment, the nation-state, and indigenous peoples. He completed his undergraduate studies at Western Washington University. Adam can be reached at adam.oberstadt@bc.edu.
I’m an environmental historian with a special interest civil engineering and city building projects. I’ve worked on projects around the fur trade, Seattle’s waterfront, the Lake Washington Ship Canal, port districts, the Olmsted Brothers’ work in the Northwest, and Washington watersheds. I’m the assistant director at HistoryLink.org, where I work on grant writing, project management, and our website infrastructure.
Email: jennifer@historylink.org
Fred Poyner IV
Fred Poyner IV is an independent historian and author, researching and writing about the art and history of the Pacific Northwest.
His first book, The First Sculptor of Seattle: The Life and Art of James A. Wehn (2014) received both the Association of King County Historical Organization’s (AKCHO) Virginia Marie Folkins Award for Outstanding Historical Publication in 2015 and the Washington Museum Association’s Award of Excellence in 2015. Fred is the author of two other books about public sculpture: Seattle Public Sculptors: Twelve Makers of Monuments, Memorials and Statuary, 1909–1962 and Portland Public Sculptors: Monuments, Memorials and Statuary, 1900-2003.
Jesse Robertson
Jesse Robertson is a PhD candidate in History at the University of Victoria. His ongoing doctoral research examines the intersecting histories of marine navigation and colonialism on the west coasts of British Columbia and Washington. Jesse has a background in historical consulting and has conducted archival research, oral history, and Traditional Knowledge and Land Use studies for consulting firms, government, and Indigenous clients. He currently sits on the board of the Friends of the BC Archives.
Junius Rochester
Born and raised in Seattle. Member of a pioneer family. Graduate of Garfield High School, Whitman College and Harvard Business School. Member of the Washington State Historical Society, Oregon Historical Society, Pacific Northwest Historians Guild (past president) and The Pioneer Association of the State of Washington (past president). Recipient of the 2006 Award of Merit from the American Association for State and Local History, 2014 Historians Guild’s Annual Award, and the 2017 David Douglas Award by the Washington State Historical Society. Gives presentations to civic and historical groups and aboard small cruise ships throughout the United States and Europe.
Diane Rodill
Diane Rodill hails from Philadelphia and earned her PhD in 1984 from Temple University. She was a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Philippines and staff in Kenya. Her focus is on pre-1900 immigrant Filipinos, and her work has appeared in the New York City Tenement Museum, Wing Luke Museum, FANHS Stockton National Museum, FANHS Journal, FANHS Springfield Bulletin, StoryCorps, and peacecorpsworldwide.org. Diane’s historical biography (1894-1977) of her father, A Filipino Rascal, is pending. That will be followed by a companion curriculum and children’s chapbook. She lives in Seattle and does not have a dog: www.dianerodill.com.
Cheri Sayer
I am currently a Past President and current Treasurer of the Woman’s Century Club, and on the Board of the M/V Lotus Foundation and South King County Genealogical Society. Retired from the Federal Government after 40 years working in contracting, program management, project management, and energy efficiency. Interests include history, historic preservation, genealogy, travel, architecture, and art.
Lowell Skoog
A retired engineer, Lowell Skoog is a skier and mountaineer with an interest in Northwest outdoor history. He is chairman of The Mountaineers History and Library Committee, creator of the Alpenglow Gallery (alpenglow.org), and founder of the Northwest Mountaineering Journal (alpenglow.org/nwmj), websites that celebrate local mountain culture. In 2015, he helped establish the Washington State Ski and Snowboard Museum at Snoqualmie Pass, and he continues to serve on the museum board. His 2021 book, Written in the Snows: Across Time on Skis in the Pacific Northwest, received the National Outdoor Book Award for history in 2022.
Rob Smith
Northwest Regional Director for National Parks Conservation Association, a national organization advocating for protection and support for America’s National Park System for more than a century. More than half of the 400+ units (20 so far in the Northwest) of the NPS are focused on history or culture, and all have stories to tell to enrich the visitor experience. We’re especially interested in lesser known history which should be interpreted through our national parks.
Jim Thomas
I have studied the environmental and public health aspects of nuclear weapons production at Hanford and other sites since 1982. In order to gain public access to Hanford’s historical record, I have filed over 200 FOIA requests. I have served on a number of federal advisory panels relating to radiation releases from the nuclear weapons production complex. I am writing a book on the history of Hanford’s deception.
David B. Williams
I am a writer interested in the intersection of people, the natural world, and history. In the past few years, I have focused on the Seattle area, writing books such as Too High and Too Steep: Reshaping Seattle’s Topography, Seattle Walks: Discovering History and Nature in the City, and Waterway: The History of Seattle’s Locks and Ship Canal. My website is geologywriter.com.
Jacqueline B. Williams
Author of Wagon Wheel Kitchens: Food on the Oregon Trail, The Way We Ate, Hill with a Future: Seattle’s Capitol Hill, 1900-1946, and co author of Family of Strangers: Building a Jewish Community in Washington State. Interests: Pacific Northwest History
William Woodward
Immediate past President of the Guild, is Professor of History Emeritus at Seattle Pacific University, where he is in his 45th year of teaching. He holds a Ph.D. from Georgetown University. His specialties include 19th century U.S. social history and Pacific Northwest history; his research explores the militia and National Guard of Washington and baseball in American culture. He regularly gives talks around the state. His annual Constitution Day essays may be found on the SPU website <http://spu.edu/about-spu/events/constitution-day/archive> . Contact him at woodward@spu.edu.