Spring is a time of year when things begin anew. Flowers bud new petals, days have new length, and college graduates embark on new careers. It’s also a time when we at the Oral History Center celebrate an exciting phase of our narrators’ lives: a new life in our archive, where their story will live on in perpetuity. Not only can a narrator’s loved ones, friends, and colleagues access their interviews for years to come, students, researchers, and scholars can learn something about a time and a place, illuminating an aspect of history they might not have previously considered.
One way the UC Berkeley Oral History Center (OHC) likes to usher in this new phase of a narrator’s life is to have a “graduation” ceremony to honor their participation in the oral history process. Traditionally, we did this in person at the Morrison Library here on UC Berkeley’s campus, but like many things, we’ve had to adjust in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, we like to list their names and the projects for which they were interviewed online and in our newsletter so that all those in the OHC’s community can celebrate their contributions with us from near and far.
Please join us in expressing our appreciation for our latest cohort of narrators, spanning from fall 2021 to spring 2023. We are grateful to have their voices in our collection and their stories a new part of the historical record.
We also want to thank the OHC team—Paul Burnett, David Dunham, Roger Eardley-Pryor, Shanna Farrell, Todd Holmes, Jill Schlessinger, and Amanda Tewes—for their work in making these interviews come to fruition, along with the support from our student employees, who are a valuable part of our process: Max Afifi, Mollie Appel-Turner, Hue Bui, Mina Choi, William Cooke, Georgia Cutter, Nikki Do, Adam Hagen, Jordan Harris, Vivien Huerta-Guimont, Ashley Sangyou Kim, Ricky Noel, Deborah Qu, Mela Seyoum, Lauren Sheehan-Clark, Joe Sison, Erin Vinson, Shannon White, Serena Williams, and Timothy Yue.
Bravo, Oral History Center Class of 2023!
Anchor Brewing Co.
Mark Carpenter
Gordon MacDermott
Fritz Maytag
Linda Rowe
Bay Area Women in Politics
Louise Renne
Ruth Rosen
J.J. Wilson
California Business
Fred Martin
California Cannabis
Oliver Bates
California State Archives State Government Oral History Program
Wesley Chesbro
Fran Pavley
Lois Wolk
Bill Lockyer
Chicana/o Studies
Adele de la Torre
Ignacio García
East Bay Regional Park District
Ira Bletz
Ginny Fereira
Neil Havlik
Carol Johnson
Doug McConnell
Ruth Orta
Bethia Stone
Jeff Wilson
Mark Taylor
Mae Torlakson
Tom Torlakson
Will Travis
Nancy Wenninger
Environment/Natural Resources
Mary D. Nichols
Getty Research Institute’s African American Art History Initiative
Marion Epting
Maren Hassinger
Leslie King-Hammond
Thaddeus Mosley
Sylvia Snowden
William T. Williams
Vickie Wilson
Richard Wyatt
Getty Trust
Jerry Podany
Uta Barth
Tobey Moss
Katrin Henkel
Japanese American Intergenerational Narratives
Miko Charbonneau
Bruce Embrey
Hans Goto
Patrick Hayashi
Jean Hibino
Mitchell Higa
Roy Hirabayashi
Carolyn Iyoya Irving
Susan Kitazawa
Naomi Kubota Lee
Ron Kuramoto
Jennifer Mariko Neuwalder
Kimi Maru
Lori Matsumura
Alan Miyatake
Margret Mukai
Ruth Sasaki
Steven Shigeto Sindlinger
Masako Takahashi
Peggy Takahashi
Nancy Ukai
Hanako Wakatsuki-Chong
Rev. Michael Yoshii
Moore Foundation
Edward Penhoet
Kenneth Siebel
James C. Gaither
National Park Conservancy
Greg Moore
Sierra Club
Rhonda Anderson
Bruce Nilles
Verena Owen
Rita Harris
Resources and Planning
Anders Hauge
San Francisco Politics
Norman Yee
University History
Doris Sloan
Carolyn Merchant
Randy H. Katz