Schoning, Robert W.
Biographical note
Robert Whitney Schoning was born in Seattle, Washington, in 1923. He attended the University of Washington, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in fisheries in 1944. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps, and was deployed to China after the end of the war. In 1947, he began working as a biologist for the Oregon Fish Commission. During the Korean War, he was recalled to active duty and was deployed to Korea. In 1971, he moved to Washington, D.C., and began working for the National Marine Fisheries Service. He served as director of NMFS from 1973 until 1978. He then returned to Oregon, where he joined the Oregon State University Department of Fisheries and Wildlife. He became a private consultant in 1982, and retired in 1986. Schoning married twice and had four children. He died in 2020.
Sources: Vital records on Ancestry.com; information provided by Schoning in his interview; “Schoning in H-Ball Final,” The Tacoma News Tribune, April 4, 1949, Page 9; Bob Schoning Oral History Interview, by Mike Dicianna, November 5, 2014, (accessed February, 2026), https://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/oh150/schoning/index.html; Schoning’s obituary in the Albany Democrat-Herald, February 25, 2020, Page A5.
Found in 1 Collection or Record:
Oral history interview with Robert W. Schoning
Oral history interview with Robert W. Schoning, conducted by Clark Hansen on March 27, 2000, as part of the Columbia River Dissenters Oral History Series. Schoning discusses working as a biologist at and later director of the Oregon Fish Commission, the effect of dams on Columbia River fish populations, and court decisions regarding Native fishing rights on the Columbia River.