Rick Harmon radio interview

Collection

Identifier: SR 601

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This interview with Rick Harmon was conducted by Bob Griggs at the Oregon Historical Society in Portland, Oregon, on February 14, 1989. The interview was conducted for Oregon Public Broadcasting’s Hotline radio program. This recording aired on the Portland radio station KOPB as part of the Golden Hours series, a reading service for blind and visually impaired people that ran from 1975 to 2009.

In this interview, Harmon discusses his work as editor of Oregon Historical Quarterly. He talks about the kinds of articles the journal publishes, and describes how styles for writing about history have changed. He discusses planning themed issues, including an issue on Black history. He talks about the mission of the Oregon Historical Society and the work that OHS and Quarterly staff do to fulfill that mission. He closes the interview by discussing the process for submitting articles to the Quarterly and for donating items to the OHS museum and library.

Dates

1989 February 14

Creator

Harmon, Rick (Interviewee, Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Use is allowed according to the following statement: In Copyright - http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Biographical note

Richard Charles Harmon was born in Jackson, Michigan, in 1952. When he was six years old, his family moved to the West Coast. In 1975, he earned a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of California, San Diego. He attended Columbia University in New York, then transferred back to UCSD. A few years later, he left graduate school and began working in publishing in Southern California. In the early 1980s, he began working in the UCLA oral history program. In 1984, he became an oral historian at the Oregon Historical Society in Portland, and the next year, he also became the editor of Oregon Historical Quarterly, the historical society's journal. For a year, he held both positions, and he served as editor of OHQ until 1999.

Harmon was married twice. He and Candice Gaucher married in 1975, then divorced in 1985. He remarried, to Jane Malarkey, in 1990. Harmon died in 2004.

Sources: Information provided by Harmon in an oral history interview, SR 2531, held by the Oregon Historical Society Research Library; vital records on Ancestry.com.

Extent

0.1 Cubic Feet (1 audiocassette (29 min., 55 sec.))

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Radio interview with Rick Harmon conducted by Bob Griggs on February 14, 1989. Harmon discusses his work as editor of Oregon Historical Quarterly.

Existence and Location of Copies

Audio available online in OHS Digital Collections.

Related Materials

Additional materials at the Oregon Historical Research Library relating to Rick Harmon include an unprocessed collection of Harmon's papers, Accession 25577, and several oral history interviews, designated SR 76, SR 86, SR 1007, and SR 2531.