This oral history interview with Frank Ivancie was conducted by Clark Hansen at the home of Ivancie's daughter in Portland, Oregon, as part of the Ira and Lauretta Keller Oral History Series, which documented the history of the Portland Development Commission. The interview was conducted in two sessions, on April 17 and April 18, 2001, and was recorded simultaneously on four audiocassettes and two videocassettes. The second half of the first videocassette has no audio, but the audiocassette recording is complete; the audio missing from the video recording is on Audiocassette 2. Along with the interview recordings, this collection includes two color photographs of Ivancie.

In the first interview session, conducted on April 17, 2001, Ivancie discusses his family background and early life in Marble, Minnesota, and talks about the history of Marble. He speaks about his service in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. He discusses his involvement in politics while studying at the University of Minnesota and describes how he became a teacher and later principal in Burns, Oregon. He talks about life in Burns in the 1940s and 1950s, about teaching at a school on a U.S. Air Force base in England from 1953 to 1954, and about his reasons for moving to Portland in 1954. He also talks about his involvement with the Oregon Education Association, and describes how that experience led to his work as an executive assistant to Portland Mayor Terry Schrunk. He talks about Schunk’s indictment for perjury, and about how Schrunk worked with the Portland City Council. He speaks at length about the work of the Portland Development Commission during Schrunk’s time as mayor. He talks about members of the commission, particularly PDC chair Ira Keller, and describes some of the commission’s development projects. He also talks about the role of the mayor in appointing people to various city commissions. He then discusses his campaign for a seat on the Portland City Council in 1966, talks about his work as a council member, and speaks about people he served with on the council.

In the second interview session, conducted on April 18, 2001, Ivancie discusses his work on the Portland Development Commission during his time on the Portland City Council. He talks about major construction projects the PDC worked on, including Memorial Coliseum and Tom McCall Waterfront Park. He discusses how the PDC worked with Portland Mayor Neil Goldschmidt, speaks about people he worked with on the city council, and shares his thoughts about Portland’s form of government. He describes the transition to Connie McCready as mayor. He shares his reasons for supporting the construction of the Mount Hood Freeway, discusses the design and construction of the Portland Building and the Portlandia statue, and talks about his accomplishments overseeing the Water Bureau. He speaks about Portland’s response to the ashfall resulting from the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. He closes the interview by discussing how Portland has changed since he left office in 1985, sharing his opinion about city government at the time of the interview, and talking about the 2000 presidential election.