The Authors of the OE
Greg Walter is a map historian associated with the Kerbyville Museum in Kerby, Oregon. He specializes in the history of public lands in Oregon, Washington, and California.
Rich Wandschneider moved to northeastern Oregon in 1971 as a community development agent with the OSU Extension Service. In 1976, he opened a bookstore in Enterprise; and in 1988, with help from historian and part-time Wallowa County resident Alvin Josephy and Kim Stafford at Lewis & Clark College, he founded Fishtrap Inc. to promote "clear thinking and good writing in and about the West." Rich writes a regular column for the Wallowa County Chieftain and has written for several magazines and newspapers, including the Oregonian, High Country News, Portland Magazine, and High Desert Journal.
Jean M. Ward is professor of communication, emerita, and cofounder of the Gender Studies Program at Lewis & Clark College, where she taught and held various administrative posts, 1964 to 2006. Born in Eugene, she received her Ph.D. from the University of Oregon. Research interests include the rhetoric of Pacific Northwest women. With Elaine Maveety, she co-edited Pacific Northwest Women, 1815-1925: Lives, Memories, and Writings, and "Yours for Liberty": Selections from Abigail Scott Duniway’s Suffrage Newspaper. She is providing a chapter on the life of Bethenia Owens-Adair for the forthcoming Eminent Astorians and is editing Dr. Mary Thompson's 1877-78 journal.
Ann Weikel is a Professor Emerita, Department of History, Portland State University. Her focus is English history with specialty in the sixteenth century. She received her B.A. from Mount Holyoke College in 1957, and her Ph.D. from Yale University in 1966. She taught at Knox College from 1964 to 1967, and Portland State University from 1967 to 2002. She is currently the chair of the Trinity Cathedral History Guild. Her publications include, "The Marian Council Revisited" (Jennifer Loach and Robert Titler, eds), The Mid Tudor Polity (McMillan, 1980); ed and translated three volumes of "The Court Rolls of the Manor of Wakefield," Yorkshire Archeaological Society, 1537-9; 1550-2; 1583-5; "Mary I," Oxford Dictionary of National Biodgraphy.
Erika Weisensee teaches journalism and communication courses at the University of Portland. Her writing has appeared in numerous regional publications, including Portland Monthly, Livepdx.com and Oregon Humanities Magazine. In 2003, she earned a master's degree in non-fiction writing from Portland State University. Erika lives in Milwaukie.
Geoffrey Wexler is the archivist of the Oregon Historical Society. He holds a bachelor's degree in history from the University of California, Berkeley, and master's degrees in history and library science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He has worked as a professional archivist for over twenty years in a variety of repositories, including the Bancroft Library and the Wisconsin Historical Society. In recent years he has created a number of art installations using historical materials.
Charles White was born in Mackinaw City, Michigan, in 1924. He attended Michigan State, Central Michigan University, and Columbia Midshipman's School before shipping out as a navigator in World War II. His ship earned three battle stars and weathered two typhoons. He returned to Michigan State after the war and earned a B.A. with honors and an M.A. with distinction, followed by a Ph.D at the University of Southern California. In 1952, he began teaching at Portland State Extension Center (Portland State University) and served as director of the Summer Session and director of International Education. He retired in 2006.
W. Thomas White received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 1981. His dissertation focused on railroad workers in the Pacific Northwest from the completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1883 to the New Deal. He served as curator of the James J. Hill and Louis W. Hill papers at the James J. Hill Library in St. Paul from 1981 to 2007. He has published extensively on business and labor history in the Pacific Northwest and Upper Midwest and teaches at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls and Metropolitan State University-Minneapolis/St. Paul.
Gerald W. Williams was the national historian for the USDA Forest Service. He received his Ph.D. from Washington State University, taught at Indiana State University, and was the recreation research director for the City of Eugene. He worked for the Forest Service on the Umpqua National Forest and the Willamette National Forest, and is an adjunct staff member with Grey Towers National Historic Landmark. He was chief historian for the Forest Service, led the national history program, and was editor of History Line. Jerry retired from the Forest Service in 2005, and is currently living in Portland, where he is a historical researcher and writer.
William F. Willingham, Ph.D., has taught at the college level for eleven years, served as District and Division Historian for the Corps of Engineers for fifteen years, and spent twelve years as an independent consulting historian. He has written widely in the fields of Pacific Northwest history, historic preservation, historic architecture, and water resources development. Major publications include Waterpower in the Wilderness: A History of the Bonneville Lock and Dam, Northwest Passages: A History of the Seattle District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and Starting Over: Community Building on the Eastern Oregon Frontier (2005). He also has written numerous scholarly articles, reviews, consultant reports, and professional papers.
