Katherine Richardson Bruna
A professor of Sociocultural Studies of Education at Iowa State University, Katherine is an Oregon native. She credits her community-engaged scholarly activities to the influence of her father, the Reverend Austin Harper Richardson, who was the pastor at Centenary-Wilbur Church in 60s-70s era Portland. Centenary Wilbur is acknowledged as a hub of Portland's progressive activism, seeding a variety of political, artistic, and charitable outreach efforts that contributed to Portland's forward-looking character. Her father's prevailing principle, that the church should serve the interests of the community and prioritize the needs of those on the margins, made it a landmark for social justice organizing at the time, an influence that endures in the Portland ethos today.
Author's Entries
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Centenary-Wilbur Methodist Church
Over its more than one hundred and fifty-year presence in Portland, Centenary-Wilbur Methodist Church became one of “the largest and most prosperous churches on the Pacific Coast” and became renowned for the weightiness of its political activities. Political scientist Michael Munk described it as an “activist institution… which …
Oregon Encyclopedia
