Joella Werlin has recorded hundreds of hours of interviews with close to 100 individuals. For the most part, these interviews result either in a specific oral history project, personal memoir, privately circulated family history, or a professional document to meet individual objectives.
Shirley Gittelsohn —
Portland, Oregon
Product: Shirley Gittelsohn—Paintings and Reflections. High-quality paper-bound book (printed in China), 117 pages, 71 in color. 500 copies. Available for sale through Powell’s Books, Reed College Bookstore, and other outlets.
Shirley Gittelsohn, a widely admired artist, born and raised in Portland, knew the sort of book she wanted to write, but she didn’t know how to go about it. Her objective was to tell the story of her development as an artist, by explaining her inspiration, motivation and techniques behind selected works. I took on the happy task of serving as general project manager and editor for the book, and then helped Shirley pull together a production team to achieve her goal. I was especially proud that we were able to engage Reed College in this effort and to identify an excellent art book publisher in Seattle. In this circumstance, I understood how critical it would be to work in partnership with a first-rate book designer and graphic artist. The process was exciting for everyone involved, and the book has been received with warm accolades.
Robert Autrey —
Portland, Oregon
Product: Becoming a Collector: Phonodisc Collection of Robert L. Autrey. Softbound version; also expanded version bound into copies of the catalog of recordings (220 pages).
Robert Autrey became a collector of historic vocal phonodiscs, beginning with the earliest period of recorded sound, at the turn of the 20th century. The collection numbers more than 2,000 recordings, principally of opera singers. Although he meticulously documented each item, he had never tried to write a history or overview of his passion to trace vocal styles and to preserve examples of great artists. Joella interviewed him for that specific purpose, yielding a fascinating story of an extraordinary collection. Copies of the catalog and “Becoming a Collector” are in the Library of Congress and other archives.
Rodney Needham —
Oxford, England
Product: Oral recording on CD: My transcription, annotated by Bulletin editor Clifford Sather, appears in the Borneo Research Bulletin, 2007: Volume 38.
A brief oral history Joella recorded with Rodney Needham, retired professor of social anthropology at the University of Oxford, led to an unanticipated outcome. An opportunity arose in winter 2000 to interview him, without preparation, on his fieldwork among a tribe of forest nomads in Borneo, in 1951. After his death, Joella learned that this was the only interview he ever gave specifically about this research. Although Needham authored many books, he never fully wrote up his early study in Borneo. In the interview, he forecasts and laments the decimation of the forest habitat of these peoples.
Suzanne Bloch —
New York City
Product: Suzanne Bloch Recollections, c.2007, ©Estate of Suzanne Bloch Smith. ISBN#0-9743356-2-2. Includes 2 DVDs, including SB musical compositions. (Also, see Ernest Bloch below.)
Suzanne Bloch’s life story is remarkable on several counts—in particular for her pioneering career as a lutenist, as teacher of early music performance at Juilliard School of Music for 40 years, and as one of four Swiss-born children of composer Ernest Bloch and wife Marguerite. Joella also arranged for the Yale Oral History of Music project to interview SB about her professional career for their internationally important archive. In 2001, the executor of her estate engaged Joella to prepare a biographical summary for institutional and media interest, used later as the basis for a NY Times obit. After Suzanne’s death, in January 2002, Joella helped the family determine best allocation of SB music manuscripts and files. (Ernest Bloch materials are archived in the Library of Congress special music collections.)
Ernest Bloch — Symposium,
Cambridge, England
Product: Listening to Voices DVD has been acquired by archives in the UK, Japan, and Europe and has been used for broadcasts and presentations by Bloch scholars.
In July 2007, Joella was invited to give a paper on the relationship of Suzanne Bloch and her father at an international symposium to honor composer
Ernest Bloch, at Cambridge UniversityFitzwilliam College, England. Joella’s
presentation, Listening to Voices: Bloch Family Dynamics and Creative Forces, included a professionally produced 10-min. DVD of voices of all immediate family members, assembled from obscure historic and contemporary sources.
Daniel Goldy — Portland,
Oregon
Product: Softbound book, 318 pages, plus appendices and index. The oral history recordings and memoir also are in the Truman Library, Independence, Missouri. Goldy’s archives re his Oregon years are held by Western Oregon University, Monmouth.
Thirty hours of interviews, in 1996, with labor and environmental economist Dan Goldy culminated seven years later in a posthumous memoir, Convictions, Controversy and Unintended Consequences: Public Service and Private
Enterprise; The Nation and The Northwest (©2003, Western Oregon University). Based on this relationship, Joella was invited by former U.S. Attorney for Oregon Sid Lezak to be the concluding speaker at a public memorial service for Dan Goldy, where Governor John Kitzhaber was the opening speaker. Excerpts from the oral history were included in the memorial program.
Joseph S. Miller —
Washington, D.C.
Product: Saving Oregon’s Golden Goose: Political Drama on the O&C Lands — Recollections of Joseph S. Miller, edited plus interviews by Joella Werlin. Inkwater Press, 2006. 165 pages. (Copyright arrangements through the Association of O&C Counties.)
For 40 years, journalist and national lobbyist Joe Miller represented the Association of O&C Counties — 18 Oregon counties with revested Federal forest lands — in the halls of power. While he had outlined the story of political battles over these lands, retirement and health issues prevented him from pursuing the project. Joella was hired to edit his recollections for publication and also to interview principal players who had fought the battles in Congress during Joe’s career: U.S. Senator Mark Hatfield, Congressman Robert B. Duncan and Congressman Wendell Wyatt. (Senator Hatfield’s command of history and recall of this period is astonishing — worthy of separate publication!)
Bernie V. Foster —
Portland, Oregon
Product: I Believe I can Achieve: An Oral History of Bernard V. Foster (57 pages) was produced in limited copies in 2004. Bernie planned to develop “I Believe I can Achieve” in a format for school age youth.
The story of Bernie Foster, founder and publisher of The Skanner newspaper, is a kind of Horatio Alger tale, recounting the ambitions of a scrappy Black kid from the deepest slums of East St. Louis, Illinois, and how he works his way up into newspaper publishing in the Northwest. Joella was invited by Bernie Foster and Skanner managing editor Bobbie Dore Foster to capture this story for the 25th anniversary of The Skanner News Group, in 2000, with the intent of guiding Bernie rapidly through his childhood and early career in order to focus on the main story. But a downturn in the economy compelled him to tighten his grip on his threatened business, so the story as told ended with the beginning of the newspaper venture.
David and Geraldine Newhall —
Claremont, California
Product: Photocopied text, 80 pages (Initial intent had been to provide separate essays to senior and retirement community publications.)
“Past Our Prime: View From 82 and Beyond …” is a collection of reflections on ageing by former Portland residents who left Portland, Oregon — where they raised five children, where David Newhall was founding faculty chair of the Philosophy Department at Portland State University, and where Gerry was a community and schools activist and civil rights leader — as they confronted displacement and increasing infirmities in a retirement center in Claremont, California. Topics include: Loss of Identity, Living by the Rules, Who Am I?, Creating Community, Windows in My life, Death and Dying, and more.
Jorge Lara-Braud — Austin, Texas
Product: Edited and coil-bound oral history, with additional sermons and lectures, 100 pages. Photocopies only, but expanded and submitted by the family to Mexican-American and Presbyterian publications for consideration.
“Mi Jornada,” follows the life journey of an impoverished youngster, raised by a Catholic single mother, from a barrio in Mexico City, through his experiences at a Presbyterian missionary boys school in Texas, to his emergence as an acclaimed Presbyterian lay leader in the National Council of Churches and World Council of Churches. The narrative describes his human rights missions to Latin America, including friendship with Archbishop Oscar Romero of Nicaragua and testimony before Congress following Romero’s assassination.