About the Project

Origins

The idea for interviewing early members of the School came from Irv Emanuel, Professor Emeritus of Epidemiology and Pediatrics. He mentioned to Chelé Shepard, SPHCM public information specialist, that if the School’s founders were to be interviewed, it better start soon because some of them, most recently Russ Alexander, were no longer with us, and the rest were getting older. Chelé passed Irv’s comments on to Judith Minton, former Director of Development, and recommended a writer for the project, Eric Swenson. Judith saw that compiling the history of the School would help its development efforts by connecting our exciting future and our distinguished past. Dean Wahl thought the project was a great way to connect our thousands of current and former students, faculty, and staff. Eric suggested that videotaping the interviews would give the School the widest use of the material and brought Sid Fox, a videographer, to the project. The two recorded their first interview in November 2006 with Betty Gilson.

Scope

Since there is a dearth of documentary and photographic evidence, the principal means of gathering information for our history is conducting and videotaping interviews with the School’s founders and others who contributed to its development. Edited versions of the interviews are posted on the SPHCM website. Viewers can watch interviews and relevant events, such as retirement receptions. As part of the project’s initial stage, a short video overview of the project was produced and shown at the Founders’ Luncheon, March 29, 2007. Later stages of the History Project may involve writing a comprehensive history of the School and producing a video documentary.

Methods

Interviews are usually conducted at the subject’s home. Footage is generally edited to eliminate the questions and achieve sustained commentary by the subject. In this sense, the results are more like contributions to an oral history than a traditional media interview. Some subjects address their activities outside the SPHCM, so viewers can learn about Tom Grayston’s work after he retired as the School’s first dean or Elaine Monsen’s and her husband’s contributions to the art world or see some of Hjordis Foy’s paintings. Once the interviews have been completed, we hope to prepare an outline of the School's history and invite members of the SPHCM family to help edit and revise it in the open and collaborative tradition of the online Wikipedia encyclopedia.

Status

Since November 2006, Eric and Sid have recorded more than 20 interviews and three retirement receptions and prepared a sampler for the Founders' Luncheon in March 2007. The luncheon itself was also videotaped. All these videos are posted to the Video Archives. If you aren't contacted about the School's history and can contribute to it, please tell Holly Weese, hweese@u.washington.edu, 206 685-6643. Especially if you have any written materials or photographs that could help us tell our story, please contact Holly.