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Barbara Bennett Peterson

Dr. Barbara Bennett Peterson is an Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Hawaii and a former Professor of History by Courtesy at Oregon State University.  She was Adjunct Faculty at Portland State University when she served as President of PSU’s Friends of History.  Barbara has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize seven times and has written twenty-two books. She is married to Dr. Frank L. Peterson an Emeritus Professor of Geology from UH and lives in Tigard, Oregon.

Author's Entries

  • Amanda Wood Reed (1832–1904)

    Amanda Wood Reed was an early twentieth-century philanthropist and the founder of the Reed Institute in Portland, the legal entity that established Reed College. Her business acumen contributed to building the Reed fortune, the bulk of which was left in her will to benefit the young people of …

    Oregon Encyclopedia

  • Arlene Schnitzer (1929–2020)

    Arlene Schnitzer was a patron of artists, a philanthropist, and the namesake of the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland. Her financial support and business acumen transformed Portland's art scene, beginning with an art gallery in the 1960s and extending until her death in 2020. She and her …

    Oregon Encyclopedia

  • Georgiana Burton Pittock (1845–1918)

    Georgiana Burton Pittock was the founder of the Portland Rose Society and a founder of Portland’s Rose Festival. As a philanthropist, reformer, and society leader with her husband Henry Lewis Pittock, owner and publisher of the Oregonian, she inspired Portland to become the cultural and business center …

    Oregon Encyclopedia

  • Jane Powell (1929–2021)

    Portland native Jane Powell was an actress, singer, and dancer in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musicals during the 1940s and 1950s, a period known as Hollywood’s Golden Age. With wholesome girl-next-door looks and a versatile soprano voice—she had a range of two and a half octaves—she starred in movies that included Seven Brides …

    Oregon Encyclopedia

  • Wilson McClendon Tigard (1826–1882)

    In 1852, Wilson McClendon Tigard (née Tygart) settled in what became the City of Tigard to farm. He helped build the area's first school and the house that is now the John Tigard House Museum. As a community leader, he lobbied for farmers' rights and economic interests and established …

    Oregon Encyclopedia