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Robert Bunting

Robert Bunting is professor of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. A fourth-generation Oregonian, he has written numerous publications on Oregon and the Pacific Northwest, including The Pacific Raincoast: Environment and Culture in an American Eden, 1778-1900 (University of Kansas, 1997), an article in The American West: Environmental Problems in America's Garden of Eden (Taylor & Francis, 2001), the introduction to Urling C. Coe’s Frontier Doctor: Observations on Central Oregon & the Changing West (OSU Press, 1996), and articles in Environmental History Review and Pacific Northwest Quarterly.

Author's Entries

  • Caroline Gleason (1886-1962)

    Caroline J. Gleason—Roman Catholic nun, social reformer, and educator—helped shape Oregon labor law and the state's social conditions through the numerous social workers she trained. Born in 1886 to politically active Roman Catholic Irish and French-Canadian parents in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Gleason was educated at Catholic schools before matriculating to the …

    Oregon Encyclopedia

  • Elden Francis Curtiss (1932-)

    Elden Francis Curtiss, the only native-born Oregonian who attained the episcopal office of archbishop in the Roman Catholic Church, was a leader in renewing seminary education in both the state and the nation. Born in Baker on June 16, 1932, Curtiss was the eldest of four sons born to Elden …

    Oregon Encyclopedia

  • Fr. Edwin O'Hara (1881-1956)

    Fr. Edwin O'Hara—Roman Catholic priest, educator, social reformer, and historian—was instrumental in shaping innovative Catholic educational practices and social action in Oregon and the nation. Edwin Vincent O'Hara was born on September 6, 1881, to Irish Catholic immigrant parents and was raised on a Minnesota farm. He was ordained a …

    Oregon Encyclopedia

  • Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925)

    On June 1, 1925, in Pierce v. Society of Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary (268 U.S. 510), the U.S. Supreme Court declared unconstitutional an Oregon law making public school attendance mandatory. In its ruling, the court upheld the right of private schools to exist and the …

    Oregon Encyclopedia

  • Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary

    The Holy Names of Jesus and Mary is a Roman Catholic women's religious congregation established in accordance with Church law at Longueuil, Quebec, Canada, in 1844, for the Christian education of children and young girls. Twelve sisters arrived in Portland on October 21, 1859, to open St. Mary's Academy for …

    Oregon Encyclopedia

  • St. Mary's Academy

    St. Mary’s Academy in downtown Portland is a Roman Catholic high school directed by the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary. It is Oregon’s oldest continually operating secondary school and one of only two single-gender schools in the state. On October 21, 1859, twelve Sisters of …

    Oregon Encyclopedia