952 results found. Records searched: 952

1. Oral History of Abby Wasserman - Oral History

   Abby Carol Wasserman was born on May 30th, 1941, in Berkeley, CA, and grew up in Mill Valley, attending Old Mill, Park School, Alto Grammar School, and Tamalpais High School. In her oral history, Abby describes in rich detail, her school experiences, Mill Valley friends and neighbors, serving in the Peace Corps in Bogotá, Colombia, living abroad in England, Honduras, Turkey, and Nigeria, her involvement in theater, and her career path as a teache...

   Record Type: Archive

   
2. Oral History of Al Klyce - Oral History

   In this oral history, architect, builder, and Mill Valley native Al Klyce recounts his life. Born in 1931, Al is the grandson of one of Mill Valley's early pioneers, Harvey Klyce, who came from Tennessee and settled in the area in 1895. Al discusses his schooling in Mill Valley and recollects some of the old businesses in town when he was growing up. Al recounts how as young man he considered going into the ministry after being inspired by Gordon...

   Record Type: Archive

   
3. Oral History of Alan and Ruth Barnett - Oral History

   After meeting in New York City and marrying in 1955, Alan and Ruth Barnett took a long time to find the perfect place to live. Alan had grown up in Chicago and Ruth in Germany and Czechoslovakia. It was a job as secretary to Grace Morley, the first woman director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, that brought Ruth to the Bay Area. Alan served in the National Guard and wound up working for the military in the public information sector. He...

   Record Type: Archive

   
4. Oral History of Albert Bagshaw - Oral History

   Albert Edward Bagshaw was born in 1902 in a house on Blithedale Avenue. His Welsh father and San Franciscan mother had settled in Mill Valley shortly after marrying. In this oral history, Albert describes several of the homes his father built for the family, as well as the Alto, Blithedale and Locust areas of those days. He describes his school days at Homestead, Park and Summit Schools, and his short time at Lick-Wilmerding High School in San F...

   Record Type: Archive

   
5. Oral History of Alice Cavalli - Oral History

   Alice Cavalli was born in San Francisco; the youngest of seven children. She grew up in Mill Valley and attended Summit School, Park School, and Tamalpais High. Alice and her sister worked for their father's popular tavern in Muir Woods, Joe's Place. Alice met her husband, Hugh Cavalli, through her work at the tavern, and the couple married on July 6, 1925. After high school, she went to work for the National Bank of San Francisco, commuting by f...

   Record Type: Archive

   
6. Oral History of Andy Berman - Oral History

   In this oral history, former Mayor and City Council member Andy Berman recounts his life of public service in Mill Valley. Born in Stamford, Connecticut in 1959, Andy recalls that he always loved public service, and was even chosen in high school to be his town's "mayor for a day". Andy recounts attending the University of Michigan and later law school at the University of Miami. In 1989, he moved with his wife Sabra to San Francisco, and four ye...

   Record Type: Archive

   
7. Oral History of Annabella Robinson - Oral History

   In this oral history, Annabella Robinson discusses her life and the experiences of her interracial family in Mill Valley. Born in Ohio in 1931 to Italian immigrant parents, Annabella joined the Air Force after high school, which took her first to Texas, then to Wyoming, and finally to Parks Air Force Base in the East Bay. Annabella recounts how she met her husband Glen, who grew up in Marin City and was a basketball star at Tamalpais High School,...

   Record Type: Archive

   
8. Oral History of Anne Layzer - Oral History

   In this oral history, longtime League of Women Voters member and activist Anne Layzer recounts her community and political involvement over the course of five decades of living in Mill Valley. The great-great-granddaughter of abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, Anne was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Anne recalls getting political in high school, and then going on to major in American Government at Radcliffe. She recounts moving with her husband...

   Record Type: Archive

   
9. Oral History of Anne Solem - Oral History

   In this oral history, passionate journalist, political campaign manager, consultant, and former Mill Valley mayor and city council member Anne Bardwell Solem recounts the details of her career and delves deep into the issues and implications of local government action. Anne was born in 1938 in Berkeley, California and was a product of Berkeley public schools, including the University of California, Berkeley, where she majored in journalism. Afte...

   Record Type: Archive

   
10. Oral History of Antonia Cipollina - Oral History

    Born to residents of Mill Valley in 1952, Antonia Cipollina grew up in Mill Valley and experienced life as a member of a well-known musical family. Her mother was a concert pianist, and her brothers John and Mario Cipollina were famous rock and roll musicians from their youths. A musician herself, Antonia began teaching piano at the age of 16, and was still teaching students in Mill Valley at the time of this interview. In her oral history, Anton...

    Record Type: Archive

    
11. Oral History of Artemis Frederick - Oral History

    In this oral history interview, Mill Valley native Artemis Frederick shares their perspective growing up in the area, exploring their gender identity, and finding community. They lived in Mill Valley through their childhood and adolescence and returned from college on summer break as an adult, which is when this interview took place. Studying children's literature through a political lens at Bard College in New York, Frederick describes an apprec...

    Record Type: Archive

    
12. Oral History of Arthur Drooker - Oral History

    In this oral history author, photographer and cultural anthropologist Arthur Drooker discusses his life, work, and love for Mill Valley. Born and raised in New York City, Arthur first visited Mill Valley during his continental travels as a high school student in the summer of 1971. He was struck in particular by the tall redwood trees growing right downtown. After finishing a degree in American Civilization at the University of Pennsylvania, Arth...

    Record Type: Archive

    
13. Oral History of Austin de Lone - Oral History

    In this oral history, musician and songwriter Austin de Lone recounts his musical career and his decades-long residence in Mill Valley. Born outside of Philadelphia in 1946, Austin started piano lessons at the age of 12 and took up the guitar at 16. In 1969, after a stint at Harvard, he formed the band Eggs Over Easy with Jack O'Hara and Brien Hopkins. Austin recounts being a young musician in New York and London in the late 1960s, pioneering wha...

    Record Type: Archive

    
14. Oral History of BJ Miller - Oral History

    In this oral history, palliative care physician and Mill Valley resident Bruce Miller, known as BJ, recounts the extraordinary and inspiring story of his life. At the age of 19, while a student at Princeton, BJ suffered a terrible accident that left him physically disabled. BJ describes his experience of coming to terms with his new life and body, including his determination to belong to a world not designed for people with disabilities. BJ expla...

    Record Type: Archive

    
15. Oral History of Barry Spitz - Oral History

    In this oral history, author, outdoorsman, and running enthusiast Barry Spitz recounts his adventures, encounters, and investigations over the course of more than 40 years of living in Marin County. Born in Brooklyn in 1948, Barry moved to California at the age of 22 after completing an MBA at Columbia University. He settled initially in San Francisco where he worked in the banking industry for a few years before buying a house in San Anselmo and...

    Record Type: Archive

    
16. Oral History of Bernice Mattos Schneider - Oral History

    A longtime resident of Mill Valley, Bernice Mattos Schneider was an accomplished soprano and participated in many local operas and plays. In this oral history interview, she recalls the range of her musical experiences, including her direction of the St. Hilary's choir and her part in the marching band that played across the Golden Gate Bridge on its opening day. Bernice also describes daily live in Mill Valley and her classroom experiences at lo...

    Record Type: Archive

    
17. Oral History of Beryl Jean Symmes - Oral History

    Beryl Jean Symmes grew up in Richmond, Surrey, England. In 1943 she met Laurence M. Symmes Jr., an American serviceman. They married in 1947, and Laurence brought her to Mill Valley where he had settled after the war with his aunt Ruth Boericke White, the widow of Ralston White, who owned the Garden of Allah. Beryl and Laurence spent two weeks living at the famous Mill Valley residence before moving into their own home, named El Nido (The Nest), ...

    Record Type: Archive

    
18. Oral History of Betsey Cutler - Oral History

    In this oral history, retired public servant Betsey Cutler recounts her life in Mill Valley and decades of service to the community. Born in New Jersey in 1942, Betsey moved to Mill Valley in 1969. Betsey first got started in public service when her two daughters, Karen and Susan, were growing up in the 1970s and she became President of the PTA. Betsey went on to serve for several years on the Planning Commission and then the City Council, includ...

    Record Type: Archive

    
19. Oral History of Betsy Andresen - Oral History

    Betsy Andresen, nee Betsy Anne Brown, begins her oral history with the story of her parents meeting and recounts her family uprooting and sailing from Seattle to San Francisco in 1918, one year after her birth. Betsy describes a move in 1924 to San Anselmo, and fondly recalls how during the family's three-year stint in Marin they would take the electric train from San Anselmo's Lansdale Station to Sausalito, and then the ferry into "The City." Th...

    Record Type: Archive

    
20. Oral History of Bill Champlin - Oral History

    In this oral history, musician and raconteur Bill Champlin vividly recounts a life devoted to music, one fundamentally shaped by his experience growing up in Mill Valley. Born across the bay in Oakland in 1947, Bill moved with his mother and two sisters to Mill Valley when he was 12 years old. Rock n' roll and R&B were sweeping through Marin in the 1960s, and Bill describes his total immersion in the local music scene, even while still a student ...

    Record Type: Archive

    
21. Oral History of Bill Thran - Oral History

    Bill Thran was a long time resident of Mill Valley. Bill opened two local businesses (Old Mill Market and, later, Bill's Fixit Shop) and, together with his wife Mina, raised seven children in Mill Valley. This oral history describes Bill moving to the area from Germany, working as a machinist and then in local grocery stores, and later running his own busineeses. Bill describes what it was like running a small-town store in the mid-Twentieth C...

    Record Type: Archive

    
22. Oral History of Bob Burton - Oral History

    In this oral history, longtime Mill Valley resident and former mayor Bob Burton recounts his life and discusses his involvement in the community. Born in 1930 in New York City, Bob was educated at Fieldston and Yale. After college, he worked for the New York Life Insurance Company, which gave him the opportunity early in his career to transfer to San Francisco. In 1966, Bob moved to Mill Valley with his wife, Elza, and their two children, Kenneth...

    Record Type: Archive

    
23. Oral History of Bob Canepa - Oral History

    Son of Mill Valley Market founder and owner Frank Canepa, Robert (Bob) Canepa is a lifelong resident of Marin County. Born at Ross Hospital in 1947, Bob recounts his memories of working in his family grocery store and what life was like growing up in Mill Valley with his older siblings, Jim and Marilyn ("Patsy"). Bob discusses the impact of serving in the U.S. Marine Corps following his graduations from St. Ignatius High School and the Universit...

    Record Type: Archive

    
24. Oral History of Bob Greenwood - Oral History

    In this oral history, longtime director of the Tamalpais High School music program Bob Greenwood recounts a life devoted to music and music education within the context of some of the major historical events of the 20th century and against the backdrop of a changing Mill Valley. Born in 1928 in Charles City, Iowa, Bob moved out to California in 1943 when his father got a job working in the Bechtel shipyards, settling originally in Marin City. Bob...

    Record Type: Archive

    
25. Oral History of Bob Harmon - Oral History

    Mill Valley resident Bob Harmon has been a lifelong advocate and in this oral history, Harmon provides a glimpse into the life and experiences of a dedicated, community-minded individual who has played an active role in various facets of Mill Valley. Born and raised in Sunshine Gardens, South San Francisco, Harmon’s journey began there before he settled in Mill Valley, where he has deep familial roots. After attending the University of San Franci...

    Record Type: Archive

    
26. Oral History of Bob and Walter Filippi - Oral History

    Brothers Bob and Walter Filippi came to Mill Valley in 1929 from San Francisco, where their father had a garage. Once the family moved to Mill Valley, their father opened the Elroy Garage, named for the property owner's sons Al and Roy, at Camino Alto and Sycamore. During their years growing up in Mill Valley, Bob and Walt saw the town grow from dirt roads and pastures to foreign cars and restaurants. The brothers also saw the change and growth o...

    Record Type: Archive

    
27. Oral History of Brian Crawford - Oral History

    Born in Dayton, Ohio in 1947, Brian Crawford is a prolific author, sailor, local historian, and open space activist. In this oral history, Brian details the Crawford family history, which he has traced back over 1500 years. He discusses his childhood growing up in Ohio, his disconnect from the region's religious conservatism, and the love of oceanography and spirit of adventure that first brought him to California. After coming to San Francisco f...

    Record Type: Archive

    
28. Oral History of Bruce Grant - Oral History

    Proud Tamalpais High School teacher and track coach Bruce Grant was born in Hollywood, California in 1928. Three years later, Bruce’s family moved to Glendale, Los Angeles County, where he attended local schools and participated in track and field. Bruce first gained familiarity with Northern California while pursuing studies and athletics at the University of California, Berkeley and eventually chose to call the area home, in part due to the abu...

    Record Type: Archive

    
29. Oral History of Captain Joseph Canet - Oral History

    Captain Joseph Canet was born in Cayucos, California, on November 25th, 1895. Canet left Southern California after 1910 and traveled with a captain up the coast to San Francisco's Barbary Coast. Canet's oral history describes his paternal lineage going back to his great-great-great-great grandfather, his early years living on a ranch by Diablo Canyon, his travels to Chile, his career as a policeman in Marin County, and his memories of Mill Valley...

    Record Type: Archive

    
30. Oral History of Carl Mosher - Oral History

    Carl Mosher was born in December 1910 in the "wheat belt" of Alden, Kansas. In 1928, Carl came to California with his parents, and eventually began his professional career as a high school teacher in Compton, Los Angeles County. During World War II, Carl served in the Pacific Theater with Army intelligence. He gave up a teaching career to open Mosher's Shoes, which he ran in downtown Mill Valley for nearly three decades. In addition to his involv...

    Record Type: Archive

    
31. Oral History of Carol Budds - Oral History

    Carol Connelly Budds' grandparents, Alfred Axel Lundquist and Caroline Lundquist, came to San Francisco from Sweden in the 1880s. Around 1904 they bought a large plot of land at the corner of Marion Avenue and Cascade Drive in Mill Valley. Carol's mother Karin Lundquist Connelly was the youngest of the Lunquists' four children. Karin married Frank "Pat" Connelly in 1919 and Carol was born in 1926. In this oral history, Carol discusses her family'...

    Record Type: Archive

    
32. Oral History of Carol Wilson - Oral History

    In this oral history, Mill Valley native and fifth-generation Californian Carol Wilson recounts her life in Mill Valley and her family's history in Marin. Carol tells the story of her great-grandfather who bought land in Larkspur around 1850, and of her maternal grandparents who moved to Mill Valley as refugees from San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake. Born in 1931, Carol was baptized at Mt. Carmel, attended Park School and Tamalpais High Sch...

    Record Type: Archive

    
33. Oral History of Caroline Goodrich - Oral History

    Born in San Francisco and raised in Greenbrae, Caroline Goodrich is a student and leader of the Marin Flag Project, an activism project intended to raise consciousness for LGBTQ+ youth in Marin County. In this interview Caroline remembers her childhood in Greenbrae and shares her journey through queerness warmed by an accepting family. Caroline discusses the positive responses the project has received from organizations such as schools, businesse...

    Record Type: Archive

    
34. Oral History of Catherine Shaw - Oral History

    In this oral history, Mill Valley resident Catherine Shaw recounts her "life in the woods" with her husband and their two daughters. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1943, Catherine moved out to the West Coast with her family as a child, living first in San Diego and then Bellingham, Washington. Catherine recalls meeting her future husband, Larry Shaw, at Reed College in Portland, and their wedding a few years later in 1963 on Mount Diablo in the...

    Record Type: Archive

    
35. Oral History of Charles Crawford - Oral History

    Born on June 16th, 1928, in the San Francisco Presidio, Charles "Chuck" Crawford spent the first 13 years of his life in the bustling Outer Mission neighborhood of San Francisco. On the weekends, his family would take the ferry, and then later the brand new Golden Gate Bridge, to visit his maternal grandparents in Mill Valley. During these trips, his parents fell in love with the town and decided to move up north. After settling in Mill Valley, C...

    Record Type: Archive

    
36. Oral History of Charlie Kelly - Oral History

    In this oral history, Marin County polymath Charlie Kelly recounts a life coterminous with the "greatest bicycle adventure of the 20th century." Born in 1945, Charlie grew up in Mill Valley and attended Tamalpais High School. After graduating from Tam, Charlie briefly attended College of Marin before enlisting in the Army, where he served for two years in the mid-1960s. When he returned to Mill Valley in 1968 he began working as a roadie for the ...

    Record Type: Archive

    
37. Oral History of Charlotte Switzer - Oral History

    Charlotte Switzer was born in 1905 in Mill Valley, the youngest of four children. Charlotte's family lived in the upper flat of a barn on the family-owned business, Dowd's Fashion Stables. The stables burned down in a fire in 1910, though Charlotte's father, Charles Dowd, would go on to rebuild the stables. Charles taught Charlotte how to drive a horse and buggy from an early age, which proved to be one of Charlotte's main modes of transportation...

    Record Type: Archive

    
38. Oral History of Chris McNamara - Oral History

    Chris McNamara is a big wall climber, former wingsuit BASE jumper, author of 10 books, and founder of multiple outdoor recreation companies. Born in San Anselmo to Kay and Steve McNamara, Chris moved to Mill Valley in high school, and began rock climbing as a teenager under the guidance of mentor Mark Melvin, founder of Touchstone Climbing. In this oral history, Chris shares how his enthusiasm for climbing led him to illicitly scale the Golden Ga...

    Record Type: Archive

    
39. Oral History of Chuck Oldenburg - Oral History

    Chuck Oldenburg was born in 1929 and moved with his family to the Homestead Valley community of Mill Valley in 1963. Since 2000 he has been known as Homestead's unofficial historian. For many years, Chuck commuted to his job at the Richmond research laboratory of Standard Oil Company of California. His oral history describes his active involvement in the historic Homestead Valley community, including his service on the boards of the Land Trust an...

    Record Type: Archive

    
40. Oral History of Colin Menzies, Jr. - Oral History

    Long-time community member Colin Menzies, Jr. moved to Mill Valley with his family after the 1906 earthquake. Growing up, Colin spent a good deal of time among landscape gardeners. His very first job was with Herman Hein, a well-known local landscape artist. Colin eventually became Hein's foreman. He then worked at the San Francisco Theological Seminary as foreman of the grounds, followed by time as superintendent of buildings and grounds for the...

    Record Type: Archive

    
41. Oral History of Cora Bjornstrom - Oral History

    Mrs. Cora Bjornstrom lived most of her life in Mill Valley, after her birth in 1900 in her parents' home on Hillside Avenue. She was the granddaughter of Jacob Gardner, early settler and superintendent of the Throckmorton ranch, and daughter of John Burt, manager of the Mill Valley Water District and later manager of the Marin Municipal Water District. She was a history and government teacher at Tamalpais High School prior to her marriage to Dr. ...

    Record Type: Archive

    
42. Oral History of Cyra McFadden - Oral History

    In this oral history, author Cyra McFadden recounts her life in Mill Valley and the creation and reception of her satirical novel The Serial. Born into a rodeo family in Montana, Cyra describes moving out to San Francisco with her young daughter Caroline in the late 1950s and then subsequently over to Mill Valley after marrying her second husband, John McFadden. She recalls how in 1977 she started writing The Serial, which was initially published...

    Record Type: Archive

    
43. Oral History of Daniel Collins - Oral History

    Dr. Daniel Collins was born January 11, 1916, in Darlington, South Carolina. Dr. Collins went to high school in Darlington, then to Paine College in Augusta, Georgia, where he excelled in chemistry and mathematics. He later enrolled in the dental school in Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee. From 1942 to 1960 Dr. Collins worked in research and practiced at the University of California, San Francisco, before going into private practic...

    Record Type: Archive

    
44. Oral History of Dart and Esther Cherk - Oral History

    In this oral history, visionary architectural and choral duo Esther and Dart Cherk recount their lives, their work, and their reflections on community. Esther and Dart describe growing up in San Francisco's Chinatown during World War II where they attended the same elementary school. Remarkably, they continued to attend the same schools all the way through college, both studying to become architects at U.C. Berkeley. In 1956 they got married, and...

    Record Type: Archive

    
45. Oral History of David Freiberg - Oral History

    In this oral history, David Freiberg, a key figure in the Bay Area music scene from the 1960s onward, recounts his life, career, friends, and family. Born in Boston in 1938 and raised in Cincinnati, David moved out to California in 1959 where he first took up playing the guitar. Touching down in Oakland, he moved to San Francisco in the early 1960s and then over to Mill Valley a few years later. David gives a detailed account of his time playing ...

    Record Type: Archive

    
46. Oral History of David Getz - Oral History

    In this oral history, musician and artist David Getz discusses his life and musical career. Born in New York City in 1940, David grew up in a Jewish family in Brooklyn. David recounts how an interest in Native American cultures originally brought him to the drums and tells the story of how he acquired his first drum kit at the age of 15. David explains that as an adolescent he aspired to be an artist and consequently attended Cooper Union after g...

    Record Type: Archive

    
47. Oral History of David Harker - Oral History

    Longtime Mill Valley resident David Harker was born in San Francisco on October 19th, 1906. His earliest memories are of living in Mill Valley as a young child and attending a German kindergarten on Summit Avenue. David graduated with honors from UC Berkeley's College of Chemistry in 1928, and later earned his PhD from the California Institute of Technology. In 1975, David met and married Deborah Harker. He would go on to become an internationa...

    Record Type: Archive

    
48. Oral History of David Talbot - Oral History

    In this oral history, writer, media entrepreneur and social activist David Talbot shares a life of political commitment and historical engagement. Born in Los Angeles in 1951, David first came to San Francisco as a teenager when his father, a famous Hollywood actor, was performing in theater productions in the city. David recalls falling madly in love with San Francisco at that time. He later attended college at U.C. Santa Cruz, after which he be...

    Record Type: Archive

    
49. Oral History of David and Jacki Fromer - Oral History

    In this oral history, David and Jacki Fromer recount their lives and active participation in Mill Valley's community for over four decades. Born in Chicago in 1942, David moved to San Francisco with his family in 1950. David recalls growing up in a musical household and starting to play soccer at age 13. In 1964 he met Jacki, a San Francisco native. That same year, David formed a folk trio with his brother and a friend that enjoyed terrific initi...

    Record Type: Archive

    
50. Oral History of Dean Meyer - Oral History

    In this oral history, former Mill Valley Mayor Dean Meyer discusses his life and service to the community. Born in San Francisco in 1927, Dean grew up in Burlingame. After graduating high school, Dean enlisted in the Army and spent three years in Japan as part of the postwar American occupation. When he returned to the U.S., he attended San Mateo Community College and U.C. Berkeley. In 1958 he married his wife Shirley, and soon after they moved t...

    Record Type: Archive