Portland State University Friends of History was founded in Spring 1984 at a meeting in the home of Ann Clarke, also attended by History Department Chair Barney Burke, Professors Gordon Dodds and David Johnson, and Adjunct Professor Caroline Stoel. (Ann Clarke, like Caroline Stoel, earned her Master’s Degree in History at PSU. Ann served as the first FOH president. ) Together, they formed FOH for people who shared their conviction that historical understanding is a vital part of public education and who are committed to promoting excellence in the teaching and study of history through support of the Department of History.
Friends of History aids the Department by sponsoring public programs that address a wide range of historical topics of interest to students, faculty, and the public. The Friends of History also provides support for faculty and student scholarship, including (but not limited to) participation in academic conferences, acquisition of research materials, and student awards. FOH funds are used exclusively to promote these purposes. The Friends of History is dedicated to enhancing public awareness of both the importance of history as an academic discipline and the Department of History as a rich community resource. Guest lecturers from around the country have commented that Friends of History is unique, that it is a great adjunct to the History Department, and that they wish their universities had a society like FOH. Since its founding, the public lectures and other Department and community events organized or sponsored by FOH number in the hundreds!
In 2012, FOH was successfully reorganized along lines envisioned by Professor Ken Ruoff from his experience with the PSU Center for Japanese Studies. Under the leadership of longtime president Lou Livingston, and Department chairs, Tom Luckett, Tim Garrison, and John Ott, FOH has achieved much to advance its mission, namely:
- Improved faculty-community relationships and PSU-based history programs by financing faculty projects and suggestions, sponsoring lectures from visiting historians, and scheduling mini-lectures by faculty members at Board meetings.
- Annually sponsored nationally acclaimed historians to speak at PSU.
a. Recommended speakers and topics for faculty approval.
b. Established guidelines for lecture times, lecture titles, rules for coordination with other institutions seeking appearances by same speaker, and policies for coordinating with other departments.
c. Hosted events for speakers, e.g., accommodations, meals, and receptions.
d. Obtained, through the good offices of Board member Mary Faulkner, financial support for a lecture from investment advisory firm Ferguson Wellman.
e. Recordings of many of the recent lectures can be found at Friends of History Presentations PDXScholar. - Financed the annual faculty-proposed Colloquium (3-4 workshops) for national historians to present their works in progress.
- Funded faculty requests for travel, research, attendance at conferences, Western History Association conference in Portland, writing of an exhibition catalogue, and faculty retirement party.
a. Established guidelines for travel and research grants for faculty members, graduate students, and undergraduates.
b. Established History Department Chair’s separate discretionary fund for faculty travel and research. - Funded student graduation awards; student requests for travel, research, and paper presentations; and Powell’s Book awards for outstanding high school student presentations at the annual Young Historians Conference.
- Funded oral presentation prizes for graduate and undergraduate history students competing in the so-called “History Slam.”
- Established the “Graduate Student Fund in History” for graduate student recruitment, in response to PSU’s reduction in financial aid for history teaching assistants.
- Increased FOH operating funds, largely through Board members’ contributions, from approximately $5,000 to over $30,000 currently, to fund the accomplishments described above.
- Adopted an FOH Mission Statement.
- Indirectly encouraged contributions of Board members and others to establish various history-related funds, including a bequest for an endowed professorship in race history, a bequest for the teaching of British history, a bequest to support FOH activities, a fund for rewarding faculty publications to be called the “Tim Alan Garrison History Faculty Awards,” and increased scholarship money for undergraduates under the Barney Burke Scholarship Fund.