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Oral History and News Interviewing: A Study in Contrast People who know Barclay Simpson are aware of his many accomplishments. An entrepreneur and innovator, Simpson founded one of the world’s most successful engineering firms from his boyhood Oakland home. The company, Simpson Manufacturing, is a maker of structural connectors used in housing and commercial construction that over the past half century have become the industry standard around the world. An art dealer and collector, Simpson has donated generously to numerous Bay Area organizations, from UC Berkeley, to the California Shakespeare Theater, to early childhood education programs in public schools in the East Bay and around the country. What few people know about Simpson however – and which I learned while interviewing him for an oral history, my first for ROHO – was this: That he once turned down Warren Buffett, when the billionaire financier made inquiries about buying Simpson’s company, saying “I’ll never sell. Never!” That as an elected public official serving on the BART Board of Directors in the 1970s and 1980s he almost singlehandedly was responsible for engineering an agreement that led to the extension of the rail system to San Francisco International Airport. And that while the 92 year-old philanthropist says his family will be well provided for when he passes, he is leaving by far the majority of his wealth to the foundation he started, the Put Something Back Fund, to continue funding to improve inner city education and opportunity for generations to come. After more than three decades as a professional journalist, who has conducted innumerable interviews around the world, I found the oral history process a refreshing change. In daily journalism, interviews are typically tightly focused on seeking specific answers to specific questions in order to fill out a news narrative which must be written on a tight deadline. It’s for this reason that daily journalism is often described as “history’s first rough draft,” a draft which can be marred at times by errors and inaccuracies committed under time pressure. By contrast, the oral history process is defined by the collection of immense quantities of raw material, which may be reaped in a much more relaxed setting amid largely open-ended questioning, freed from deadline pressure, and leading to novel revelations such as the ones by Simpson that perhaps might not have been shared in a news interview setting. You also come to know the subject better, and if you’re lucky, to get to like him or her a great deal. Such was the case between me and Simpson, a man whose deep seated inquisitiveness was on display throughout the interview process. At one point, when I asked him about his religious and spiritual beliefs, he responded by asking me what my faith was. At another point, when I inquired about the origins of his progressive racial attitudes, he suddenly paused, looked up at me, and while the camera rolled, said, “You must have had some interesting racial experiences in your coming of age, Neil, didn’t you”? To which I could only reply, “Yes, Barc, but I’m the one asking the questions here!” Neil Henry Charting ROHO's Future Last year at about this time my old friend and journalism school faculty colleague, University Librarian Tom Leonard, asked me to undertake a study of the Regional Oral History Office, its past and present, and issue recommendations for its future at a time of transition. Thus began my immersion in a topic that was amazingly rich and intellectually dynamic. I interviewed numerous leaders of other oral history programs around America, in addition to current and former ROHO staffers, and learned quite quickly how widely admired the Berkeley program was and how deeply beloved it was by people who worked there. I learned that ROHO, nearing its 60th birthday, was the second oldest oral history program in America, after Columbia, and that its legendary director, Willa Baum, helped establish oral history as a field of research. I listened to many ROHO oral histories, from those compiled of Ansel Adams and Dave Brubeck, to major projects like Kaiser Permanente and Rosie the Riveter. I also learned how widely used ROHO's archives were, judging by the hundreds of re-publication requests the Bancroft's librarians receive each year from researchers seeking to use ROHO's materials. My recommendations to Tom and Bancroft Library Director Elaine Tennant were simple: Keep ROHO strong, keep its staffers fulfilled and productive in their work, and find ways to gain greater financial support for its mission. Now, a year later, as ROHO's Interim Director, I'm proud to work with some of the finest oral historians in the land as we chart the future of this extraordinary office. Recently, our staff held a strategy session to discuss our wish list of oral histories to conduct in coming months and years. Names including Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Businessman and philanthropist Bernard Osher, and former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown were mentioned. New special projects were suggested, including an oral history of the award-winning extra-solar planet hunters UC Berkeley's Astronomy Department; interviews with the founders and parishioners at San Francisco's legendary Glide Memorial Church; an oral history of political consultants in the Bay Area, such as Clint Reilly, Jack Davis, and Peter Hart; interviews on the subject of the changing media landscape in the Bay Area with Will Hearst, Belva Davis, and Bruce Brugman; and histories of the powerful California Correctional Peace Officers Association and of Chevron Corp. and its longtime pivotal role in Richmond, to name just a few. The ideas keep coming, and with it new energy to pursue them. With more than 4,000 oral histories in ROHO's archives, that number will surely grow in the months and years to come, as we continue a sterling legacy nearly six decades in the making. Thanks for joining us on this remarkable journey. Neil Henry Big things are happening at ROHO! Building on a nearly sixty-year legacy, we're moving in exciting directions. In the coming weeks and months expect to see
And we continue to conduct interviews, host training workshops, and spread the word about oral history at Berkeley. We always welcome feedback about the interviews we conduct and about our efforts to engage with the broader community of alumni, scholars, students, and teachers who look to ROHO for compelling stories about and indepth analysis of our recent past. This new quarterly newsletter is just one way for you to keep informed about our ongoing work. Please like us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and sign up for our newsletter for more regular updates, news, and special features. Neil Henry
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