The Authors of the OE
Kent Richards is emeritus professor of history at Central Washington University. He has published on Indian-white relations and other topics of nineteenth-century Northwest history, including the only modern biography of Isaac Stevens.
Captain Thron Riggs went to sea on merchant ships after graduation from high school. He spent twenty-seven years on ships, the last seven as Master. He has been a Columbia River Bar Pilot since 1992.
Jay Rishel has taught English at Wilsonville High School since 2000 and currently serves on the board of the Oregon Council of Teachers of English. He lives with his wife and two daughters in Northeast Portland. He swears never to talk about Chuck Palahniuk again.
William G. Robbins is emeritus distinguished professor at Oregon State University, where he was professor of history from 1971 until 1999. He is the author and editor of books on Oregon and the Pacific Northwest, including Landscapes of Promise: The Oregon Story, 1800-1940 and Oregon, This Storied Land. Since immigrating to Oregon from the East Coast in 1963, Robbins has developed an abiding affection for the state. It has been one of his great joys to have taught Pacific Northwest and Western American history for more than 30 years.
Elaine Dahl Rohse, McMinnville, is a native Oregonian and graduate of the University of Oregon journalism school. She is a past president and life member of the Yamhill County Historical Society. Her book, Poverty Wasn't Painful, was published in 2007. For more than thirty years she has written a column, "Rohse Colored Glasses," for the McMinnville News-Register, and has sold hundreds of articles to newspapers and magazines. She is a former lobbyist for Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association and Oregon State Sheriff's Association, and was McMinnville's first woman council member.
Kristi Russell graduated Southern Oregon University in 2009 with a baccalaureate of science degree in English and a minor in education. Kristi enjoys learning and writing. She is currently pursuing her master’s degree at the University of California, Santa Barbara, to advance her career in educational policy.
Patricia Saab's enthusiasm for gemstones soared when she discovered the beautiful Oregon sunstone. A 26-year resident of Oregon, a gemstone and pearl scholar, Patricia's jewelry designs often combine this fascinating gem with agate, opal and jasper also mined in Oregon, or with rare pearls.
Henry Sakamoto was born in Portland in 1927. He received a B.S. degree from the University of Oregon in 1951. He spent thirty-two years with the U.S. Department of Agriculture managing and marketing government grain inventories in the seven western states. Following his retirement, he worked for the Oregon Wheat Commission assisting farmers in marketing their wheat inventories. He was also a consultant to the wheat industry. Sakamoto is vice president of Oregon Nikkei Endowment, president of the Japanese Ancestral Society, and past commander of the Oregon Nisei Veterans.
Royce Saltzman is professor emeritus at the University of Oregon. He is co-founder, with Helmuth Rilling, of the Oregon Bach Festival, and presently serves as director emeritus. Saltzman was president of the International Federation for Choral Music, 1985-1993, and president of the American Choral Directors Association, 1979-1981. He is a member of the International Honorary Committee of the Zimriya Festival, a world assembly of choirs in Israel; the advisory board of the Acdaemia Bach de Venezuela in Caracas; and the board of trustees, International Bachakademie, Stuttgart, Germany.
Richard Sanders is a Portland-based writer and editor who left a career in national educational publishing to return to Oregon in 1977 to work as speechwriter for Governor Bob Straub. Since then, he has written Government in Oregon, a high school text, and Glimpses from the Past: The Housing Authority of Portland, Fifty Years of Building a Better Community, and edited several personal memoirs. He has finished a manuscript for a pictorial history of Portland State and currently freelances.
