Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission

OCHC’s board and honorary board is composed of members regionally and nationally recognized for their writing, film, creative work, and cultural impact.

David Milholland, President, is a co-founder of OCHC. Born in 1946 in Greeley, Colorado, David served as Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala before receiving a B.A. in 1971 from Lewis and Clark College. For years David was editor and art director of the Clinton Street Quarterly, a publication that showcased contemporary culture. A Portland resident and prize-winning filmmaker – Blackjack's Family, The Thorne Family Film – editor, and author, David received the 2004 Stewart Holbrook Award for "significant contributions to Oregon’s literary arts." David Milholland is associate producer for Finding David Douglas.

Janet Kreft, Vice-President, is a life-long Oregonian. An attorney with a practice in Gresham, she joined the Oregon State Bar in 1984. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Oregon Women Lawyers Foundation and is the current Chair of the Oregon Legal Heritage Interest Group. Her discovery of the grave of author Louise Bryant in Versailles was instrumental in the OCHC campaign to save it from imminent removal.

Walt Curtis, Secretary, a co-founder of OCHC, is a poet, perhaps best known for his 1977 autobiographical novella Mala Noche, which inspired Gus Van Sant’s first feature film. Walt is a passionate advocate for preserving Oregon’s literary and artistic heritage. He received the 1991 Stewart Holbrook Award.

Charlotte Rubin, Treasurer, is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley. She has had more than twenty-five years of banking and finance experience. Currently, Charlotte uses her financial knowledge assisting small businesses and elderly clients on a private basis.

Lois Leonard, Director of Development, has worked in the field of public history and museums for more than twenty-five years. As exhibits curator at Oregon Historical Society, she organized more than sixty exhibitions. Lois is the author of One Place across Time, a history of the Vancouver National Historic Reserve, and editor of Waging War on the Home Front: An Illustrated Memoir of World War II, co-published in 2004 by Oregon State University Press and the OCHC. Lois currently directs OCHC’s Finding David Douglas film project.

Eliza Canty Jones is editor of the Oregon Historical Quarterly. She earned a B.A. in English Literature at St. Mary's College of Maryland and an M.A. in Pacific Northwest and Public History at Portland State University, where she concentrated her studies on World War II pacifist artists in the Pacific Northwest.

David Hedges is a poet and 2003 recipient of the Stewart Holbrook Award. David is a literary activist and was long president of the Oregon State Poetry Association. He traces his Oregon roots back to his great-grandparents who owned land on Canemah Bluff south of Oregon City. He’s a graduate of Oregon State University.

David A. Horowitz is a native of the Bronx and a graduate of Antioch College. David received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Minnesota and has taught U.S. cultural and 20th century history at Portland State University since 1968. In 2007, he received the Millar Prize for outstanding faculty achievement. His academic publications, journalism, media commentary, and public talks have focused on 20th century popular culture and social and cultural conflict in American civilization.

Dory Hylton is a veteran jazz singer and professor of rhetoric and communication. After a long career on the road, she settled in Portland, Oregon, to take her place in the region’s vibrant jazz community, and to complete her doctoral dissertation on the Vietnam War protests at Portland State University.

Jim Kopp is director of the Aubrey R. Watzek Library at Lewis and Clark College. His scholarly interests are in utopian and communal studies. His book Eden Within Eden: Oregon’s Utopian Heritage was released in spring 2009 by Oregon State University Press

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Joan Sears is a bookkeeper and tax consultant who has generously donated her considerable expertise to OCHC over the years.

Tom Webb is an editor with Portland State University and co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Bear Deluxe magazine, a leading national environmental arts publication. His B.A. is from Vassar College in New York.

Phil Wikelund owns Great Northwest Bookstore, which specializes in regional literature and history. A Reed College graduate, Phil is a widely recognized appraiser of our region’s literary and cultural works.

 

Honorary Board

OCHC's Honorary Board is drawn from experts who occupy prominent positions in their fields and have extensive knowledge about our areas of interest.

 

“The work you are doing, when understood in its broadest meaning – when ‘culture’ is understood to be the seamless weaving together of art and history, the twin guides of humanity – will someday be appreciated by Oregonians.
That is not a vain hope but a patient prediction.”

— Chet Orloff, Executive Director Emeritus, Oregon Historical Society

 

Email: encanto@ochcom.org