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News Release

Oregon Historical Society Celebrates Hatfield Centennial July 12 With Free Admission, Special Guests, And Root Beer Floats (Photo) - 07/06/22

Plus, Senator Hatfield’s oral history interview to be released to the public for the first time through OHS Digital Collections

Portland, OR — On Tuesday, July 12 — what would have been Senator Mark O. Hatfield’s 100th birthday — the Oregon Historical Society (OHS) will commemorate the Hatfield Centennial at a special event in downtown Portland. A brief program will begin at 11am in the Oregon Historical Society’s pavilion (1200 SW Park Avenue, Portland) where former Oregon governors Barbara Roberts and Ted Kulongoski, and OHS Boyle Family Executive Director Kerry Tymchuk, will share their memories of working with Senator Hatfield. The program will also include remarks from Oregon Health & Science University president Dr. Danny Jacobs, who will speak on the senator’s impact on OHSU, and Willamette University board secretary Sean O’Hollaren, who will officially announce the opening of the Hatfield Archives at Willamette University. Following the program, attendees can enjoy root beer floats — Senator Hatfield’s favorite — featuring ice cream donated by Salt & Straw. Admission to the Oregon Historical Society’s museum will be free all day.

The traveling exhibit, The Call of Public Service: The Life and Legacy of Mark O. Hatfield, which premiered at OHS one year ago on July 12, 2021, before traveling to museums and heritage organizations around the state, will also be back on view at OHS. The exhibit, which focuses on the lasting impression the senator had on Oregon and the nation, features three pop-up kiosks that highlight the issues Hatfield championed: healthcare, education, equal rights, the environment, and world peace. The exhibit is available to rent at no cost through the end of 2022, thanks to a generous sponsorship from the Samuel S. Johnson Foundation. 

The centennial celebration also coincides with the release of the senator’s official oral history, which was restricted from public release until Hatfield’s 100th birthday. The Hatfield interviews are part of a decades-long OHS initiative, the Oregon Legislature Oral History Project, which was conducted between the late 1980s and early 2000s and documents the stories of state officials who served between about 1960 and 1998. The senator’s interviews will go live on the OHS Digital Collections website (digitalcollections.ohs.org) on Tuesday, July 12, alongside twenty-four oral history interviews with Hatfield’s congressional aides, staff, and advisors that are currently available on OHS Digital Collections.

In a remarkable forty-six-year career in elected office, Mark O. Hatfield earned a reputation as the most respected and influential politician in Oregon’s history. First elected as an Oregon State Representative in 1950 at the age of twenty-eight, Hatfield never lost an election and would go on to serve Oregon as a state senator, secretary of state, governor, and a United States senator. 

“I am one of hundreds of Oregonians who served as a college intern in Senator Hatfield’s office and am incredibly fortunate to have called him a mentor and a friend,” said OHS Boyle Family Executive Director Kerry Tymchuk. “In these often-polarizing times, let us all remember these words of Senator Hatfield: ‘All of us need each other, all of us must lift and pull others as we rise, all of us must rise together — powerful, free, one self-determined people.’”

About the Oregon Historical Society

For more than a century, the Oregon Historical Society has served as the state’s collective memory, preserving a vast collection of artifacts, photographs, maps, manuscript materials, books, films, and oral histories. Our research library, museum, digital platforms & website (www.ohs.org), educational programming, and historical journal make Oregon’s history open and accessible to all. We exist because history is powerful, and because a history as deep and rich as Oregon’s cannot be contained within a single story or point of view. 

Attached Media Files: A Call of Public Service exhibit. The exhibit includes three, three-sided pop-up kiosks. , The proponents of Oregon’s Civil Rights Bill, also known as the Public Accommodations Bill, pose for posterity. Seated, from left: Philip S. Hitchcock and Mark O. Hatfield. Standing, from left: Edgar Williams, Marie Smith, Ulysses Plummer, Rev. J. Harold , State Representative Mark Hatfield, 1953. OHS Research Library, 479A, folder 2., Governor Mark Hatfield cuts a ribbon to celebrate the completion of a new stretch of Interstate 5 through Medford, 1962. OHS Research Library, 479-A, folder 4., Governor Mark Hatfield (right) plays referee for the annual New Frontier Bowl football game featuring the Oregon legislators playing against the lobbyists, 1961. OHS Research Library, CN 022282.,

Oregon Historical Society Celebrates Hatfield Centennial July 12 With Free Admission, Special Guests, And Root Beer Floats (Photo) - 07/06/22

Plus, Senator Hatfield’s oral history interview to be released to the public for the first time through OHS Digital Collections

Portland, OR — On Tuesday, July 12 — what would have been Senator Mark O. Hatfield’s 100th birthday — the Oregon Historical Society (OHS) will commemorate the Hatfield Centennial at a special event in downtown Portland. A brief program will begin at 11am in the Oregon Historical Society’s pavilion (1200 SW Park Avenue, Portland) where former Oregon governors Barbara Roberts and Ted Kulongoski, and OHS Boyle Family Executive Director Kerry Tymchuk, will share their memories of working with Senator Hatfield. The program will also include remarks from Oregon Health & Science University president Dr. Danny Jacobs, who will speak on the senator’s impact on OHSU, and Willamette University board secretary Sean O’Hollaren, who will officially announce the opening of the Hatfield Archives at Willamette University. Following the program, attendees can enjoy root beer floats — Senator Hatfield’s favorite — featuring ice cream donated by Salt & Straw. Admission to the Oregon Historical Society’s museum will be free all day.

The traveling exhibit, The Call of Public Service: The Life and Legacy of Mark O. Hatfield, which premiered at OHS one year ago on July 12, 2021, before traveling to museums and heritage organizations around the state, will also be back on view at OHS. The exhibit, which focuses on the lasting impression the senator had on Oregon and the nation, features three pop-up kiosks that highlight the issues Hatfield championed: healthcare, education, equal rights, the environment, and world peace. The exhibit is available to rent at no cost through the end of 2022, thanks to a generous sponsorship from the Samuel S. Johnson Foundation. 

The centennial celebration also coincides with the release of the senator’s official oral history, which was restricted from public release until Hatfield’s 100th birthday. The Hatfield interviews are part of a decades-long OHS initiative, the Oregon Legislature Oral History Project, which was conducted between the late 1980s and early 2000s and documents the stories of state officials who served between about 1960 and 1998. The senator’s interviews will go live on the OHS Digital Collections website (digitalcollections.ohs.org) on Tuesday, July 12, alongside twenty-four oral history interviews with Hatfield’s congressional aides, staff, and advisors that are currently available on OHS Digital Collections.

In a remarkable forty-six-year career in elected office, Mark O. Hatfield earned a reputation as the most respected and influential politician in Oregon’s history. First elected as an Oregon State Representative in 1950 at the age of twenty-eight, Hatfield never lost an election and would go on to serve Oregon as a state senator, secretary of state, governor, and a United States senator. 

“I am one of hundreds of Oregonians who served as a college intern in Senator Hatfield’s office and am incredibly fortunate to have called him a mentor and a friend,” said OHS Boyle Family Executive Director Kerry Tymchuk. “In these often-polarizing times, let us all remember these words of Senator Hatfield: ‘All of us need each other, all of us must lift and pull others as we rise, all of us must rise together — powerful, free, one self-determined people.’”

About the Oregon Historical Society

For more than a century, the Oregon Historical Society has served as the state’s collective memory, preserving a vast collection of artifacts, photographs, maps, manuscript materials, books, films, and oral histories. Our research library, museum, digital platforms & website (www.ohs.org), educational programming, and historical journal make Oregon’s history open and accessible to all. We exist because history is powerful, and because a history as deep and rich as Oregon’s cannot be contained within a single story or point of view. 

Attached Media Files: A Call of Public Service exhibit. The exhibit includes three, three-sided pop-up kiosks. , The proponents of Oregon’s Civil Rights Bill, also known as the Public Accommodations Bill, pose for posterity. Seated, from left: Philip S. Hitchcock and Mark O. Hatfield. Standing, from left: Edgar Williams, Marie Smith, Ulysses Plummer, Rev. J. Harold , State Representative Mark Hatfield, 1953. OHS Research Library, 479A, folder 2., Governor Mark Hatfield cuts a ribbon to celebrate the completion of a new stretch of Interstate 5 through Medford, 1962. OHS Research Library, 479-A, folder 4., Governor Mark Hatfield (right) plays referee for the annual New Frontier Bowl football game featuring the Oregon legislators playing against the lobbyists, 1961. OHS Research Library, CN 022282.,