Showing 281 - 290 of 388 Items
Date: 2009-11-16
Creator: Edward 'Ed' L King
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Edward L. “Ed” King was born November 7, 1928, in Fort Worth, Texas, to Edgar L. and Zula Mae (Birch) King. He served in the Army during World War II and the Korean War and was a career officer from 1945 to 1969. He became executive director of the Coalition for National Defense and Military Policy and testified often before the U.S. House and Senate. He was hired by Senator Mike Mansfield, and in 1975 he became Maine Senator Bill Hathaway’s administrative assistant. He also worked for Senators Tsongas, Byrd, and Mitchell, focusing most specifically on Central America issues. He also worked for Mitchell on the Democratic Policy Committee and on foreign policy issues, staying on with Senator Majority Leader Tom Daschle after Mitchell’s retirement and himself retiring in early 1997. King is the author of The Death of the Army: A Pre-Mortem (1972).
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: family and educational background; military career; knowledge of foreign policy issues, especially in Central America; working with several senators: Mansfield, Byrd, Tsongas, Mitchell, Hathaway; Iran-Contra and Oliver North; Democratic Policy Committee; traveling with Senator Mitchell: Mexico; issues in Haiti, Spain, Russia, China and MFN (Most Favored Nation); description of staff working relationships with Senator Mitchell and how the offices functioned; Mitchell’s memory and ability at extemporaneous speech; trademark issue; White House visits with Mitchell during Bush I and Clinton presidencies; Mitchell’s personal attributes and effective negotiating; and the relationship between Senators Dole and Mitchell.
Date: 2008-04-29
Creator: James 'Jamie' E Kaplan
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
James E. “Jamie” Kaplan was born in Bronxville, New York, on March 6, 1951. He and his two brothers grew up in Nanuet, New York, with his father, a developer and building contractor, and his mother, a public relations and publicity officer for a vocational center in Rockland, New York. Jamie was graduated from Brown University and attended Georgetown University Law School briefly. After returning home and working several jobs, he moved to California to attend the University of California, Berkley Law School in 1975. Upon graduation from law school, he worked as a law clerk for Judge Edward Gignoux, who was the federal district judge for the state of Maine. The following year, he accepted a position as a research associate at Harvard Law School, then practiced law in Washington, DC, at Shea & Gardner. He worked for Senator Mitchell on the Congressional Committee Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair and later moved to Maine to practice law. At the time of this interview he was Executive Director of the Cromwell Center for Disabilities Awareness and living in Brunswick, Maine.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: childhood and educational background; Brown University; Georgetown University Law School; University of California, Berkley Law School; clerking for Judge Edward T. Gignoux; research associate at Harvard Law School; Shea & Gardner Law Firm; meeting George Mitchell; meeting Senator Mitchell’s staff; Iran-Contra; relationship with Senator Mitchell; admiration for Senator Mitchell’s preparation tactics; change in relationship with Senator Mitchell; playing tennis with Mitchell; Mitchell’s competitiveness; and the opportunity to become general counsel to the Senate Committee on Appropriations.
Date: 2014-10-15
Creator: Barbara Kates
Access: Open access
Date: 2014-12-15
Creator: Anonymous
Access: Open access
Date: 2013-11-20
Creator: Anonymous
Access: Open access
Date: 2014-08-06
Creator: Anonymous
Access: Open access
- In the fall of 2019, students (Nate DeMoranville ‘20, Aisha Rickford ‘20, Marina Henke ‘19) conducted the AF/AM/50 Oral History Project to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Africana Studies Program at the College. Over the course of the weekend, they interviewed more than 30 alumni, past professors, and staff. Interviewees varied across many spectrums: black and white, old and young. Some had not been back to Bowdoin for more than a decade. Others still lived in Brunswick. While in no way entirely encompassing the experience of black students at Bowdoin or the history of the Africana Studies Program, this project aimed to provide a window into the lives of a select few. These selections are not representative. No path through Bowdoin was identical. Hopes for the future of the College ranged widely. Themes and topics certainly emerged: of isolation, of prejudice, of pushback, but also of friendship and resilience.
Date: 2009-06-04
Creator: Lauren G Higgins
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Lauren (Griffin) Higgins was born on February 21, 1964, in Waterville, Maine, to Lawrence and Gail Griffin. Her grandfather was Eddie Atkins, husband of George Mitchell’s sister, Barbara. Lauren attended Waterville High School and earned her degree in biology from College of the Holy Cross. She interned in Senator Mitchell’s office and subsequently was hired as assistant to his personal secretary, Gayle Cory. When Mitchell was elected majority leader, Lauren became Martha Pope’s assistant in the Senate Majority Leader’s Office. After six months there, she returned to Maine to attend law school but returned to Washington, D.C. in 1993 and began working on the Democratic Policy Committee. In 1997, she moved to the legislative office at the Department of Health and Human Services, and in 2001 she became senior legislative analyst at the National Institute of Health, Office of Legislative Policy and Analysis.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: the Lebanese community in Waterville; growing up in a politically active family and knowing of George Mitchell; the attitude of Mainers to politics and civic duty; interning in Mitchell’s Senate office; working as Gayle Cory’s assistant; the various relationships Higgins had with different staff members; working in the majority leader’s office; Higgins’ experience in law school; working on the Democratic Policy Committee and its responsibilities; Mitchell’s retirement announcement; comparing Senators Mitchell and Daschle as leader; Higgins’s experience at the Department of Health and Human Services; the National Institutes of Health; farewell luncheon for Donna Beck anecdote; public response to Iran-Contra and Mitchell’s questioning of Oliver North; reactions that the office received after Mitchell delivered the Democratic response to the State of the Union; how Mitchell made sure to make time on a busy day to have lunch with a little boy whose Make a Wish hope was to have lunch with him; Donna Beck as the office manager; Gayle Cory’s relationship with Mitchell; and Mitchell’s legacy.
Date: 2008-11-08
Creator: Jeanne Hollingsworth
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Jeanne Hollingsworth was born in McCook, Nebraska, on September 18, 1948, to Barbara (Davis) and John Robert Hollingsworth. She spent her early years in Holbrook, Nebraska, on her father’s cattle ranch with five siblings. The family moved to Kearney, Nebraska, when she was twelve, and from there they moved to Kitchener-Waterloo, Canada, where Jeanne attended high school and her father was in the furniture business. She attended North Georgia Military College for two years and became interested in politics because of the Vietnam War and the peace movement. She traveled for some years between Maine and Georgia, finally settling in Maine and becoming increasingly interested in organic gardening and MOFGA (Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association). It was through her political activities with that group and the pesticide issue that she met Tom Bertocci. She was hired to work for Senator Mitchell in the Rockland, Maine, state field office in 1986, established good veterans’ relations, and remained until 1994. She worked in Washington, DC, for six years, first with the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission and then at USAID. She returned to Maine in 2000 when the administration changed and has continued to be involved with local politics.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: family and educational background; attending the North Georgia Military College; the peace movement; becoming a hippie and waitressing; the Atlanta Underground; living in Atlanta in the early ‘70s; Volkswagen bus trip to Maine; gardening and Craig; MOFGA and organic agriculture politics; working for Senator Mitchell as a case worker in the field out of the Rockland office; satisfaction with veterans’ issues and Agent Orange; getting Mitchell to visit island high schools; the veterans’ events and Mitchell’s passing out the Pearl Harbor medals; Portland and Russian sailors involved with a joint fishing venture as a trade issue; the surprise and disappointment of Mitchell leaving office; points about working as a senate aid in the field; working in Washington; and reconnecting with Mitchell employees.
Date: 2010-03-15
Creator: George S Isaacson
Margaret M Isaacson
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
George Steven Isaacson was born in New York on October 20, 1948, and grew up in Auburn, Maine. His father worked in a lumber business in Livermore Falls with his uncles. George was graduated from Bowdoin College and attended law school at the University of Pennsylvania, where he met his future wife, Margaret. After graduating, he clerked for Judge Thomas E. Delahanty and then went to work for a law firm in Portland, Maine. George Mitchell interviewed him for an attorney’s position with Jensen Baird law firm. At the time of this interview, he was a senior partner at Brann and Isaacson in Lewiston, Maine, an adjunct professor at Bowdoin College, and a lecturer at the University of Maine School of Law. Margaret (McGaughey) Isaacson was born in Detroit, Michigan, on May 29, 1948. She lived in New York, attended college in California and law school at the University of Pennsylvania. Margaret practiced law in Boston for four years and then accepted a clerkship with Frank Coffin in Maine. When George Mitchell was appointed U.S. attorney and permitted a third assistant U.S. attorney position, Margaret was hired. At the time of this interview, Margaret had served in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for thirty-two years.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: George’s childhood in Auburn; growing up Jewish in Auburn; Margaret’s childhood; their meeting in law school; George’s clerkship in Maine; George’s recollections of Mitchell at Jensen Baird; Margaret’s moving to Maine for a clerkship with Frank Coffin and then as assistant U.S. attorney under Mitchell; the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Jim Brannigan; Mitchell’s management style; anecdote about Margaret’s working on drug cases with Mitchell; Mitchell’s appointment to federal judgeship; Mitchell’s 1974 gubernatorial campaign; Mitchell and rumors about the Supreme Court; Mitchell’s talent for litigation and his process in preparing a case; and Bowdoin College.