Oral Histories

Chevy Chase DC Residents Share Memories of Growing Up and Growing Old Here

By interviewing residents and asking them to recall the past, we can create a public record of history unique to one neighborhood or group of people. Oral histories differ from memoirs or biographies in that they give us a way to look at how people lived and experienced events or places — things that, during the time they were experienced might have seemed too commonplace to be worth mentioning. But they are details of daily life ingrained in our past that helped make us who we are. And when they are lost to memory, they are truly gone.

Since 2010 HCCDC has completed more than 32 oral histories of individuals — a few of them are couples or multiple family members -- plus videotaped oral histories involving graduates of Woodrow Wilson High School. By putting these histories on our website, we are giving them a wider audience as well as providing historians with direct access to unique information.

If you'd like to see a 2018 overview of our Oral Histories program, click here »

Bernie Hillenbrand

From Omaha Beach to Oliver Street: A Life Rich in Adventure, Neighborhood Connections, and Family

Regina Holliday: An Oral History

Health Advocacy Muralist Has Left Her Message on Many a Familiar Chevy Chase DC Wall

Murray Howder

Librarian, Russian Translator, and Opera Lover Moved to Chevy Chase in 1960s

Loretta Kiron

Łódż is Closer than you Think: Loretta Kiron Talks about Auschwitz, White Flight and Tennis

Jean Klieger

Being German and Jewish in DC: "We were so thrilled to be in a neighborhood that didn’t say 'No Jews allowed.'”

Milton Kotler

ECCO bene: Milton Kotler is Father of ANCs and the Neighborhood Government Movement -- a Perspective Best Viewed from the Front Porch

William and Joan Mullan

Mullans Reflect on Raising Six Children in Neighborhood So Close 60 Vacationed Together Each Summer

Patty Myler

Patricia Wimsatt Myler Reflects on 350 Years of Family Migration -- from the Ark and Dove to Alexandria, DC’s 'Island,' and Chevy Chase

Ruth and Mort Needelman

The Inns of Court: The Needelmans Talk Tennis

Gen. Frederick W. “Fritz” Plugge, MD

Chevy Chase Native, Doctor Held World Spotlight While in Charge of Iran Hostages

Connie Tobriner Povich

A First Date to Union Station to See a Train Wreck and Other Amazing Tales About Growing Up a Tobriner and Marrying a Povich

Vera Rubin

How She Became an Astronomer (and Got a Telescope Named in Her Honor Postmortem!)

Thomas and Mae Scanlan

Couple Talks About Why They Remained in the City While Others Fled to the Suburbs

Richard Sullivan and John Sullivan

Those Where the Times When, For Only a Thousand Dollars More, You Could Get a Better House in Chevy Chase DC

Joan Taylor

A Career in European Archeology, Taylor Shares Observations of Smithsonian Sci+Tech Museum Founder Frank Taylor

Frank Van Riper and Judith Goodman

Love at First Exposure — Frank Van Riper and Judith Goodman Share a Life of Photography, Writing, and Art

Warren Wright

The Hottest Country Sound on the East Coast - Warren Wright talks about Chevy Chase-based radio station WMZQ.

Wilson High School Videotaped Oral Histories

Members of the Woodrow Wilson High School Class of 1954 met to record on oral history at their 60th reunion in Washington DC. Individual oral histories were also recorded of WWHS graduates Tom Hier (1976), Ken Luchs (1956), Joan Topalian (1961), and Lisa Friedman (1965).