Venue/Location: Kennedy School, 5736 NE 33rd Ave, Phone: 503-249-3983
Date: Monday, March 26, 2012 - 7:00 PM
History Pub
"Women Who Shaped Our City: Librarian Mary Frances Isom and recreation director Dorothea M. Lensch"
Presented by Tim DuRoche and Penny Hummel
Admission: Free to the public
As head librarian of the Library Association of Portland from 1902–1920, Mary Frances Isom (1865–1920) transformed what is now the Multnomah County Library system into a major community asset that continues to have an enormous impact on Portland's cultural life.
Dorothea M. Lensch (1907-2000) was Portland Parks and Recreation’s first Director of Recreation from 1937 and 1974 – a period in which her influential vision created comprehensive, city-wide park programs, including arts, culture, and recreation programs for shipbuilders’ families, low-income adults and children, introduced summer outdoor concerts to Washington Park and saw the formation of the Portland Opera Association, Chamber Music Northwest, Japanese Garden, the 40-Mile Loop, and the Children’s Museum.
Presenter Tim DuRoche is a Portland-based cultural advocate, writer, jazz musician, and artist whose work is focused at the intersections between creativity, culture and education, many of his projects explore cultural participation and access, the public realm and how we cultivate and nurture our civic ecology. A past president of the Friends of the Multnomah County Library, Penny Hummel is currently the director of the Canby Public Library.