Enid Hart Douglass, who was largely responsible for developing the oral history program at Claremont Graduate University and led it for more than three decades, has died. She was 81. Douglass, a former mayor of Claremont, died October 17, 2008 at a care facility in Sunnyvale, California, from complications stemming from Alzheimer's disease, her family said.
As a graduate student at the school in the 1950s, she studied the letters of people who founded the nation and became interested in how history is preserved. Oral history was still a fairly new academic pursuit -- the field was founded at Columbia University in 1948 -- when Douglass joined Claremont's program a year after it was launched in 1962. She was the program's director from 1971 until she retired in 2003.
In explaining the importance of preserving spoken history, Douglass told The Times in 1986, "You're as close to the event or incident as you can be with a primary source; there's nothing closer."
In 1969, the program embarked on its first major project, interviewing missionaries who had been in China before World War II. The goal was to study how Western values had influenced China.
In the 1980s, she started recording the voices of California's recent political heritage, a project fueled by the discovery "that people weren't keeping records anymore," she said in the 1986 Times article. "We have no feeling for what went into the decision-making."
She interviewed politicians including Jerry Voorhis, who served five terms representing California in Congress before losing his seat to Richard Nixon in 1946, and Walter Stiern, dean of the state Senate when he retired in 1986.
Fearing that institutional knowledge was dying out, the president of Atlantic Richfield Co. sent Douglass to Alaska in the 1970s to interview employees. He wanted a written history that might make Arco "more human and real," according to the 2003 book "Doing Oral History."
Her interest in the founding of America led her to believe that she could bring about grass-roots change, said Paul Douglass, one of her two sons.
She was appointed to Claremont's Planning Commission and in 1978 was elected to the first of two terms on the Claremont City Council. From 1982 to 1986, Douglass served as the city's mayor.
In 1979, she helped found Claremont Heritage, an organization devoted to preserving the area's history. It was one of her many civic causes.
Enid Marie Hart was born October 23, 1926, in Los Angeles and grew up in San Marino. She was the youngest of three children of Frank Hart, who developed real estate in the Pasadena area, and his wife, the former Enid Lewis. Her brother John Hart portrayed the Lone Ranger for a season on the TV series in the early 1950s. Her other brother, Frank, founded Oregon's Wildlife Safari park in the 1970s.
When she entered Pomona College in 1944, "there were about 32 men on campus" because of World War II, she said in a 2002 oral history. One veteran who returned to the school after the war was her future husband, Malcolm Paul Douglass. They married soon after she graduated in 1948 with a bachelor's degree in government.
"Between child two and three," as she phrased it in the oral history, Douglass earned her master's degree in history in 1959 from the university. She wrote her master's thesis on the Claremont Planning Commission.
"When you think of Enid, you think Claremont," said Ginger Elliott, executive director of Claremont Heritage. "She was an example of the kind of people who make the town special to us, an academic who gave a lot to the community and who worked hard for projects that were really worthwhile."
Her husband died in 2002. Douglass' survivors include her sons, Paul Douglass, an English professor at San Jose State, and John, a research fellow with the Center for Studies in Higher Education at UC Berkeley; her daughter, Susan Douglass Yates, the City of Hope archivist; four grandchildren; and her brother John.
Los Angeles Times, October 27, 2008
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Enid Hart Douglass, a brilliant idealist and visionary who led Claremont through significant planning and legislation changes in the late 70s and 80s as councilmember then mayor, died in Sunnyvale on October 17, 2008. Ms. Douglass was 81.
“She made enormous contributions to what makes Claremont the special place that it is,” said Sandy Baldonado, Claremont’s mayor from 2004-06.
“She was my mentor. We are blessed in Claremont to have many, but she was certainly one,” said Diann Ring, Claremont’s mayor from 1992-94. “It’s always hard when we lose one of our role models.”
Elected to the Claremont city council in 1978, Ms. Douglass served as mayor from 1982 until 1986 and, among other significant contributions, played an instrumental role in the formation of the city’s new general plan in 1980 and in the establishment of an historic preservation program.
“She was a great source of knowledge,” Ms. Ring said. “She was constantly learning about the Claremont that was before her and the Claremont that would come after her.”
Ms. Douglass also served on the Claremont Planning Commission from 1971-78 as well as on the advisory committees for Claremont’s Land Development, Parks and Capital Improvement Projects.
“She was very intelligent and had a great vision for Claremont. She always took us back to principles when talking about planning decisions, not planning for the moment or planning to make someone happy,” said Claremont’s mayor from 1986-89 Judy Wright, who referred to Ms. Douglass as “Ms. Planning for Claremont.”
“My mom was truly an idealist,” said her son, Malcolm Paul Douglass, Jr., English professor and director of the Steinbeck Fellows Program at San Jose State University. “She studied history and government and was a believer. She thought that we could make the world a better place and the way to do that was civic involvement.”
Among her political peers, she was well respected for her analytical mind, keen intellect and sense of humor, which could sometimes lean toward sarcasm. Ms. Wright referred to Ms. Douglass as an intellectual who “was a bit intolerant of people who weren’t.” “But in a humorous way,” Ms. Wright added.
“You always felt like you wanted to consult her for her wisdom,” Ms. Ring commented. “And she suffered no idiots.”
Ms. Douglass was born Enid Marie Hart on October 23, 1926 in Los Angeles, the third child of Enid Yandell Lewis, a theater and music reviewer for the San Marino newspaper, and Frank Roland Hart, who sold ranches in southern California and was an accomplished athlete and musician. She grew up in San Marino and graduated from South Pasadena High School in 1944.
From an early age, she enjoyed hearty doses of playfulness, which ignited her humor and love of jokes and witticisms. Growing up the younger sister of two much older brothers, she was often subject to riotous games, like when her brothers, playing firemen, put her in a cardboard box, set it on fire and rescued her.
“Maybe this led to my mother’s motto, ‘bring ‘em up alive’,” joked her son.
In 1948, Ms. Douglass graduated magna cum laude from Pomona College, where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. During college, she met a fellow student, the love of her life, Malcolm Paul Douglass, who had just returned from World War II service. They married on August 28, 1948.
After Dr. Douglass accepted a professorship at Claremont Graduate School (now university), they moved to their home on Berkeley Avenue, where they lived together for the next 50 years.
“They were mighty couple here,” Ms. Baldonado commented.
While raising her children, Ms. Douglass continued her education. In 1958, she won a fellowship for the master’s program in government at Claremont Graduate School and, in 1959, filed her thesis on the Claremont Planning Commission. She was a student of famed historian Douglass Adair who inspired in her a love for the founding period of United States history. She became actively involved in the growing movement to preserve history through interviews, and was a charter member of the national Oral History Association, serving as its president from 1979-80.
“Her love of history was infectious,” said Ms. Douglass’ daughter, Susan Douglass Yates, who was formerly involved with the oral history program at UCLA and is currently the founding archivist at City of Hope.
Ms. Douglass was also instrumental in developing the Oral History Program at Claremont Graduate School and served as its director from 1971 until her retirement in 2003. In 1981, she received the Distinguished Alumna Award from the institution.
Simultaneously with this effort to understand and preserve history, Ms. Douglass deepened the civic involvement that had led her to major in government at Pomona. In 1957, she joined the League of Women Voters and remained active for over 30 years. She also became entrenched in politics and planning within Claremont. In addition to her numerous other contributions to the city, it was noted by Ms. Wright that Ms. Douglass paid purposeful and thoughtful attention to the newly developing housing tracts in north Claremont, aiming to organize them in a manner that generated a true neighborhood feeling.
“She was very strong on that,” Ms. Wright said. “It seems like a simple thing, but it’s not when you have developers come in with their ideas.”
Ms. Douglass went on to serve on the State of California’s Planning Advisory and Assistance Council for the Governor’s Office, representing the League of California Cities.
Active with family and politics, Ms. Douglass still gave generously of her time to many causes. She served on the board of trustees for the Wildlife Safari Foundation in Winston, Oregon; sat on the board and was a co-founder of Claremont Heritage, Inc.; sat on the founding board of the Claremont Community Foundation, serving as president from 1990-94; and was also appointed by Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr. to the California Heritage Preservation Commission from 1977-85.
Though life and politics in Claremont were her passions, Ms. Douglass spent much energy on the family’s summer retreat on Mount Desert Island off the coast of Maine, which was her husband’s most beloved place. She became active there in environmental preservation and planning, playing active roles in the Somes Sound Association and the Summer Residents Association.
An inspiration to many, perhaps none benefited more than her children who gained a sense of possibility and potential as they felt her unwavering love and care while watching her excel in professional and intellectual pursuits.
“She was very committed to what she was doing while at the same time being very committed to us and our dad,” said her daughter.
“I suppose the other thing that she taught us all was that you shouldn’t hold back,” said her son. “If you want to do something, you are undoubtedly capable of doing it if you think about it hard and go at it hard.”
Ms. Douglass is survived by her children, Malcolm Paul Douglass, Jr., John Aubrey Douglass and Susan Douglass Yates, and their spouses, (respectively) Charlene Keller Douglass, Jill Shinkle and Morgan Yates; by her grandchildren, Jeremy Hart Douglass, Regan Adaire Douglass, Claire Lynelle Douglass and Aubrey Jane Douglass; and by her brother John Hart '36. She was preceded in death by her husband, Malcolm Paul Douglass, and by her brother, Frank Hart.
