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April 1996
Hatfield, Chafe Join Commission
Recently the National Historical Publications and Records Commission welcomed two new members, Senator Mark O. Hatfield and Dr. William H. Chafe.
Senator Hatfield, who previously served on the Commission in 1983-88, will represent the Senate, succeeding Senator Paul Sarbanes, whose term has expired.
Dr. Chafe has been appointed to the Commission by the Organization of American Historians (OAH), succeeding Professor Robin D. G. Kelley, whose term has expired. Senator Hatfield is completing his fifth term as a senator from Oregon. He has served on or chaired numerous committees, commissions, and boards, including the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the Joint Committee on Printing, the Joint Committee on the Library, the FDR Memorial Commission, the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees, the U.S. Capitol Preservation Commission, and the Senate Appropriations Committee, which he currently chairs. He has degrees from Willamette University (B.A.) and Stanford (A.M.) as well as honorary degrees. He has been associate professor of political science and dean of students at Willamette University, is author or co-author of several books, and has maintained a particular interest in Presidents Lincoln and Hoover and the history of the Presidency. He has announced his intention to retire from the Senate at the end of 1996, completing 30 years of service.
Dr. Chafe is dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Duke University, on whose faculty he has served since 1971. At Duke he has been chair of the History Department, senior research associate at the Center for Documentary Studies, director of the Women's Studies Research Center, co-director of the Center for the Study of Civil Rights and Race Relations, co-director of the Oral History Program, and Alice Mary Baldwin Distinguished Professor of History. He has degrees from Harvard (A.B.) and Columbia (M.A. and Ph.D.), and has studied also at Cornell and at Union Theological Seminary. He is the author of several books and numerous articles, was co-editor of the Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, has lectured widely in the United States and abroad, and has received numerous fellowships and awards. He is currently a member of the Executive Board of the Organization of American Historians, and is the board's liaison to the OAH Committee on Research and Access to Historical Documentation.
At its most recent meeting the Commission welcomed these new members and approved resolutions of appreciation for the service of their predecessors, Senator Sarbanes and Professor Kelley.
