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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023 Issue 4 - On Being A Pharmacist.pdfBook Talk with Local Author Larry Lehnerz Board Report by Dan Clawson, President. Oral Histories: Voices of Renton’s Past Museum Report by Elizabeth P. Stewart, Director. Each year, the third week in October is set aside as “Pharmacy Week” in the United States. It is a time to honor and reflect upon the contributions that pharmacists and pharmacy technicians make to our society. With context provided by Doctor of Pharmacy Ronald R. Conte in italics, this article traces the many pharmacists who helped keep the Renton community healthy. Pharmacists have a long and colorful history, beginning around 2000 BCE in Babylon. Being a physician, pharmacist, and priest was a combined profession at that period. Incantations and ceremonial chants were a significant part of carrying out duties. The first pharmacy (apothecary) appeared in Baghdad around 700 AD. It wasn’t until 1240 that the practice of pharmacy finally separated from the practice of medicine. Almost all drug products from the 1200s through the mid-1900s had to be compounded by a pharmacist, or his apprentice. Therefore, it makes perfect sense that pharmacy should be separate from medicine. In 1852 the American Pharmaceutical Association (APhA) was formed, becoming the only organization at that time to represent all pharmacists in the U.S. During the Civil War, a pharmacist would carry a whole trunk full of botanicals and chemicals onto the battlefield to administer Also In This Issue... Continued on page 5 2 4 83 By Ronald R. Conte, Pharm. D. and Elizabeth P. Stewart, PhD ON BEING A PHARMACIST RENTON HISTORICALSOCIETY & MUSEUM Fall September 2023 Volume 54 Number 4QUARTERLY 2 | RENTON HISTORY MUSEUM FUN WITH KIWANIS After 94 years of service to the community, the Renton Kiwanis Club has decided to sunset its formal operations. Recently we spent a fun evening with Kiwanis members during which President John Pozega honored us with the care of the club bell and gavel. After considering how to best honor Renton and how to serve the most members of the community as they close out operations, the club also made a substantial donation in support of our collection and an upcoming traveling exhibit. Thank you, Kiwanians, for almost 100 years of community care! BOOK TALK WITH LOCAL AUTHOR LARRY LEHNERZThurs., Sept. 21, 5:30 – 6:30 pm Join us for this event with Renton High grad Larry Lehnerz who has just published Summer of ’74, a novel based on his experiences as a teen in and around Renton. Set in Renton in 1974, the book follows Alex “Preacher” Michaels’ summer of humorous mishaps and dangerous misadventures. Larry will read from the novel and talk about how his own experiences as a Renton teen shaped his writing. THANK YOU, KELLY! Parks & Recreation Administrator Kelly Beymer retired this August after 21 years with the City of Renton, including seven years overseeing the Museum. Although Kelly started her career running golf courses, as Administrator she became a tireless advocate for the Renton History Museum at a particularly difficult time. Her positive attitude and care for staff helped us be better at our jobs. Kelly is retiring to an active life in Arizona—we’ll miss you! FALL QUARTERLY, 2023 | 3 MUSEUM REPORT QUARTERLYFALL 2023 D on’t we all hate to see summer coming to an end? As the days get shorter and cooler, and the Earth passes through the Perseid meteor shower, we know it’s time to get ready to go back to school and put away our vacation clothes (and our vacation mindset). Stephanie and I have accomplished some great things this summer, things we’re pretty proud of. We have been assisting the Renton Historical Society and the City of Renton in the ongoing process of negotiating the Museum Management Agreement for the operation of the Museum, a tool that will be key to running an excellent organization. We have also recruited enough new volunteers to open on Saturdays this summer, very important for families and working people. We trained these new volunteers to be able to help visitors get the most out of their museum visit. We partnered with the Environmental Science Center on activities to enhance their Family Fun Kits, and we planned for more fun events in late summer and fall. Renton River Days was huge for us this year, with 180 people coming through the Museum on Saturday alone, a new record. The Board of the Renton Historical Society staffed a community booth in Liberty Park during the festival, so that staff did not have to try to be in two places at once this year; they helped kids play a fun history game and learn more about the Black and Cedar Rivers. As Stephanie describes in the Collections Report, with the help of Eleanor Boba and Nancy Nishimura, we are gearing up to re-launch the Museum’s Oral History program post-pandemic. We are all very excited about this, because we know when we’re not collecting these interviews, we’re losing important insights into history every year. This week alone, visitors have shared fascinating stories about cruising the Loop, the loss of the Moses home in the 1950s, and changes in the Tobin Avenue neighborhood, things we cannot learn from books or newspapers. Now we’ll be able to get back to preserving that information! Vacation mindset? What was I thinking?! The two of us have achieved more this summer than we would have thought possible—imagine what we could do with more than 60 person-hours a week! by Elizabeth P. Stewart, Museum Director RENTON HISTORICAL QUARTERLY Pritchard Design Graphic Design & Layout Karl Hurst City of Renton Print & Mail Services RENTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY BOARD OF DIRECTORS Dan Clawson, President Don Hunsaker III, Treasurer David Wakukawa Chris Howell Kim-Khanh Van Elizabeth P. Stewart, Board Liaison MUSEUM STAFF Elizabeth P. Stewart Museum Director Stephanie Snyder Museum Office Aide RENTON HISTORY MUSEUM 235 MILL AVENUE S RENTON, WA 98057 P (425) 255-2330 F (425) 255-1570 E rentonhistorymuseum rentonwa.gov HOURS: Tuesday - Saturday 10:00am - 4:00pm ADMISSION: $5 (Adult) $2 (Child) Members always FREE Elizabeth P. Stewart Director Cover photo: Pharmacist Fred Brendel opened the longest lasting drug store in Renton in 1905 and operated it continuously until his death in 1948. (#1998.013.4737) Museum Office Aide Stephanie Snyder ran a Renton History Jeopardy game, a highlight of this year’s Annual Meeting. UPCOMING EVENTS At the Museum unless otherwise noted. SUN., SEPT. 10 1 – 2 PM Over the Mountains by Electric Power: Electrifying Stories from Cedar Falls A Pacific Northwest Railroad Archives event. Allen Miller and Frank Zellerhoff electrify us with stories of the Milwaukee Railroad. THURS., SEPT. 21 5:30 – 6:30 PM Book talk with Larry Lehnerz, Summer of ‘74 Based on his experiences as a teen in Renton, Summer of ’74 traces the youthful mishaps and misadventures of the fictional Alex “Preacher” Michaels. Books available for purchase. SAT., SEPT. 23 Renton Historical Society Annual Fundraiser Doors open at noon VFW Post #1263, 416 Burnett Ave. S Featuring lunch, music, a silent auction, live auction, and a dessert dash. Come enjoy good food and fun while supporting the Renton History Museum. Tickets are $35 per person. 4 | RENTON HISTORY MUSEUM PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE TThe summer months have been quite busy and productive for the Renton Historical Society. Below are some highlights of our accomplishments. Christopher Howell and Kim-Khanh Van have joined the Board of Directors and have both jumped right in to contribute their considerable skills and energy. Christopher’s company provides logistical support, supply chain management and fulfillment for local businesses. Kim-Khanh serves a diverse range of clients through her Renton law practice. She is a Renton City Councilmember and is active in local nonprofits benefiting veterans and many others. We continue to move forward toward a new Museum Management Agreement with the City of Renton and hope to complete the process by the end of this year. Kelly Beymer, who recently retired from her position as Administrator of the City of Renton Parks and Recreation Department, has made extraordinary efforts to obtain the necessary input and approval from multiple City departments. Kelly’s enthusiastic support for the Museum over the years is deeply appreciated. An event is set for 1:30 pm Saturday, September 23rd, at VFW Post 1263 to raise funds to support the Renton History Museum. Lunch will be served, and there will be live music, a raffle, a silent auction, a live auction, and a dessert dash. If you have not been contacted yet with details or have questions, you can call the Museum at 425-255-2330 or send an email to rentonhistoricalsociety@gmail.com. Our booth at Renton River Days was very well attended, and we helped the Museum set an all-time daily attendance record. The booth featured a display of captioned photos from our collection focused on the Black River, a board game, and model boat-making for the kids (and a few adults), free Museum quarterlies, and information about volunteering at the Museum and joining the Historical Society. We learned that many Greater Renton residents have not yet visited the Museum, presenting an opportunity to increase attendance and community awareness through increased public outreach. Your volunteer and financial support makes our outstanding Museum and the many learning opportunities it provides to our community possible, while helping the Historical Society build and maintain its extensive collection of historical items, photos, and documents. It’s easy to donate or renew your membership on the City of Renton website Museum page - search “Renton History Museum” with your browser and click on “Get Involved.” Renton Historical Society is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and your donation may be tax deductible. by Dan Clawson, President Dan Clawson President Board members Dan Clawson and Don Hunsaker III at the Renton River Days booth. FALL QUARTERLY, 2023 | 5 “Doctors were as scarce in Renton as druggists,” his obituary recalled, “and many times Brendel was called upon for advice on medicine.”3 He quickly moved out of the telephone office into a frame building “boasting the town’s only plate glass window.” His customers were men who “used to come in and spend the evening sitting around the pot belly stove talking fishing.”4 If Brendel could sneak a little health and wellness into those conversations, so much the better for his business. From a one-room drugstore, Brendel built his pharmacy into a commanding storefront on S. Third Street; he eventually joined the nationwide Rexall chain and expanded his store shortly before his death in 1948.5 In 1898, the National Association of Retail Druggists (NARD) was formed, creating a schism between the healthcare-related responsibilities and the growing business interests of pharmacy. The schism created by the formation of NARD was compounded by the creation of another business-oriented organization in 1933 known as the National Association of Chain Drug Stores. These organizations have influenced the ways in which pharmacy is practiced even today. NARD has since changed their name to the National Community Pharmacist Association in 1996. The growth of the patent medicine industry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries—unregulated before the early 1900s—put pressure on pharmacists to demonstrate that their skill and knowledge was worth paying for. Customers could self-diagnose and purchase these “cure- all” doses through catalogs or unscrupulous “doctors”; patent medicines were often loaded with alcohol or other addictive substances that covered up symptoms and created new problems. John Edward Vioue, owner of the Palace of to the injured and the sick. The pharmacist chose the type of treatment based on the diagnosis made by the physician. Renton’s first pharmacists—about whom little is known—were R. V. Pierce, listed in the 1885 territorial census, and David J. Hunt, in the Renton section of the 1889 Seattle City Directory. Both disappeared from Renton records after these few hints. They would have known Dr. Abijah Beach, Renton’s first doctor and Mayor, who arrived in Renton in winter 1883. Dr. Beach earned his medical degree at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland in 1856, and served as Assistant Surgeon for the 9th Kansas Cavalry during the Civil War. After serving as a physician for the “Indian” agencies at Tulalip and Port Blakely in 1878 – 1880, he arrived in Renton to serve as the mine doctor.1 Except for Pierce and Hunt, the historical record is silent on pharmacists in Renton before 1909. What did Dr. Beach do for medicine in these early years? Did he mix and carry his own medications or rely on patent medicines easily obtained in general stores? We don’t know. But in 1909 J. Roy Falconer and Fred Brendel, both pharmacists, opened drug stores in Renton. Falconer’s career was short-lived; he died in 1910 of tuberculosis, at age 21. But Fred Brendel, who started by working out of the Renton Independent Telephone Co. offices at 3rd and Wells, launched a longstanding Renton business.2 Twenty-nine-year-old Frederick Charles Brendel moved to Renton in about 1905; he had already earned a Pharmacy degree from the University of Pennsylvania and worked at drugstores in Asbury Park, NJ; New York City; Baltimore, MD; and Butte, MT. But Renton was his last stop, and Brendel’s Drugstore became a fixture in downtown Renton. Continued from page 1 Interior of the Brendel Drug Store, 1909. The druggist’s pharmaceuticals were safely tucked behind the counter, with health and hygiene products on open shelves for the customer. (#1966.047.0688) Brendel’s was a gathering place from its beginning. In the 1930s drugstores added lunch counters to encourage customers to linger, and Brendel’s stayed up with the times. (#1998.013.4733) 6 | RENTON HISTORY MUSEUM downpayment on a storefront at Third and Shattuck, and then got to work cleaning up after the previous tenant, a veterinarian. They finally repainted the interior to get rid of the smell; they had so little money to stock the store, they spread out the Kleenex boxes to make the shelves look full.12 With five other drugstores already open in Renton, A&H Drugs had little chance of success. Other Renton drugstores already established were: Walker’s Pharmacy, founded by Dr. R. M. Walker when he purchased A. J. MacArthur’s Red Cross Drug Store in 1913; Bergman’s Modern Drug Store, started by Clifford Bergman in 1938; Shaw Bros. Drug Store, founded in 1941 by brothers John H. and Edmund A. Shaw, both pharmacists; and Hub City Drugs, owned by pharmacist Robert P. Plut.13 Four of the five were located on S. Third Street; Shaw Bros. was situated around the corner on Wells. Nevertheless, A&H incorporated in 1958 and by 1989 the two had nine drugstores in South King and North Pierce counties, as well as several Hallmark Cards stores.14 Today there are thirteen national organizations representing various niche interests of pharmacy practice. It is difficult at best for all thirteen organizations to agree on major issues affecting pharmacies at a state or national level. Consequently, most people believe that pharmacists get paid well for merely counting out pills and generating a label for a prescription vial. The majority see the pharmacist working in a chain drugstore or in a supermarket next to the meat or baby goods section. Aside from the optometrist, a pharmacist is the only other healthcare provider working in a supermarket setting. Most people are unaware of what pharmacists truly provide for their communities. In the late 1950s, a small number of Public Health pharmacists, working with Native American reservations of the Southwest, began expanding their roles due to shortages of healthcare providers. These pharmacists administered vaccines, drew blood Sweets, sold basic over-the-counter medicines like syrup of ipecac, used to induce vomiting in case of poisoning, alongside confectionaries; by 1935 he was calling himself a “druggist,” even though there is little indication that he had any pharmaceutical training.6 Harry E. L. Libbee is an example of how slippery the distinctions between pharmacists, doctors, and quacks could be. Born in 1886, Libbee trained at University of Washington in the early 1900s, and by 1911 he was listed as a “druggist” in the Seattle City Directory. That same year, he married Rentonite Anna Sedlacek, a careerwoman in her own right; she worked as a bookkeeper and retailer for most of her married life. Harry was employed as a druggist at Quaker Drug or occasionally as a pharmaceutical salesman from 1910 to 1922, with a brief foray into auto sales during WWI.7 Libbee must have been hungry for a change from his pharmacy career, however, because sometime in the late 1920s, he became a practitioner of “drugless healing,” a Pacific Northwest-specific method known as “sanipractic.” Sanipractic combined aspects of chiropractic, herbal medicine, the application of electricity, and other medically unrecognized therapies.8 At the peak of sanipractic’s popularity in 1928 in Washington, the state issued licenses to 47 M.D.’s and 44 “drugless healers.”9 After several attempts, the state legislature finally passed a law requiring strict regulation of these practitioners, but their popularity persisted until after WWII. Libbee and his wife moved to Renton shortly after the new regulation was passed, and he continued to practice drugless healing in Renton, Maple Valley, and Cedar Mountain until his death in 1954.10 As Renton’s population exploded during WWII, competition intensified among legitimate pharmacies. John M. Austin and Robert H. Hendrickson opened Austin & Hendrickson Drugs (later just A&H Drugs) at S. 3rd and Shattuck in May 1946.11 Both men had pharmacy degrees from Washington State University, and despite a ten-year age difference, the two liked each other enough to start their business with a handshake. Each came up with a $200 Shortly after Fred Brendel’s death in 1948, pharmacist Clifford Bergman purchased his store and operated it as Bergman’s Rexall Drugs until his retirement in 1967. (#1970.001.7110) In the late 1920s, pharmacist Harry Libbee gave up traditional pharmaceuticals in favor of “sanipractic,” a controversial form of drugless healing unique to the Pacific Northwest. (Advertisement, Renton Stimulator, 1 March 1929.) FALL QUARTERLY, 2023 | 7 samples from patients, took blood pressures, provided drug education to patients and drug consultation to physicians, and managed patients with hypertension and diabetes. Yes, that is what you read: pharmacists managed patients with high blood pressure and high blood sugar readings. About the same period, NARD members made a big push to promote pharmacy as a business. Soda fountains were a mainstay for most community pharmacies from the 1940s through the 1960s. The corner drug store was truly a gathering place to meet friends, talk about the weather or politics, and even consult with a pharmacist about a minor medical condition. The pharmacy in my community was just three blocks from my house. If someone had a medical problem, it required a bus ride downtown. Private health insurance was rare at that time. So a visit to a physician was quite expensive. If someone had an ailment, she/he would stop at the pharmacy first to see Frank, the pharmacist. I do remember him treating my wounds, my colds, my muscle strains, and stomach aches that were probably due to too many scoops of ice cream consumed at Frank’s soda foundation! Frank was the kindest man; he never asked for payment. If the health issue seemed more severe, Frank would refer you to a physician. He would even make the phone call to the doctor just to be sure you would be seen. As competition among Renton pharmacies became more fierce, pharmacists did innovate and move with the times. Fred Brendel added a soda fountain counter to attract women and young people, and his clientele shifted from chatty fisherman to 1950s housewives making the buying decisions for their households. Pharmacists also became more community oriented. Bob Hendrickson is a good example. Not only was he active in pharmacy industry organizations, he was also a community leader in Renton, serving on the school board, the board of the Community Bank of Renton, and as president of the Renton Chamber of Commerce.15 Fred Brendel had also served on the boards of the Renton State Bank and the People’s National Bank, and he was an Eagle, an Odd Fellow, and a Kiwanian.16 After WWII, chain drugstores, with their economies of scale and corporate structure, began to dominate the pharmaceutical industry. Grocery stores and giant discount stores, like Walmart and K-Mart, also offered one-stop shopping, with prescriptions formulated while customers did their other shopping. These innovations took their toll on small local pharmacies. Bartell Drugs opened a store in downtown Renton in the mid-1950s and stayed until 1996.17 Still, some of the early Renton drugstores persisted. Clifford Bergman purchased Brendel’s in March 1949, shortly after Fred’s death, and operated it as Bergman’s Rexall Drug Store until his own retirement in 1967.18 By 1995 the nine A&H Drug Stores were down to five, and Bob Hendrickson made the difficult decision to close their flagship store in downtown Renton. The new Fred Meyer and remodeled K-Mart had both added pharmacies, and Walmart and Walgreen’s were both slated to move to the Seattle area that year. “We just saw the handwriting on the wall in terms of the big boxes and the big companies,” Hendrickson said at the time.19 In 2006, Hendrickson’s sons, Rich and Stacey, closed the Skyway, Auburn, and Renton Highlands stores; the Highlands store had been open almost 50 years.20 They shifted their focus to a home medical equipment business and a “closed door pharmacy” in Kent that filled prescriptions for nursing homes and assisted living facilities.21 For them the problem was not the struggle against the competition; instead, it was “insurance companies, mail-order prescriptions, and the new Medicare drug program” that did them in.22 A pharmacist’s education is at least seven years of college coursework, leading to a Doctor of Pharmacy degree. The education program is designed to provide training in the selection of the appropriate treatment for most medical conditions, including the proper use of non-prescription medications. Today, pharmacy technicians assist the pharmacist in the technical steps of preparing and dispensing a prescription. The tech is also adept at handling patient issues at the pharmacy counter. The tech is an extremely important member of the pharmacy team. In almost all states, pharmacists can now prescribe medications under collaborative drug therapy management agreements sanctioned for physicians. These state-regulated agreements allow pharmacists to prescribe and provide the patient with the appropriate drug, dosage, and route of administration (e.g., oral, intramuscular, etc.). Neither Rich nor Stacey Hendrickson had pharmacy degrees, and yet they found themselves operating highly complex drugstores subject to numerous state and federal regulations that were not around when the first pharmacist arrived in Renton over 120 years earlier; these laws were passed to protect the public from the patent medicine and quack drugless healers of the early to mid-1900s. “We have nobody who wants to come along in a third generation and continue the process for us,” Rich Hendrickson shared, resulting in “a perfect storm” of family and financial dilemmas.23 For their part, the customers “don’t look at it like a business,” believed one A&H clerk. “They look at it like they lost something.”24 In conclusion, I must state that pharmacy has been very good to me. It has been very gratifying work as I have been able to practice much like Frank. Please share with me in the celebration of all pharmacists and technicians during the one week per year that is set aside to honor them. WSU Pharmacy School graduates John M. Austin and Robert H. Hendrickson opened A&H Drugs at Third and Shattuck in 1946. (#1970.001.7786) 8 | RENTON HISTORY MUSEUM S ome of the best stories in our collection are the ones told firsthand by the Rentonites who lived them. Our Oral History program allows people to share their own recollections of Renton’s past and record them for posterity via an interview. The Renton Historical Society has been recording these types of interviews since at least 1975. Some of our earliest oral histories include settlers like Mary Bassen, who shared memories of teaching in wooden schoolhouses and attending barn dances around the turn of the century, and miners like Frank Storey and Phil Marlotty, who told their interviewer colorful tales of saloons and Depression-era hobo camps. Some of the Oral History Team’s more recent work has aimed to give a voice to those whose stories have historically gone unrecorded, including Japanese Americans whose families lost their land while incarcerated during World War II and residents of the Hilltop, Renton’s historically Black community. All of our oral histories are important to our collection, as they help inform future publications and exhibits. During the pandemic, we had to put our Oral History program on pause, but we’re pleased to announce that we’re now getting ready to pick up where we left off, with the help of two of our most experienced and trusted Oral Histories: Voices of Renton’s Past By Stephanie Snyder ENDNOTES 1 1885 Territorial Census for Washington; 1885 Seattle City Directory. 2 1909 Renton City Directory. Falconer’s business was located on 3rd Ave. S. near Main; he employed Ernest J. Kendtner as a clerk. Brendel employed two clerks in 1909, H. S. Groat and Charles Tamborini. 3 “Pioneer Druggist Passes; Death Takes Fred Brendel,” Renton Record- Chronicle, 23 September 1948, p.1. 4 “Pioneer Druggist Passes,” Renton Record-Chronicle, 23 September 1948, p.1. 5 “Pioneer Druggist Passes,” Renton Record-Chronicle, 23 September 1948, p.1. 6 Renton City Directories, 1935 – 1942. 7 1910 Seattle census; Washington Marriage Records; 1911 Seattle City Directory; Seattle City Directories for 1912 – 1918; WWI Draft Card. 8 James C. Whorton tells the fascinating story of the rise and fall of sanipractic in, “Drugless Healing in the 1920s: The Therapeutic Cult of Sanipractic,” Pharmacy in History 28 (1986), p.17. 9 Whorton, 23. 10 “Dr. Harry E. Libbee,” advertisement, Renton Stimulator, 1 March 1929, p.2; 1930 Renton census; 1940 Cedar Mountain census; 1950 Maple Valley census; “Harry E. Libbee,” Seattle Times, 27 September 1954, p.33. “Dr.” Libbee’s obituary called him a “naturopath,” a branch of natural healing recognized by state statute in 1937. John F. Hansler, “The Standard Care of the Drugless Healer,” Washington Law Review and State Bar Journal (1952), 39. Libbee’s pharmacy background must have served him well as a sanipractor, because there is no indication in any source that he ran afoul of the law or patients. 11 “John M. Austin,” Valley Daily News, 19 July 1989; “Robert (Bob) H. Hendrickson,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 28 January 2009. 12 “A&H To Close Renton Store,” Valley Daily News, 22 June 1995. 13 "Old Time Citizen Returns," Renton Bulletin, 5 December 1913, p.1; 1914 Renton City Directory; "Cliff Bergman Buys Brendel Drug Store," Renton Chronicle, 31 Mar 1949, p.1; 1947 Renton City Directory; “Edmund ‘Art’ Shaw,” Valley Daily News, 30 April 1996; 1957 Renton City Directory. An early 1920s photo, #1974.014.0668, in our collection shows a sign for Alexander Drug Store, but we have been unable to find any more information on it. 14 “Robert (Bob) H. Hendrickson,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 28 January 2009. 15 “Hendrickson Appointed to National Council,” Renton Chronicle, 16 May 1973; “Robert (Bob) H. Hendrickson,” Seattle P-I, 28 January 2009. 16 “Pioneer Druggist Passes,” Renton Record-Chronicle, 23 September 1948, p.1. 17 “Bartell Drugs Leaving Downtown,” Renton Reporter, 7 June 1996. 18 “Cliff Bergman Buys Brendel Drug Store,” Renton Chronicle, 31 March 1949, p.1. 19 “A&H To Close Renton Store,” Valley Daily News, 22 June 1995. 20 Dean A. Radford, “Highlands Drugstore to Close,” Renton Reporter, 28 February 2006, p.A12; Oscar Halpert, “Highlands Drug Store to Close After 47 Years,” Renton Reporter, 15 March - 4 April 2006, p.4. 21 Dean A. Radford, “Highlands Drugstore to Close,” Renton Reporter, 28 February 2006, p.A12. 22 Dean A. Radford, “Highlands Drugstore to Close,” Renton Reporter, 28 February 2006, p.A1-A12. 23 Oscar Halpert, “Highlands Drug Store to Close After 47 Years,” Renton Reporter, 15 March - 4 April 2006, p.4. 24 “A&H To Close Renton Store,” Valley Daily News, 22 June 1995. FALL QUARTERLY, 2023 | 9 volunteers, Eleanor Boba and Nancy Nishimura. Eleanor will once again be serving as the Oral History Team Leader, overseeing the intake process for interviewees and helping us manage other Oral History Team volunteers. This August, Eleanor sat down with the Museum staff to go over our list of possible leads for interview candidates, which included former City and School District employees, RHS graduates, members of the Farmers Market “Piazza Group,” local activists, and more. Eleanor has already started following up on some of these leads and gaging interest and availability from potential participants. Nancy has conducted some of our most important and interesting interviews in the past and she is already gearing up to restart. Museum Director Liz Stewart has been helping by conducting some critical preliminary research to find potential areas of interest for each interview, and I am doing some volunteer outreach and coordination so that Eleanor can have some help. We are still in need of oral history interviewers, transcribers, and researchers to assist in the process, so please email me at ssnyder@rentonwa.gov if you’re interested in supporting our mission to record and preserve history! Interviewers conduct pre-interview information and interviews, and transcribers create digital transcripts of the interviews after they are recorded—this is often done by editing a Word document generated by feeding the audio file into a text-to-speech app. Finally, if you know of someone who has a Renton story worth preserving—especially someone from a historically underrepresented community— please email the Museum at rentonhistorymuseum@ rentonwa.gov with some background about that person and their contact information. We’re looking forward to finding out what Renton stories are still out there waiting to be told! Our current exhibit, A Plate at the Potluck, is based on a series of oral histories conducted by UW M.A. candidate Brandy Mason in 2019 – 2020. Oral histories are an invaluable way to capture texture of daily life. 10 | RENTON HISTORY MUSEUM MEMORIAL DONATIONS May 30, 2023 – August 11, 2023 MEMORIALS OF $500 OR MORE Lila McWilliams Campen Bonnie McWilliams Benson MEMORIALS OF $100 OR MORE Bill Anardi Orville Nelson Janet Christiansen D olores Halstead Donna Kerr Nelson Orville Nelson Jean Lyonais Peretti Orville Nelson MEMORIALS Pat Auten Judy Craig James & Joy Poff Wayne Armstrong A l Armstrong Naomi Mathisen Carrie & Greg Bergquist Vic Tonda Carrie & Greg Bergquist Gilda Carbonaro Youngquist Donovan Lynch CONTRIBUTIONS OF $1,000 OR MORE Kiwanis Club of Renton CONTRIBUTIONS OF $100 OR MORE Norm & Carol Abrahamson Sandra Polley LIFE MEMBERSHIP Kim-Khanh Van CONTRIBUTIONS Al Armstrong In honor of the RHS Class of ‘51 Carolyn Duncalf Vrablick Herb & Diana Postlewait Martha Sanchez Kim-Khanh Van IN-KIND CONTRIBUTIONS Bruce Eldredge Consulting Pritchard Design NEW MEMBERS Corey Wetherbee & Family Christopher Howell GIFT MEMBERSHIP DONORS Herb & Diana Postlewait MATCHING GIFT CONTRIBUTION Kristina Desmond FALL QUARTERLY, 2023 | 11 Luncheon & Auction Sat., Sept. 23, 1 – 3 pm VFW Post 1263, 416 Burnett Ave. N., Renton J oin us for a buffet-style lunch and bid on unique items while supporting the Renton History Museum! Come and enjoy hot and cold selections featuring (almost) everyone's favorite: macaroni and cheese. A full bar will be available. Bid on gift baskets and other items at the silent and live auctions, try your luck with a raffle, and sprint for luscious goodies in the dessert dash. All proceeds will go to support the Renton History Museum. Renton Historical Society is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose mission is to preserve, document, interpret, and educate about the history of greater Renton in ways that are accessible to diverse people of all ages. The Museum fulfills this mission via exhibits, articles, volunteer and public programs, and our collection. Each ticket is $35.00 and includes lunch. For those not able to attend, our form also has an option for general donations. Your donations may be tax deductible. RENTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY ANNUAL FUNDRAISER IS BACK! RENTON HISTORY MUSEUM 235 Mill Ave. S Renton, WA 98057 Third graders head back to school in Newcastle, 1923. (#2002.058.5854)