Identity elements
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Level of description
Item
Title
Oral history interview with Dick Bown [Sound Recording 04]
Date(s)
- 1991-12-02 (Creation)
Extent
Audiocassette; 00:27:52
Name of creator
Biographical history
Richard "Dick" Charles Bown was born in Gettysburg, South Dakota, in 1928. He moved to Oregon in 1941. In 1950, he and Evelyn Constance Ferguson were married; they later had three children. Bown became a race car driver and competed in NASCAR races from 1961 to 1975. All three of his children were also involved in automobile racing. He also owned a service station and an auto wrecking business, Rose Auto Wrecking, in Portland, Oregon.
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Scope and content
Tape 3, Side 2. This oral history interview with Dick Bown was conducted by Alex R. Toth, Jr., at Rose Auto Wrecking in North Portland, Oregon, from November 20 to December 2, 1991. The interview was conducted in two sessions. In the second interview session, conducted on December 2, 1991, Bown continues discussing his competitive spirit. He revisits the topic of running a service station and Rose Auto Wrecking, including his experience going bankrupt in 1953 and the history of both businesses. He then discusses his children – Chuck Bown, Sheri Bown, and Jim Bown – and their involvement in automobile racing. He revisits the topic of the race cars he has driven and the tracks he has raced at. He talks about media coverage of car racing on the West Coast, as compared to the South and the East Coast; discusses the athleticism involved in car racing; and describes changes in the technology of racing. He closes the interview by discussing the future of car racing in the Pacific Northwest, and the experience of raising a family as a race car driver.
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Conditions of access and use elements
Conditions governing access
Copyright for this interview is held by the Oregon Historical Society. Use is allowed according to the following statement: Creative Commons - BY-NC-SA, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.
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Languages of the material
- eng
Scripts of the material
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Access points
Subject access points
- Automobile racing
- Automobile wrecking and used parts industry--Oregon
- Automobiles, Racing
- Automobile racing drivers--Oregon
- Business enterprises--Oregon--Portland
- NASCAR (Association)
- Rose Auto Wrecking (Portland, Or.)
- Bown, Chuck, Jr. (Richard Charles), 1954-
- Bown, Jim T., 1960-
- Bown, Sheri (Sharon Ann), 1951-2020
Place access points
Name access points
- Toth, Alex R., Jr. (Alex Robert), 1947- (Contributor)