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Title
Oral history interview with Riki P. Sheehan [Transcript]
Date(s)
- 1988-06-02 - 1988-06-11 (Creation)
Extent
Transcript; 79 pages
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Biographical history
Fredrica "Riki" Poster Sheehan was born in New York in 1951. She earned a bachelor of science degree from Cornell University in 1973. She then moved to Washington, D.C., in order to get a job in government. She began working on U.S. Senator Mark Hatfield's staff as a caseworker in 1974. In 1977, she became one of Hatfield's legislative assistants. In 1980, when Hatfield became chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, she was appointed to its staff.
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Scope and content
Transcript. This oral history interview with Riki P. Sheehan was conducted by Michael O'Rourke from June 2-11, 1988, as part of the Senator Mark O. Hatfield Oral History Series. The interview was conducted in three sessions.
In the first interview session, conducted on February 2, 1988, Sheehan discusses her early political career and describes how she joined the staff of Senator Mark Hatfield as a caseworker in 1974. She speaks about working with Hatfield, describes her job duties, and talks about working with other members of Hatfield's staff. She speaks about Hatfield's opposition to the Vietnam War, talks about his personality, and discusses Hatfield's place in the increasingly right-wing Republican Party of the 1980s. She shares examples of cases she worked on.
In the second interview session, conducted on June 7, 1988, Sheehan discusses Hatfield's relationship with other members of Congress, with his staff, and with his family. She speaks at length about serving as Hatfield's legislative aide on the Senate Appropriations Committee, and describes Hatfield's role and accomplishments as chair of that committee.
In the third and final interview session, conducted on June 11, 1988, Sheehan speaks at length about Hatfield's work to secure funding for research and development at Oregon Health and Science University through the Senate Appropriations Committee, and also talks about the committee's funding for AIDS research. She discusses Hatfield's admiration of Mother Theresa, talks about how Hatfield's liberal Republicanism differs from the Republicanism of President Ronald Reagan, and speaks about the 1984 controversy surrounding Hatfield's association with Greek arms dealer Basil Tsakos. She closes the interview by reflecting on Hatfield's accomplishments.
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Joint copyright for this interview is held by the Oregon Historical Society and Willamette University. Use is allowed according to the following license: Creative Commons - BY-NC-SA: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
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- eng
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Name access points
- O'Rourke, Michael (Filmmaker) (Contributor)