Linus Pauling Day in Oregon

One-hundred and nine years ago, on February 28, 1901, Linus Carl Pauling was born in Portland, Oregon to parents Herman and Isabelle Pauling.

The Story of 1910

[Ed Note: As we count down the days to the Pauling birthday anniversary on February 28, we'll be looking back on the life of Linus Pauling as it was playing out 100, 75, 50 and 25 years ago.] In early 1910, the Pauling family moved to a suburb in East Portland. The move was precipitated [...]

Roger Kornberg is the 2010 Pauling Legacy Award Winner

Dr. Roger Kornberg, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, will speak in Portland, Oregon on Tuesday, April 20th. His lecture, entitled “The Molecular Basis of Eukaryotic Transcription,” will be held at the Oregon Historical Society’s Miller Pavillion at 8:00 PM. The event is free and open to the public. Seats may be reserved [...]

A Sentimental Trip

In the final months of 1981, Ava Helen Pauling was slowing down and making her final public appearances. She was spending as much time as possible with her husband and children, but encouraged Linus to stay busy and travel because of his difficulty dealing with emotional distress. She had been diagnosed with a form of [...]

Pauline Pauling (1902-2003)

My name is Pauline Darling Pauling Stockton Ney Dunbar Emmett, and you can see I’ve had an interesting life… -Pauline Pauling Emmett, 1994. The sister of one distinguished scientist and later the wife of another, Pauline Darling Pauling, the second oldest of the Herman and Belle Pauling’s children, led a long and eventful life. Once [...]

Pauling’s Best Friend: Lloyd Jeffress

As a child, Linus Pauling had relatively few friends. After moving from Condon, Oregon to Portland, the death of his father and subsequent poverty forced him to work when not in school. The remainder of his time was consumed with studying and household chores, leaving little room for companionship. Pauling, even as a boy, was [...]

A Prominent High School Dropout

Interviewer: Where did you go to high school at in Portland? Pauling: I went to Washington High School for 3 ½ years, so that my whole high school career was there. It was on the east side of Portland. Interviewer: How come they wouldn’t give you a diploma? Pauling: Well, I didn’t finish the requirements. [...]

Tales from Pauling’s Boyhood: The 1917 Shipbuilders’ Strike

In 1917, Pauling began a diary, (known simply as the “OAC Diary” among Special Collections staff) in which he described his activities, thoughts and feelings, many of which are both enlightening and entertaining. Just as interesting though, are some of the entries about life in the early 20th century. The diary contains a number of [...]

Portland, OR: Pauling’s Teenage Years

“This activist loves Oregon more than he loves life.” – Tom McCall Portland, the largest city in Oregon, sits at the convergence of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers on Oregon’s northern border. Known for its microbreweries, environmentalists, and growing nightlife, Portland is nationally recognized as an epicenter of West Coast progressive culture. However, a century [...]

William P. Murphy: Condon’s Other Nobel Prize Winner

Condon – as you are undoubtedly already aware if you are a regular reader of this blog – is a very small town in Gilliam County in North-Central Oregon. According to the 2000 census, the town’s population consisted of only 759 people, and in the early 1900s, when the Pauling family lived in Condon, the [...]