Baum, Willa K.

Willa Klug Baum was a nationally prominent oral historian and long-time director of the Regional Oral History Office at the Bancroft Library, U.C. Berkeley. She was born in Chicago in 1926, and grew up in Europe and Ramona, California. She graduated from Whittier College, but work and family obligations kept her from completing her Ph.D. in history at Berkeley. Instead Baum joined ROHO as an editor and interviewer, and became head of the program in 1958. During her years as director over 1,600 interviews were completed. She wrote and edited many articles, books, and anthologies which are still used by oral history practitioners. Baum died in 2006.

From the description of Willa K. Baum papers, circa1940-2000. (University of California, Berkeley). WorldCat record id: 559087303