Oaks, Robert F., 1942-

Biographical note

Robert Francis Oaks is a fifth generation Californian, born in Escondido in 1942. After receiving a B.A. from Stanford and a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California, he taught for a few years, primarily in Texas. With a specialty in Colonial America and the American Revolution, in the late 1970s he developed an interest in gay history.

He published several articles in professional historical journals and was a weekly cast member of a gay radio show in Dallas. He had frequent correspondence with prominent gay historians around the country and interviewed prominent gay activists.

A depressed job market prevented Oaks from achieving a tenured faculty position, so in 1978, he moved to San Francisco and soon changed careers to data processing and banking. At the beginning of 1992, he retired and now devotes much of his time to historical research and writing, though his interests now are primarily the histories of San Francisco and Hawai'i. Since retirement he has published articles on 19th century San Francisco in historical journals and a book on the history of the Big Island of Hawai'i.

From the guide to the Robert Oaks Papers, 1908-2001, 1976-1990, (James C. Hormel Gay & Lesbian Center, San Francisco Public Library)