Welcome to Portland and the great upper coast of North America. I've been teaching at Portland State University since the late 1970s. In that time I've taught several generaitons of students and I've been involved with a number of community organizations. My research and writing have increasingly focused on the urban history and planning in Portland and in the American West, although I've also written books about Washington, D.C. and about western hsitory narratives in science fiction. My big project, to be published in 2008 by the University of New Mexico Press is titled How Cities Won the West: Four Centuries of Urban Change in Western North America. You can find a fuller of my publications on my c.v.

Here are a few windows into my life off campus.

Home base . . . the world's best dog in the West Fork of the Hood River . . . sailing near Bamfield off Vancouver Island . . .

Before deciding on history and city planning, at a slightly younger age, I briefly considered a career in veternary medicine.