Pearl Alice Marsh

Pearl Alice Marsh was born in La Grande, Oregon and lived in the town of Wallowa, Oregon until the age of twelve. She is the daughter of Amos Marsh, Sr. and Mary (Patterson) Marsh and the granddaughter of Joseph "Pa Pat" Patterson, Sr. and Arie "Ma Pat" (Spears) Patterson, well-known African-American loggers and spouses in the area, and is a former president of the Maxville Heritage Interpretative Center. Her work documenting Oregon's Black logging history has been featured in Oregon Historical...See more

Pearl Alice Marsh was born in La Grande, Oregon and lived in the town of Wallowa, Oregon until the age of twelve. She is the daughter of Amos Marsh, Sr. and Mary (Patterson) Marsh and the granddaughter of Joseph "Pa Pat" Patterson, Sr. and Arie "Ma Pat" (Spears) Patterson, well-known African-American loggers and spouses in the area, and is a former president of the Maxville Heritage Interpretative Center. Her work documenting Oregon's Black logging history has been featured in Oregon Historical Quarterly and on Oregon Public Broadcasting's Think Out Loud. She is the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California at Berkeley, and she served with the U. S. House of Representatives International Relations Committee as a Senior Policy Advisor with expertise in African political, economic, social, and development issues until her retirement in 2013. See less