Rolla J. Crick collection, 1920-2013

Rolla Joe "Bud" Crick was born on March 14, 1918, in Twin Falls, Idaho, and was raised in Southern California. It was in Redlands, California that Crick first developed an interest in journalism when, as a high school student, he published a column for the San Bernardino Sun. He later moved to Oregon where he held a variety of occupations, including shipwright at the Oregon ship yards, chicken rancher and freelance journalist. During World War II, Crick served in the Pacific theater, where he was assigned to the Army’s Information and Education Detachment as a news writer and combat correspondent. Immediately following the surrender of Japan, Crick traveled to Japan with General Douglas MacArthur’s staff to establish the Pacific Stars & Stripes in Tokyo. As a Stars and Stripes journalist, Crick traveled across occupied Japan and was one of the first Americans to visit Hiroshima after the dropping of the atomic bomb. Following the War, Crick returned to Oregon where he found work as a reporter for the Oregon Journal and later for the Oregonian. Some of Crick's most notable stories were his coverage of the Vanport flood in 1948, a city-wide crackdown on illegal abortion operations in the Portland area in 1951, an expedition to Antarctica in 1957, during which he became the first journalist to reach the South Pole, and his coverage of the Vietnam War. Crick held many positions and titles during his time as a journalist, including automobile editor, military editor, assistant city editor, and aviation editor; he also was a federal courts reporter and travel writer. Crick retired from the Oregonian in 1989 but would continue to write articles as a freelancer and would eventually volunteer as a public relations representative for the American Red Cross, visiting disaster areas across the country. It was in his capacity as a representative for the American Red Cross that Crick spent 57 days in New York City on three separate assignments in response to the September 11 attacks. Rolla Crick died in 2013 at the age of 95.