Oral history interview with Nader Rezvani, 2019 August 15

This oral history interview with Nader Rezvani was conducted by Dora Totoian and Sankar Raman on August 15, 2019. The interview was recorded for The Immigrant Story, an organization that documents and archives the stories of immigrants and refugees in the United States. Rebecca Benoit was also present and contributed to the interview.

In this interview, Rezvani discusses his family background and early life in Tehran, Iran, including his education and his conversion from Islam to atheism. He describes life in pre-revolution Iran and talks about working as an inspector on a hydroelectric project after high school. He speaks about his experiences in Berlin, Germany, in 1963, and shares his reasons for immigrating to the United States that same year. He describes adjusting to life in the U.S., experiencing winter in New York, and his experiences living in Los Angeles and attending college to study mechanical engineering. He shares his reasons for moving to Beaverton, Oregon, and speaks about his 20-year career as an engineer at Tektronix, Inc. Rezvani talks about his children and grandchildren, and Benoit talks about the Iranian community in the Portland area. He discusses his retirement on a farm near Gaston, Oregon, and Benoit shares the story of meeting Rezvani. He closes the interview by sharing his opinion on events in Iran after he left in 1963, and by talking about U.S.-Iranian relations, and about his cultural and ethnic identity.