Collection is open for research.
Harold Haseltine Cake was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1897. In 1918, he earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Oregon, and in 1922, he earned a degree in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1923, he and Edna Naomi Howd were married; they later had two children. Cake worked as an electrical engineer for GE in Los Angeles, California, for 11 years. In 1935, he returned to Portland and worked for the Haseltine Company, a mill supply business, for the next 19 years. After Edna Cake's death, he remarried to Alice Ruth Stafft in 1955. In the mid-1950s, Cake began working for Equitable Savings and Loan, continuing until his retirement in 1971. Cake died in 1997.
An incomplete transcript (48 pages) is available for in-person use at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
Oral history interview with Harold H. Cake, by Linda S. Dodds, SR 9420, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
An additional interview with Harold H. Cake, SR 9055, and the Equitable Savings and Loan Association records, Mss 2353, are also held by the Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
This oral history interview with Harold H. Cake was conducted by Linda S. Dodds in Portland, Oregon, in two sessions on September 2 and September 14, 1982, as part of the Oregon Historical Society Research Library's oral history program. At the time of the interview, Dodds' name was Linda S. Brody.
In the first interview session, conducted on September 2, 1982, Cake discusses his family background and early life in the Goose Hollow neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, then talks about his college experiences at the University of Oregon and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He discusses his work as an electrical engineer for GE in Los Angeles, California, during the Depression, then talks about his return to Portland in 1935 to work for the Haseltine Company. He briefly speaks about his marriage history and his children. He shares his reasons for leaving the Haseltine Company to join Equitable Savings and Loan as a director. He talks about the careers of his brothers, Ralph Cake and William Cake. He speaks at length about the history of Equitable Savings and Loan and about its business practices, including its activities during the Depression, the buildings it occupied, and its operations in other states. He discusses how the inflation of the 1970s affected savings and loan institutions.
In the second interview session, conducted on September 14, 1982, Cake discusses how Equitable survived the financial crisis triggered by the high inflation of the 1970s.
Joint copyright for this interview is held by the Oregon Historical Society and the estate of Harold H. Cake. Use is allowed according to the following statement: In Copyright – Non-Commercial Use Permitted,