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Oral Histories

Stories are the fabric of our community. They connect us across generations.

Bainbridge Stories

Karen Beierle

Bainbridge Island in the 1930s and 1940s

KAREN BEIERLE

Karen Beierle, a Bainbridge Island resident since birth in the late 1930s, grew up in the Point White/Lynwood area. She left the island briefly to attend college and begin a teaching career, returning to raise a family in the home she and her husband still occupy in Fletcher Bay. Karen describes the Point White ferry, Lynwood and Fort Ward in the 1940s, and the Navy’s presence and her experience as a student at Pleasant Beach School when the 1949 earthquake resulted in the school’s permanent closure. She concludes with her perspective on the return of Japanese American residents after their exclusion.

Dick Shryock

Wing Point in the 1940s

DICK SHRYOCK

Listen here as island resident Dick Shryock describes life growing up on Wing Point in the 1940s, the impact World War II had on his family and the area, and two of his summer jobs, first as the Wing Point Golf Club greens keeper and later working on the construction of the Agate Passage Bridge.

Dick moved permanently to Bainbridge Island as a young boy in 1941. His family initially rented and later purchased a log home on Wing Point where Dick grew up. That house is now on the City of Bainbridge Island’s Register of Historic Properties as one of the best-preserved log homes on the island. Dick continues to live in the Port Madison area.

Chuck Callaham

Bainbridge Island in the 1930s and 1940s

CHUCK CALLAHAM

Listen here as lifelong Island resident Chuck Callaham shares memories of growing up on Bainbridge, including biking, ice skating, ice skating, and the early days of the Bainbridge Island Fire Department.

Chuck moved to Bainbridge Island with his family as a young child in the mid-1930s. He grew up in Winslow and now lives in the Seabold area. In this 16-minute podcast, excerpted from a one hour and 32 minute interview with BIHM volunteer Tom Arnold, Chuck describes life in Winslow the 1930s and 1940s, including some of his experiences growing up in the town and descriptions of some of the businesses along Winslow Way in that era.

Chuck and his family have a long association with the Bainbridge Island Fire Department going back to the mid-1940s, including his father’s service as the department’s first full-time paid fire chief in the 1960s. He concludes the interview with his early memories of the Bainbridge Island Fire Department from its founding in the early 1940s.

Joan Bickerton

Seabold in the 1940s

JOAN BICKERTON

Joan Bickerton tells of growing up in the Seabold neighborhood in the 1940’s.

Lilly Kodama

Fletcher Bay in the 1940s and 1950s

LILLY KODAMA

Listen here as island resident Lilly Kodama describes what it was like growing in the Fletcher Bay area in the 1940s and 50’s.

In this 21-minute podcast, excerpted from a two-hour interview with BIHM volunteer Tom Arnold, Lilly shares her memories of growing up on a farm at the head of Fletcher Bay, including her grandparent’s and parent’s journey to the island, life on the farm, and her mother’s work ethic in managing the farm before and after World War II while her father worked in Seattle. She also describes her family’s experience being forcibly removed from the island in March 1942 along with Bainbridge’s other Japanese American families, her family’s close relationship with Filipino immigrant Felix Narte, and the important leadership role her brother Frank played in bringing attention to the forced exclusion experience and in the establishing the Japanese American Exclusion Memorial in Eagledale.

Lavina Johnson

Winslow in the 1940s and 1950s

LAVINA JOHNSON

Listen here as former island resident Lavina Johnson describes what it was like growing up in Winslow in the 1940s and 50’s.

In this 19-minute podcast excerpted from a one-hour and 30 minute interview with BIHM volunteer Tom Arnold, Lavina shares her experiences growing up on Bainbridge, descriptions of some of the businesses along Winslow Way in that era, and the damage to the old Lincoln School caused by the 1949 earthquake. She also describes the role of strawberry cultivation in island life at that time.

Ray Lowrie

Manzanita in the 1930s and 1940s

RAY LOWRIE

Listen here as former island resident Ray Lowrie describes what it was like growing up in Manzanita in the 1930s and 40’s.

In this 23-minute podcast, excerpted from a 90-minute interview with BIHM volunteer Tom Arnold, Ray shares his memories of growing up in Manzanita, including learning to drive at the age of 11, walking and then driving to the movies in Lynwood, and the experience riding in the “chicken coop” school buses of that era. He also shares stories of World War II, the 1949 earthquake, and his experience as a member of the 1948 Bainbridge High School state championship basketball team.

Gina Corpuz

The Indipino Community on Bainbridge Island, 1940’s

GINA CORPUZ

Gina Corpuz stands off New Brooklyn road on Bainbridge Island, on land that has been in her family for two generations. She looks in every direction, and sees the history of the Indipino community.

“The Romeros, who lived down the road, there were 12 children,” Gina says. “And then up the hill is where the Rapada children grew up, and there were 13 children in their family.”

Indipino stands for Indigenous and Filipino. It’s a community that began one summer, nearly 80 years ago, when Filipino farmhands and Indigenous berry pickers met in the strawberry fields of Bainbridge Island, and fell in love. That first summer, there were 13 marriages.

It was the beginning of a community where all the dads were Filipino, and all the mothers were Indigenous. While there were many aspects of the culture worth celebrating, Gina Corpuz still feels a pang at the thought that their Indigenous mothers were second class citizens in this mixed-heritage community.

For Gina, learning how to honor and understand her mother has been a life’s work. And now that she’s an elder in the Indipino community, she’s working to tell the stories of her mother, and all the Indigenous mothers, while they still can.

Listen to the story of one Indipino woman, and how she connected to her roots.

Credit: KNKX-FM, Seattle/Tacoma

Olaf Ribeiro

Saving Trees on Bainbridge Island

Olaf Ribeiro

Olaf Kenneth Ribeiro was born in Nairobi, Kenya and spent his youth marveling at the beautiful tropical trees in his backyard and later throughout Kenya. He went on to obtain his Ph.D in plant pathology in the hope he could use his knowledge to diagnose tree problems and to devise methods to increase their health and longevity. His knowledge has helped save many old and historic trees.

Dr. Ribeiro has been an invited speaker at numerous national and international meetings and conferences. He has also presented seminars on tree health to arborists nationally and internationally.

In this video Dr. Ribeiro, our own Bainbridge Island tree-whisperer and History Hero, shares his background and how he came to be known internationally as an arborist and plant pathologist and tells about his work to save trees and protect the environment on the Island.