Ronald "Ron" Magden (1926 - 2019) was a historian from

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, southwest of Bellevue, Washington, Bellevue, northeast of the state capital, Olympia ...

who specialized in maritime

labor history Labor history is a sub-discipline of social history which specializes on the history of the working classes and the labor movement. Labor historians may concern themselves with issues of gender, race, ethnicity, and other factors besides class ...

and

Japanese-American history Japanese American history is the history of Japanese Americans or the history of Japanese diaspora, ethnic Japanese in the United States. People from Empire of Japan, Japan began Immigration to the United States, immigrating to the U.S. in signif ...

in the

Puget Sound region The Puget Sound region is a coastal area of the Pacific Northwest in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington, including Puget Sound, the Puget Sound lowlands, and the surrounding region roughly west of the Cascade Range and east of the ...

Early life and career

Ron Magden was born in

Mountain Home, Idaho Mountain Home is the largest city in and the county seat of Elmore County, Idaho, United States. The population was 15,979 in the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The population in 2024 is projected to be 16,921. It is the principal city o ...

. Magden credited his early interest in history and social movements to his mother, who he described as a "very forceful union person and ..very opposed to racial discrimination of any kind." Magden was in high school in 1941 when

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Reci ...

was bombed and the US entered World War II and observed the

anti-Japanese sentiment Anti-Japanese sentiment (also called Japanophobia, Nipponophobia and anti-Japanism) is the fear or dislike of Japan or Japanese culture. Anti-Japanese sentiment can take many forms, from antipathy toward Japan as a country to racist hatr ...

in Boise and the mass incarceration of Japanese-Americans during that time. In 1965, Magden received his PhD in history from the University of Washington. He began teaching at the newly opened

Tacoma Community College Tacoma Community College (TCC) is a public community college in Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle ...

, teaching the second ever class offered at the institution.

Contributions to labor history

In the early 1980s, Magden was commissioned by

ILWU The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) is a labor union which primarily represents dock workers on the West Coast of the United States, Hawaii, and in British Columbia, Canada; on the East Coast, the dominant union is the Intern ...

, local 23, and the

Port of Tacoma The Port of Tacoma is an independent seaport in Tacoma, Washington. The port was created by a vote of Pierce County citizens on November 5, 1918. The ''Edmore'' was the first ship to call at the port in 1921. The port's marine cargo operations, am ...

to write a history of the union, funded by a grant from the Washington Commission for the Humanities. The commission had originally been granted to Tacoma writer and journalist Mary Deaton, but she was removed from the project after taking a pro- CIO position in her original draft that at times presented the union in a negative light. Magden was hired to finish the project, and in 1982 he published ''The Working Waterfront: Tacoma's Ships and Men'' with Art Martinson. The book was primarily based on

oral history Oral history is the collection and study of historical information from people, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people who pa ...

interviews with retired longshore pensioners. Magden published an updated version of the book, titled ''The Working Longshoreman'', in 1991. The Port of Tacoma continues to regularly use Magden's book as a point of reference into the present-day. In 1987, Magden was approached by ILWU, local 19 (Seattle longshore local), to write a history of their union. For the next three years, Magden interviewed pensioners every week. His book ''A History of Seattle Waterfront Workers, 1884-1934'' was published in 1991. Magden engaged in a number of projects in the later half of his life to promote labor history education. At the urging of Tacoma longshoreman and labor leader Phil Lelli, Magden continued writing articles about waterfront history for the Port of Tacoma's ''Pacific Gateway'' magazine and served on the ILWU Education Committee to help educate newer union members about the union's history. Magden served a term as president of the Tacoma Historical Society. In addition, Magden also helped found the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies and the

Labor Archives of Washington The Labor Archives of Washington is a special collection at the University of Washington Libraries dedicated to preserving documents from the labor movement in Washington state. Background The Labor Archives were founded by Conor Casey in 2010 fu ...

at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

. As an act of gratitude for his work in publishing ''The Working Waterfront'', Magden was named an honorary member of the Pacific Coast Pensioners' Association, the ILWU's organization for retired longshore workers. In recognition for his contributions to the fields of labor and maritime history, Magden was named the 2012 Labor History Person of the Year by the Pacific Northwest Labor History Association.

Japanese-American historical research

Though best known for his contributions to the field of labor history, Magden also published two books about

Japanese Americans are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian Americans, Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 United States census, 2000 census, they have declined in ...

in the Puget Sound region. His first book on the subject, ''Furusato: Tacoma-Pierce County Japanese, 1888-1977'', was published in 1998. Magden worked closely with the Japanese American community in Pierce County to reconstruct a history of the community before the mass incarceration from

Executive Order 9066 Executive Order 9066 was a President of the United States, United States presidential executive order signed and issued during World War II by United States president Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942. "This order authorized the fo ...

in World War II. Magden also published ''Mukashi, Mukashi =: Long, Long Ago: The First Century of the Seattle Buddhist Church'' about the Seattle Betsuin Buddhist Temple in 2008.

Selected list of published material

* Magden, Ron and Martinson, Art.
The Working Longshoreman
'' Tacoma Longshore Book & Res, 1991. * Magden, Ron.
A History of Seattle Waterfront Workers
'. Tacoma Longshore Book & Res, 1991. * Magden, Ron. ''Furusato: Tacoma-Pierce County Japanese, 1888-1977''. Tacoma Longshore Book & Res, 1998. * Magden, Ron. ''Mukashi, Mukashi =: Long, Long Ago: The First Century of the Seattle Buddhist Church''. Seattle Betsuin Buddhist Temple, 2008. * Schwartz, Harvey with Magden, Ron. ''Labor Under Siege: Big Bob McEllrath and the ILWU's Fight for Organized Labor in an Anti-Union Era.'' University of Washington Press, 2022.

Early life and career

Contributions to labor history

Japanese-American historical research

Selected list of published material

See also

References

Further reading