Oregon State Archives News

Long Time Volunteer H. Daraleen Wade Passes

Volunteer Daraleen Wade (right) is congratulated by then-Secretary of State Bill Bradbury (left) and State Archivist Mary Beth Herkert during a 2007 reception in the gallery of the Archives Building.

The Archives Division staff are mourning the loss of long time volunteer Daraleen Wade who passed away April 6th after a long illness. Daraleen had been a volunteer at the State Archives since 1992, and contributed thousands of hours during her nearly twenty years of volunteer service. She continued to volunteer remotely even after her health prevented her from coming to the Archives Building. Daraleen was the consummate volunteer and genealogist. As other Archives volunteers have stated, “She was the best genealogist I ever met.” She had spent years researching her Phillips and Wade family lines and had been actively involved in the worldwide genealogical community for more than thirty years before volunteering at the Archives.

When Daraleen first began volunteering at the Archives, she worked on arranging and describing archives holdings. In 1993, she went out on the road with another Archives staff member to help with the initial county inventories that are now part of the Oregon Historical County Records Guide. Shortly after that project ended, the Archives partnered with the Genealogical Society of Utah on an ambitious microfilming project. Daraleen helped recruit additional volunteers for that undertaking and performed a significant portion of the data entry for the indexes created for the project and which would become the basis for the Oregon Historical Records Index. During the last seven years she contributed to the Early Oregonians database that was conceived as part of the Sesquicentennial observations in 2009. Volunteers and staff continue to work on the database, but we will miss her expertise and commitment to making it as complete and accurate as possible.

Daralene also had a great interest in and took the time to mentor and support a number of the Archives Division’s student interns. Many continued to maintain contact with her after moving on in their professional careers.

Born in Mehama she spent part of her youth living on the Oregon Coast, as well as Detroit and Estacada. After her marriage, she and her husband Wayne moved to the Salem area where they raised their family in Keizer. She loved to visit a family cabin she maintained at the central coast and enjoyed traveling,especially through Europe, often with one of her grandchildren as a traveling companion. Daraleen is survived by her children Barbara Rowe (Dwight), Patty Dela (Paul) and David Wade; five grandchildren; and her Archives family. She will be missed by all who knew her!