New Beaverton group makes history

The city gets a historical society thanks to the work of Michael Wong

By David Holley

The Beaverton Valley Times, Mar 12, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

Jonathan House / The Beaverton Valley Times

Michael Wong of the Beaverton Historical Society leads a discussion at Tuesday’s meeting.

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It shocked Michael Wong when he heard that Beaverton history isn’t taught in Beaverton schools.

Wong wondered what would prevent a teenager from defacing a sign on Denny Road if he or she didn’t know that it was named after Thomas Denny, the area’s first sawmill owner.

After being here for four years, Wong has stopped wondering and started doing. As the founder of the Beaverton Historical Society, he has a list of goals that is pages long. But among them is using Feb. 10 as a day to teach students about Beaverton history.

Feb. 10 was picked because that was the day Beaverton was founded in 1893. It is also, thanks to Wong and the historical society, Beaverton’s birthday, after Mayor Denny Doyle proclaimed it so on Feb. 9.

“History is what gives us identity,” said Wong, 42. “It’s really the groove that will bond everyone together.”

Bringing the community together is something that Wong said he hopes to do in Beaverton. A transplant from Los Angeles, Wong has involved himself in multiple organizations and committees, such as Leadership Beaverton and the Jenkins Estate Advisory Committee.

For work, he runs the Nodds Neighborhood Web site, a database of neighborhood-by-neighborhood listings of restaurants, businesses and community events. But he spends a great deal of time running to and from the various meetings for his volunteer organizations.

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