About our Founder

1967 - Orpha Christianson and then Board of Directors President Dr. Ludvig Eskildsen

Orpha Christianson, Founder
A Long View of a Born Social Worker

By 1947, Orpha Christianson had already led a life committed to social work in Washington and Oregon. A born social worker, Mrs. Christianson had a bachelor's degree in social work from Oregon's Reed College (she would later receive a master's degree in social work from Reed). From the early 1920s, she provided social services in a variety of settings and job descriptions. By virtue of her dedication, Orpha Christianson held several executive leadership positions in the social service field. Testimony to her strength, she continued to excel as a leader in a time when women were not readily accepted as such.

By the early 1940s, Orpha Christianson was the administrator for social service programs for the western counties in the State of Washington. Her reputation as an effective leader and service provide in the field soon brought offers of State jobs with even more responsibility. Washington State's loss would be Cowlitz County's gain. Mrs. Christianson decided several years of driving around the State were plenty, and she really did not want to spend even more time on the road away from her family. She gave up her administrative position with the State and availed herself of new challenges back in Longview. Orpha Christianson accounts for her early work in social services in her autobiography, The Longview of the Welfare Program, A Social Worker Looks Back, 1976, Vantage Press (limited copies available at the Cowlitz County Historical Museum).

Orpha Christianson was the perfect leader for an organization that would take on the most difficult of social issues and champion progressive treatment of populations most people dismissed as untreatable. Orpha Christianson became the first President of the Board of Directors, as well as Executive Social Worker, of the organization first established in 1947 as Cowlitz County Guidance Center, that would later be incorporated as Cowlitz County Guidance Association. She would serve the agency as Executive Social Worker until her retirement in 1969.

In honor of Orpha Christianson, Cowlitz County Guidance Association's Board of Directors established the Orpha P. Christianson Endowment Fund for Children and Families. The Board of Directors passed the resolution at the Fiftieth Annual Meeting an Anniversary Celebration, and awarded Mrs. Christianson's family members with a commemorative plaque to mark the event.

Presented with pride and gratitude

to the family of

Orpha P. Christianson

In recognition of 23 years of service as

Founder, President and Executive Social Worker

of the Cowlitz County Guidance Association

On the agency's 50th Anniversary,

to commemorate her vision and character,

the Board of Directors establishes the

Orpha P. Christianson
Endowment Fund for Children and Families

Board Resolution
September 19, 2003