About You

Over the years, Life History Services has served a wide variety of clients, from laypersons to luminaries, from single individuals to extended families, from small family businesses to large federal agencies. We would be honored to serve you too. Please let us know who you are and what you are interested in. If we don’t offer what you are looking for, we will do our best to point you towards other resources. To learn more about who we serve, please visit:

I have done several limited oral histories for certain parts of my public life, but yours was more of a complete picture of my role as U.S. Secretary of Education. I am very pleased with the final product. You handled the interview, written biography, and transcript in a professional and effective manner. It would be a pleasure for me to recommend you to others for a very professionally-done oral history.

Richard Riley

Former U.S. Secretary of Education & Governor of South Carolina, States’ Impact on Federal Education Policy Oral History Project

You have a way of putting your subjects at ease and making them feel as though they and their personal stories are the most important of all the ones you have done.

Marvin Schonberg

Administrator/Writer, California

All we can say is that we were overwhelmed! The videos and print biographies were beautifully done, the music was most appropriate and, according to our three children, we looked great! Seeing ourselves on the video and sharing many experiences that we had never shared with our children was beautiful. We wouldn’t want to change anything.

Katy & Shawki Ibrahim

Educator & Engineer, Parents & Grandparents, Indiana

So many gave time and thought to our oral history project, but the key to its success is the work of Anita Hecht, the oral historian who conducted all the interviews. I found she was totally qualified to handle the broad range of topics pursued and the broad variety of people interviewed.

Ellen Proxmire

US Senator William Proxmire Oral History Project of the Wisconsin Historical Society

My parents felt comfortable with you and shared details that might have been lost forever had you not been such an experienced and professional interviewer.

Edith

Editor, Wisconsin

I was pleased beyond any expectations. Anita has the technique and ability to make the interviewee feel comfortable.

Myer

Attorney, California

Ms. Hecht created an atmosphere of trust and comfort, both of which helped me to relate the rather difficult yet significant experiences of my life.

Hans

Holocaust Survivor, Wisconsin

In oral history as in journalism, accuracy is paramount. As the retired Washington bureau chief of The Milwaukee Journal and its successor, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, I worked with Anita Hecht on the William Proxmire Oral History Project. Throughout the project, Ms. Hecht was thoroughly professional, but most importantly, the end product was impeccably accurate and professionally executed.

Frank Aukofer

Retired Journalist, Washington DC, US Senator William Proxmire Oral History Project of the Wisconsin Historical Society

Your gentle questioning and sympathetic manner helped me search and express ideas that had never occurred to me, but lay buried in my subconscious.

Joseph

Cantor-Educator, California

As the Archivist of Temple Emanu-El, an historic San Francisco congregation founded in 1850, my association with Ms. Hecht began in 2004 when she and I embarked on a project to digitize a series of decade-old oral histories she conducted in the 1990s. I cannot emphasize enough my respect for Ms. Hecht’s professionalism and for the initiative, creativity, and practicality she brought to our project. Furthermore, as I watched each of the interviews she conducted on behalf of Temple Emanu-El, I was especially struck by the sensitivity with which she guided her subjects. It was readily apparent that her preparation for each interview was extensive and that her ability to gain the trust of each subject and engage him or her in a lively, meaningful conversation was impressive. In addition, the supplementary written materials, which accompanied each interview could not have been more expertly produced.

Paula Freedman

Archivist, Edith S. Green Oral History Project of Temple Emanu-El, San Francisco, CA