Local History Interviews

Mission Viejo Library staff and the Mission Viejo Heritage Committee have completed a year-long grant project capturing oral history interviews from key members of the Mission Viejo Company. These interviews describe the unique history of Mission Viejo and provide an inside look at what it took to build one of the first planned communities in the nation.

 The following interviews were filmed in the MVTV studio and full transcripts were created from these interviews. 

Thomas C. Blum and W.W. "Bill" Knitz Video: Part 1 of 1 Transcript
Robert T. Bunyan Video: Part 1 of 3 Video: Part 2 of 3 Video: Part 3 of 3 Transcript
David Celestin Video: Part 1 of 2 Video: Part 2 of 2 Transcript
Arthur S. Cook Video: Part 1 of 3 Video: Part 2 of 3 Video: Part 3 of 3 Transcript
Wendy Wetzel Harder Video: Part 1 of 2 Video: Part 2 of 2 Transcript
John T. Martin Video: Part 1 of 4 Video: Part 2 of 4 Video: Part 3 of 4 Video: Part 4 of 4 Transcript
Wayne E. Peterson Video: Part 1 of 2 Video: Part 2 of 2 Transcript
Harvey Stearn Video: Part 1 of 3 Video: Part 2 of 3 Video: Part 3 of 3 Transcript
James G. Toepfer Video: Part 1 of 2 Video: Part 2 of 2 Transcript

This oral history project was made possible by funding from a Library Service and Technology Act grant, administered through the California State Library.