Junius Rochester

Junius Rochester was born and raised in Seattle, Washington.  He graduated from Seattle’s Garfield High School; Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington; took graduate courses in history at the University of Washington, Seattle, and attended Harvard Business School, Boston, Massachusetts.

Junius’s grandparents were Pacific Northwest pioneers. Continuing the family legacy of history and heritage, Junius holds membership in the Washington State Historical Society, the Oregon Historical Society, the Pacific Northwest Historians Guild (past president) and The Pioneer Association of the State of Washington (past president).  In 1995, he was given a Project Award by the Association of King County Historical Organizations and the King County Landmarks and Heritage Commission.  In 2006, Junius received an Award of Merit from the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH).  The Historians Guild in 2014 gave him its Annual Award for a lifetime of work in the field of history.  In 2017, the Washington State Historical Society presented Junius with its David Douglas Award for outstanding historical presentations.

After a career in international business, which included managing trade fairs for the U.S. Department of Commerce and holding executive positions at MacMillan Bloedel, Ltd., Canada’s largest forest products company which had facilities throughout Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Spain and Brazil, he turned to his favorite avocation: writing and historical research.

Junius is the author of ten books and was a columnist for Seattle Weekly (“Eminent Seattleites”).   He has written numerous articles and over 100 historical vignettes which for seven years he read weekly on KUOW-FM, a National Public Radio (NPR) outlet.  Junius gives presentations to civic, educational and historical organizations and aboard cruise ships.