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Cofounder of Multnomah Village’s Annie Bloom’s Books

Roberta Tichenor MALS ’67

September 3, 2024.

Roberta “Bobby” Tichenor, cofounder of Multnomah Village’s beloved Annie Bloom’s Books, was born in Bend, Oregon, in 1944. She spent her childhood hiking, exploring the Cascades and the high desert, riding horses, tending to animals (including her sheep, Twinkle Toes), and, in her own words, “being a tomboy generally” with her older brother, Bill.

Bobby began her lifelong love of books and reading after becoming “smitten” with Teddy Roosevelt’s book Through the Brazilian Wilderness at age nine. She moved, rather reluctantly, with her family to Milwaukie, Oregon, when she was 15. At Milwaukie High School, she met her future husband, Keith Tichenor.

Shortly after their wedding, Bobby began graduate studies at Reed College in Portland, while Keith pursued a law degree at the University of Washington in Seattle. In 1969, Bobby and Keith settled in Portland and began their family together. Their first son, Seth, was born in 1970, and their second, Sean, in 1972.

Bobby finished her master’s degree at Reed (where she wrote a thesis on James Dickey’s Into the Stone) in 1973 and then began pursuing her own law degree at Lewis & Clark in 1974. She practiced law part time for a little over a year, but found it didn’t suit her temperament.

In 1978, over a bottle of red wine, Bobby and Susan Bloom dreamt up a plan to open a bookstore in the then-dilapidated neighborhood of Multnomah Village. Annie Bloom’s Books opened in late October of 1978, while Bobby was still in law school, at 7829 SW Multnomah Boulevard. The store was named after its two founding partners: Bobby, whose middle name was Ann, and Susan Bloom.

Annie Bloom’s moved across the street to its present location at 7834 SW Capitol Highway in the fall of 1984, and was remodeled in 1994. The store was a catalyst of renewal in Multnomah Village, and an economic and cultural anchor for the neighborhood as well. A second branch opened on NW 23rd and Glisan in 1985, but closed a few years later. In recent years, Bobby took on a more reserved role at Annie Bloom’s, officially turning the store over to Will Peters in 2021.

Bobby held a deep belief that the power of books came as much from their being shared and discussed as from being read—that they needed to be experienced, seen, and touched within a community that cared for them in order to be appreciated. By cofounding Annie Bloom’s Books, she created a bibliophile’s sanctuary.

Bobby is survived by her husband, Keith, and her sons, Seth and Sean.

Appeared in Reed magazine: Spring 2025

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