OSHP was founded in 1953 by Frank Hollister, a young pharmacist who started out working at a downtown Portland prescription pharmacy but then later became a staff pharmacist at Good Samaritan Hospital. He was the first to convene a small group of pharmacists interested in hospital practice. The group's desire to start a society was influenced by members' attendance at an ASHP hospital pharmacy institute meeting held in California that same year. Probably, at Mr. Hollister's instigation, his superior, Charles Harlocker, was elected the first president of the society. The organization was named the Society of Hospital Pharmacists in the State of Oregon in those days.