Dr. Robert M. Senkewicz was born in New York City. After attending graduate school at Stanford University, he became a history professor at Santa Clara University, a Jesuit institution near San Jose, California, in 1976, a position he still holds today. He has collaborated with his wife, Rose Marie Beebe, on several books about the history of California including Lands of Promise and Despair: Chronicles of Early California, 1535–1846; Testimonios: Early California through the Eyes of Women, 1815–1848; and “To Toil in That Vineyard of the Lord”: Contemporary Scholarship on Junípero Serra. Their new book, Junipero Serra: California, Indians, and the Transformation of a Missionary (University of Oklahoma Press), is available in bookstores everywhere. Professor Senkewicz is a Catholic, and volunteers to lead tours of Mission Santa Clara de Asis on the University grounds. He recently spoke with CWR about Blessed Junipero.