History of Oregon State University Oral Histories and Sound Recordings, 1956-2024
The legacy projects held in the History of Oregon State University Oral Histories and Sound Recordings are individually numbered OH03a:01 thru OH03a:20, OH03b:01 thru OH03b:05 and OH03c:01. The identifier "a" has been designated for projects originally recorded to reel-to-reel audiotape. The identifier "b" has been given to projects recorded to audiocassette. Sound recordings and transcripts are available for all components of the collection except two tape recordings of the Library dedication (OH03a:21). Interviews originally captured onto audiocassette have been digitized to *.wav format; these files are available by request of the Special Collections & Archives Research Center. The bulk of the oral histories held in this collection were conducted by Lillian Van Loan in 1956 (16 interviews), Ilona Fry in 1980 (4 interviews), and Chris Petersen after 2012.
Lillian Van Loan interviewed the following Oregon State faculty, administrators, and alumni: Major E.C. Allworth, E.B. Beaty, Ralph Besse, Arthur G.B. Bouquet, Ava B. Milam Clark, Bertha Davis, Melissa Martin Dawes, Henry Hartman, Helen Holgate, E.B. Lemon, Lora Lemon, C.V. Ruzek, J.W. Sherburne, Gertrude Strickland, E.W. Warrington, Jessamine Williams, and May Workinger. The interviews address a variety of topics including the development of academic programs at Oregon State; campus buildings and facilities; college presidents, especially William Jasper Kerr and Thomas M. Gatch; programs and activities during World War II; agricultural research and the Experiment Station; the establishment and growth of the Memorial Union; and student activities.
Ilona Fry interviewed four Oregon State alumni, faculty, and administrators in 1980: Gordon W. Gilkey, J. Granville Jensen, Miriam Orzech, and Linus Pauling. The interview of Gordon Gilkey documents Gilkey's work with the restitution of artworks in Europe after World War II, his years as a faculty member and administrator at Oregon State, and the development of humanities and social science academic programs. Jensen's interview provides information about the geography and natural resources academic programs at Oregon State; the relationship between the geography departments at OSU and the University of Oregon; international programs; and geography faculty. The Orzech interview (available online) is focused on the Educational Opportunities Program and academic support services for minority students at Oregon State; Orzech discusses the Chicano Student Union, Black Student Union, and Native American Students Association as well as racial prejudice in Corvallis. In his interview (available online) Pauling discusses a variety of topics in his interview, including his Nobel Prizes, the effects of Vitamin C, his student years at Oregon Agricultural College, his peace activities and protests against nuclear testing, and his chemistry research.
Five of the oral histories in the collection were conducted by other interviewers. The interview of Oliver V. Matthews was conducted in 1959 by Dean McCulloch and Charles Ross and addresses Matthews' explorations and study of Oregon trees. The interview of Beulah and Helen Gilkey (available online) was conducted in 1966 by Betty Lynd Thompson and focuses on the history of physical education at OSU. The interview of Nona Snell was conducted in 1974 by Veronica Sitton; Snell discusses her husband's aunt, Margaret Snell, the homes that Snell built on Monroe Avenue, and her involvement with the Village Improvement Society and the planting of trees in Corvallis.
The interview of William Robbins was conducted in 2012 by Chris Petersen and focuses on Robbins' recollections of noted revisionist historian William Appleman Williams. Petersen also led the 2018 interview with Monte Campbell focusing on the history of physical education for women at OSC in the early 1950s - Monte's son Glen assisted with this interview - and the 2019 interview with Charles Goodrich focusing on Goodrich's career as a writer and gardener, as well as his work as director of the Spring Creek Project at OSU. Petersen likewise conducted 2019 interviews with Tom Kirch, the former director of Recreational Sports at OSU; Dick Clinton, emeritus professor of Political Science; Sam Stern, emeritus professor and former dean of Education; Betty Miner, former instructor in Home Economics; Bill Wilkins, economist and Dean Emeritus of the College of Liberal Arts; and Caroline Wilkins, former History instructor and vice-chair of the Democratic National Committee from 1972-1977. In 2023 Petersen interviewed OSU emeritus professors Marlan Carlson (Music), Gary Ferngren (History), Katharine Hunter-Zaworski (Civil Engineering), Becky Johnson (Forestry; OSU Cascades; OSU President Emerita), Larry Lev (Agricultural Economics), John Wager (Electrical Engineering) and Conrad J. "Bud" Weiser (Horticulture). That same year, Tiah Edmunson-Morton conducted an interview with Jo Anne Trow, OSU's least Dean of Women and first female vice president.
The collection includes several other sound recordings, including a lecture by Ava Milam Clark in 1963 on her personal philosophy and the early history of home economics at Oregon State; farewell speeches by the wives of Oregon State Presidents, James H. Jensen and A.L. Strand, on the occasion of the Jensens' departure from Oregon State in 1969; and This is OSU recorded in 1962 for the Voice of America. A recording of students in the Air Force Cadet Moonflight Simulator is also included as are two audiotapes of the Library dedication. The Library dedication tapes are undated, but are likely of the 1963 dedication of the new Kerr Library building. A video recording of OSU President Emeritus John Byrne's memorial celebration is also a component of this collection.
Lillian Schroeder Van Loan conducted oral histories of Oregon State faculty and administrators for her doctoral dissertation, Historical Perspective of Oregon State College, submitted in 1959. Van Loan completed her Ed.D. degree at Oregon State College in 1959.
An oral history program was established within the Oregon State University Archives in 1970 with Ilona Fry as oral historian. The initial focus of the oral history program was the development of the liberal arts at Oregon State University and recorded the recollections of liberal arts faculty and OSU administrators. The oral histories conducted by Van Loan in 1956 were used to inform this latter work. Fry left Oregon State in September 1980.
Edward C. Allworth graduated from Oregon Agricultural College in 1916 and joined the college faculty in 1925 as manager of the Memorial Union, a position he held until his retirement in 1963.
E.B. (Edward Benjamin) Beaty earned a BS degree in electrical engineering from Oregon Agricultural College in 1903; he became a faculty member in mathematics in 1908 and continued until his retirement in 1947. Ralph S. Besse served as a farm management extension specialist and administrator in the Agricultural Experiment Station from 1922 until his retirement in 1953. Arthur G.B. Bouquet completed a BS degree in horticulture at Oregon Agricultural College in 1906 and was a faculty member in the Oregon State College Horticulture Department from 1909 until his retirement in 1950.
John Byrne (1928-2024) made an indelible impact on Oregon State University through an association that spanned more than five decades. A trained geologist, Byrne arrived in Corvallis in 1960 as one of Oregon State College's first faculty members in Oceanography. Over time, Byrne assumed the chairmanship of the Oceanography Department and later became Dean of OSU's newly formed School of Oceanography. In 1976 Byrne moved into upper administration, first as Dean of Research and later as Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies. Following a three-year stint in Washington, D.C., where he served as head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Byrne returned to Corvallis as the twelfth President in OSU history. Byrne's presidency lasted from 1984-1995, a time period during which he did much to modernize university operations amidst a budget crisis caused by significant reductions in state funding for higher education.
Monte (Middlebusher) Campbell, born in 1931, graduated from Oregon State College in 1953, a member of the first class of women to earn Physical Education degrees from Oregon State.
Marlan Carlson (b.1937) was a professor of music at Oregon State University from 1969-2023, serving as department chair from 1993-2010. Carlson also led the Corvallis-OSU Symphony Orchestra beginning in 1985.
Ava Milam Clark served as Dean of Home Economics at Oregon State College from 1917 until 1950. Bertha Davis attended the primary and secondary departments of Corvallis College and earned her BS degree in domestic science and arts in 1889 and MS in home economics in 1909. As of 1925, she was manager of Wagner's Cafe in Corvallis. Melissa Martin Dawes joined the faculty in modern languages at Oregon Agricultural College in 1915; she served as chair of the Modern Languages Department from 1930 until her retirement in 1960.
Dick Clinton was a faculty member at OSU from 1976 to his retirement in 2004. Initially an administrator working in the College of Liberal Arts dean's office, Clinton later transitioned to a faculty position in Political Science, where he focused primarily on foreign relations. Much of his research focused on population dynamics and socio-economic development in Latin America generally, and Peru in particular.
Gary Ferngren was a professor of History at OSU from 1970-2020. A historian of the ancient world, Ferngren made a particular impact in his analysis of the intersections of medicine, healing and religion over time. In addition to teaching numerous courses within the History department and the Honors College, Ferngren was active with the International Society for the History of Medicine and served as faculty advisor to fifteen different student organizations at OSU.
Beulah Gilkey earned a BS degree from Oregon Agricultural College (OAC) in 1910. She worked as an assistant in the OAC Registrar's Office form 1910 until 1917, when she returned to school at OAC to prepare for teaching. She earned a second BS degree in 1918. She taught school in Corvallis and Portland and worked again at Oregon State College as a clerical assistant in the summers of 1943 and 1944. Beulah Gilkey was born in Washington in 1890 and her family moved to Corvallis in 1903. She died in 1977 in Corvallis. Her older sister was Helen Gilkey.
Gordon W. Gilkey earned a fine arts degree in printmaking from the University of Oregon in 1912. He worked for the War Department in Europe after World War II on the restitution of fine art. Gilkey joined the art faculty at Oregon State College in 1947 and retired from Oregon State in 1978 as Dean of the College of Liberal Arts.
Helen Gilkey was born on March 6, 1886, in Montesano, Washington. She moved with her family to Corvallis in 1903. She received her MA at Oregon Agricultural College in 1911 and her PhD at University of California at Berkeley in 1915. From 1915 until 1918, she worked as a scientific illustrator at Berkeley. Curator of the herbarium at OAC from 1918 until 1951, Gilkey was also a Professor of Botany. She had 44 publications to her credit, 10 on vascular plant taxonomy and 10 on Tuberales. She died in 1972.
Charles Goodrich is a Corvallis-based poet and essayist, and also the former director of the Spring Creek Project for Ideas, Nature and the Written Word at Oregon State University. For many years, Goodrich was also a professional gardener.
Henry Hartman joined the horticulture faculty at Oregon Agricultural College in 1919 as a pomologist and served as a Professor of Horticulture at Oregon State until his retirement in 1960. Helen Holgate graduated from Oregon Agricultural College (OAC) in 1895 with a BS in domestic science and arts; she later worked in the Clerical Exchange at OAC. J. Granville Jensen joined the Geography Department faculty in 1946 and served as department chair from 1946 to 1964.
Katharine Hunter-Zaworski earned a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from OSU in 1988 and joined the department's faculty that same year. An early woman faculty member in the OSU College of Engineering, Hunter-Zaworski's research has focused on advancing accessibility inititiatives in public transportation and elsewhere.
Becky Johnson came to OSU in 1984 as a natural resources economist working in the College of Forestry. From 2008 to 2021, she served as Vice President for OSU Cascades, and from May 2021 to September 2022, served as Interim President of Oregon State University.
Tom Kirch (b. 1949) served as Director of Recreational Sports at OSU from 1986 to his retirement in 2016. During his career, he oversaw two major expansions of Dixon Recreation Center, as well as renovations of the Tennis Pavilion and McAlexander Fieldhouse, and the creation of Student Legacy Park.
E.B. Lemon graduated from Oregon Agricultural College in 1911 with a degree in business; he was a faculty member in the School of Commerce until 1943 and served as University Registrar from 1922 to 1943 and as Dean of Administration from 1943 until his retirement in 1950. Lora Maud Hansell Lemon earned a BS in Commerce from Oregon Agricultural College; she married E.B. Lemon. Dendrologist Oliver Matthews traveled extensively in Oregon for more than 40 years in pursuit of trees, particularly the biggest of each species.
Larry Lev began his tenure as an OSU faculty member in 1984 as administrator of the Tanzanian Farming Systems Project, based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. In 1986 he moved to the Corvallis campus and became a member of the Agricultural Economics faculty, working closely with OSU Extension as well. Among many other research topics, Lev conducted influential work on community farmers' markets.
Betty Miner was an Instructor in Foods and Nutrition at Oregon State University from 1972-1983. Her husband, Ron Miner, was a faculty member in Agricultural Engineering who later served as Associate Dean of the College of Agriculture and Associate Director of the Office of International Research and Development.
Miriam Orzech was Assistant Director and Academic Coordinator for the Educational Opportunities Program (EOP) from 1969 to 1974, when she became Director of the program. Linus Pauling earned a BS degree in chemical engineering from Oregon Agricultural College (OAC) in 1922 and became renown for his work as a scientist and peace activist. He met Ava Helen Miller at OAC and they were married in 1923. Charles V. Ruzek was a Professor Soils at Oregon State College from 1914 until his retirement in 1954.
William Robbins served as a faculty member in the Oregon State University History Department from 1971 until his retirement in 1999 as Emeritus Distinguished Professor of History. Robbins earned his B.S. from Western Connecticut State College and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Oregon. He was named a Distinguished Professor at OSU in 1997. Specializing in the history of the western United States from an economic and environmental perspective, Robbins has written extensively on the history of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. Robbins was also a close colleague of William Appleman Williams (1921-1990), about whom Robbins speaks in the interview held in this collection.
James Wilson Sherburne joined the Oregon State faculty in 1938 in the Psychology Department. He became Dean of the General Extension Division of the Oregon State System of Higher Education in 1956. Sherburne returned to Oregon State University later in his career and retired in 1972. Nona Snell's husband was the nephew of Margaret Comstock Snell. Gertrude Strickland joined the faculty of Oregon Agricultural College as an Instructor of Household Art in 1920; she became head of the Clothing, Textiles, and Related Arts Department in 1948 and retired in 1953.
Sam Stern was a faculty member in the College of Education at Oregon State University from 1981-2016, serving as dean of the Education unit from 2002-2011. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Stern spent more than three years at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, where he conducted research on technical training and corporate creativity.
Dance professor Betty Lynd Thompson came to Oregon State College in 1927 to teach dance in the Department of Physical Education for Women. Until 1945, she taught all dance classes -- modern, folk, square, tap, and ballroom -- as well as basic rhythm and movement. She retired from OSU in 1972.
Jo Anne Trow worked as Dean of Women, Associate Dean of Students and Vice President of Student Affairs at OSU during a career that spanned the years 1965-1995. She was the last Dean of Women and the first woman Vice President in university history.
John Wager is professor emeritus in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Oregon State University, where he worked from 1984-2018. Among many other contributions, his laboratory group is renowned for having created the first transparent transistor in 2001. Wager is also an OSU alum, having earned his bachelor's degree in Engineering Physics in 1977.
Ernest W. Warrington began his career at Oregon State College as the Campus YMCA General Secretary in 1921; in 1928, he was appointed as Professor and Head of the Religion Department. Warrington retired in 1952. Jessamine Chapman Williams joined the faculty of Oregon Agricultural College in 1923 as head of the Foods and Nutrition Department, a position she held until 1944. Williams retired in 1946. Clytie May Workinger headed the teacher placement office, as Placement Secretary, from 1923 until her retirement in 1955.
Bill Wilkins was a Professor of Economics at Oregon State University from 1961 to 1994, and served as Dean of the College of Liberal Arts from 1982 to 1994.
Caroline Wilkins served as vice-chair of the Democratic Party of Oregon from 1968-1974, and as vice-chair of the Democratic National Committee from 1972-1977. Married to Bill Wilkins, Caroline also served as administrator of the Oregon Consumer Services Division from 1977-1981 before launching a consulting firm, Wilkins Associates, that operated until her retirement in 2012.
Author: Elizabeth Nielsen and Chris Petersen