This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
By Finding aid prepared by Chris Petersen.
Title: History of Science Oral History Collection, 2009-2023
Predominant Dates: 2011-2013
ID: OH 017
Primary Creator: Oregon State University. Libraries. Special Collections & Archives Research Center
Extent: 196.7 gigabytes. More info below.
Arrangement: Interviews are arranged chronologically by date of interview.
Languages of Materials: English [eng]
The History of Science Oral History Collection consists primarily of interviews with scientists, with special emphasis placed on individuals who knew and worked with Linus Pauling. Also included are interviews with members of the Pauling family as well as interviews with family members of other scientists.
Access to the Cheryl Pauling Interview #1 is restricted due to the presence of confidential information. Permission for access may be granted only by Cheryl Pauling. All requests for access to this material should be directed to the University Archivist.
The History of Science Oral History Collection seeks to document the lives and work of scientists associated in some way with Oregon State University, with a particular emphasis placed on capturing the stories of those who knew and worked with Dr. Linus Pauling (1901-1994). Interviews have been conducted with scientists themselves as well as with family members and associates willing to share their memories of specific scientists both as individuals and historical figures.
Of particular note are the five-part series of interviews conducted with Kenneth Hedberg and documenting his long career at OSU and at the California Institute of Technology; the six-part series conducted with Stephen Lawson that focuses in large part on the forty-year history of the Linus Pauling Institute; and the eight interviews given by Linus Pauling Jr. in which he recounts his memories of growing up in a famous family and of living with a memorable name.
Many interviews have been recorded directly to digital audio and saved as wav files, with mp3 files created for researcher access. Several more interviews were recorded to video and have been transferred to both digital video and audio formats.
Nearly all of the interviews have been transcribed. Materials assembled in the process of developing interview topics and permissions forms signed by interview subjects are also held on site.
Dan Arp (b. 1954) is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Botany and Plant Pathology who conducted significant work in the area of nitrification. Arp is also a past Dean of both the OSU Honors College and the College of Agricultural Science.
Mina Carson (b. 1953) is an Associate Professor of History at Oregon State University and the author of Ava Helen Pauling: Partner, Activist, Visionary (Oregon State University Press, 2013).
Stella Coakley (b. 1948) is a plant pathologist who has conducted influential work on the connection between climate variability and plant disease epidemics. Coakley also served as chair of the Botanty and Plant Pathology department at OSU from 1988-2004, and as associate dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences from 2004 to her retirement in 2015.
Jack Corliss (b. 1936) was a geologist and faculty member in Oceanography at OSU from 1970 to 1981, during which time he served as Chief Scientist for the team that first discovered hydrothermal ocean vents and the life forms that live in their proximity.
Hillary Egna (b. 1958) is a professor in the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Sciences at OSU, and director of the Aquafish Innovation Laboratory.
Michael Goldman (b. 1954) is a professor of Biology at San Francisco State University and a former colleague and friend of Crellin Pauling, the youngest son of Linus and Ava Helen Pauling.
Anita Guerrini (b. 1953) is a historian of science who served as Horning Endowed Chair at Oregon State University from 2008-2018. Guerrini's research interests include the history of animals, the history of food, and the history of animal and human anatomy. Her 2015 book, The Courtiers' Anatomists: Animals and Humans in Louis XIV's Paris, received the Pfizer Award, offered annually by the History of Science Society in recognition of outstanding scholarship in the field.
Kenneth Hedberg (b. 1920) is a graduate of Oregon State College (BS, 1943) and the California Institute of Technology (Ph D., 1948), having studied chemistry at both institutions. While at Caltech, Hedberg studied under Verner Schomaker and interacted frequently with Linus Pauling. In 1956 Hedberg returned to Oregon State College where he joined the faculty of the chemistry department. Primarily a physical chemist, Hedberg, often aided by his wife Lise, has focused his research primarily upon the use of electron diffraction to determine the structures of gas phase molecules. Having formally retired from the department in 1987, Hedberg maintains an active research program as Professor Emeritus.
Rick Hicks (b. 1935) left a successful career in the financial services industry to work for the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine as an administrator and fundraiser. Hired in 1977, he left LPISM in 1992 and continued on for another nineteen years as a fundraiser for the Institute for Molecular Medicine.
Matthew Kaiser is an OSU undergraduate in microbiology (class of 2015) who has conducted research on the treatment of cancer using intravenous vitamin C.
Martin Karplus (b. 1930) is a graduate of Harvard University (BA, 1950) and the California Institute of Technology (Ph D., 1953). For the majority of his graduate studies at Caltech, Karplus worked under the direction of Linus Pauling. He has since made significant contributions to many fields of physical chemistry. Since 1979 he has served as Theodore Williams Richards Professor of Chemistry at Harvard University.
Ken Krane (b. 1944) was a member of the Physics faculty at Oregon State from 1974-2003, chairing the department from 1984-1998.
Jim Krueger (b. 1936) is an award-winning teacher who served on the OSU Chemistry faculty from 1961 to his retirement in 1998.
Albert Kordesch (b. 1949) is the second of four children born to Karl and Erna Kordesch. A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, Kordesch has enjoyed a thirty-year career in the electronics industry, focusing on the manufacture of silicon semiconductors.
Erna Kordesch (1922-2013), born Erna Böhm, was the widow of Karl Kordesch (1922-2011). A native of Austria, Erna moved to the United States with her husband and two children in 1953, when Karl Kordesch was invited to join the U.S. Signal Corps under the auspices of Operation Paperclip. Once in the U.S., Erna gave birth to two more children. After her children were raised, Erna worked as an occupational therapist in an Ohio hospital before retiring to travel with her husband and support his scientific research.
Hisako Kurotaki (b. 1948) is a Japanese national who emigrated to Canada in the 1970s. A close friend of Teresa and Ralph Spitzer, Kurotaki served as co-executor of Teresa Spitzer's estate upon her death in 1998. In 1999 Kurotaki married Ralph Spitzer.
Stephen Lawson (b. 1951) is Administrative Officer at the Linus Pauling Institute. A Stanford University graduate (BS, 1973), Lawson was hired in 1977 to serve as a research assistant at what was then known as the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine, located near the Stanford campus. Over the next twenty years, Lawson came to assume increasing amounts of responsibility and was named Chief Executive Officer of LPISM in the early 1990s. In 1996 Lawson was among a small handful of LPISM employees to move with the organization to its new location on the campus of Oregon State University.
Judy Li (b. 1945) was a faculty member in the Oregon State University Fisheries and Wildlife department from 1991-2006, during which time she conducted research on aquatic invertebrates and created an early distance learning and Difference, Power and Discrimination course titled "Multicultural Perspectives in Natural Resources." She is also the co-author of three nature-focused children's books -- Ellie's Log, Ricky's Atlas and Ellie's Strand -- published by the Oregon State University Press.
Christopher Mathews (b. 1937) is an Oregon State University Emeritus Professor of biochemistry. Educated at Reed College (BS Chemistry, 1958) and the University of Washington (Ph D. Biochemistry, 1962), Mathews served on the faculty of Yale University and the University of Arizona before accepting the chairmanship of the OSU Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics in 1978. Respected for his research in enzymology and virology, Mathews helped to found the OSU Center for Gene Research and co-authored, with Kensal van Holde, the successful textbook Biochemistry. Mathews retired from OSU in 2002.
Clifford Mead (b. 1947) served as Head of Special Collections in the Oregon State University Libraries from 1987-2010. During his tenure at OSU he was primarily responsible for the accessioning, processing and preservation of the Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers, as well as related outreach activities.
Robert Newburgh (b. 1922) was a member of the Oregon State faculty from 1953-1981. The first chair of the OSU Biochemistry and Biophysics department, Newburgh also served as director of the Science Research Institute from 1971-1974, and as dean of the Graduate School from 1976-1979.
Bob Nye (b. 1942) is a historian of ideas who has written on the history of sociology, the history of medicine and the history of sexuality, specializing in modern Europe. From 1994-2007 he served as Horning Professor of the Humanities - a chair that he shared with his wife, Mary Jo - in the OSU History of Science program.
Cheryl Pauling (b. 1957) is the first born child of Edward Crellin Pauling and Lucy Neilan Mills Pauling. A resident of Vancouver, Washington, she is one of Linus and Ava Helen Pauling's fifteen grandchildren.
David Pauling (b. 1973) is the only child of Crellin and Kay Pauling, and a grandson of Linus and Ava Helen Pauling. Beginning in 2011 he began work at Sutro Biopharma in South San Francisco, California, where he serves as Executive Director of Legal Affairs.
Kay Pauling, born Kay Cole in 1940, is a retired professor of biology who taught at Foothill College for eighteen years. The second wife and widow of Edward Crellin Pauling, Kay gave birth to the couple's child, David, in 1973.
Linus Pauling, Jr. (b. 1925) is the eldest of Linus and Ava Helen Pauling's four children. A graduate of Harvard Medical School (M.D., 1952) Pauling enjoyed a long career in psychiatry both in private practice and in the administration of psychiatric services at The Queen's Hospital, Honolulu, Hawaii. In the early 1990s, Pauling was appointed Chairman of the Board of the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine. In this capacity, Pauling helped the Institute to avoid financial insolvency and participated in its relocation to the campus of Oregon State University.
Stephanie Pauling, born Stephanie Onishi in 1946, was married to Linus Pauling, Jr. for nearly thirty years. A lifelong resident of Oahu, Stephanie is the mother of one daughter, Carrie.
Chris Petersen (b. 1976) is a Senior Faculty Research Assistant in the Oregon State University Libraries Special Collections and Archives Research Center, and the founder, editor and publisher of the Pauling Blog.
Robert Richter (b. 1929) is a documentary film maker responsible for many titles, including the Nova production "Linus Pauling: Crusading Scientist" (1977), the first major documentary film devoted to Pauling's life and work.
Dick Scanlan (b. 1937) is an OSU Professor Emeritus of Food Science and Technology, and a past OSU Dean of Research.
Eloise Spitzer (b. 1952) is the daughter of Ralph and Teresa Spitzer. Now retired, Eloise Spitzer spent many years practicing law in Canada with a particular focus on the protection and rights of Canada's indigenous populations.
Ralph Spitzer (b. 1918) was a graduate student of Linus Pauling's and promising academic who joined the Oregon State College chemistry department in 1946. Promoted to Assistant Professor in 1947, Spitzer was nonetheless fired from the OSC faculty in 1949 by President August L. Strand, almost certainly because of progressive political views espoused by Spitzer and his wife Teresa. Spitzer eventually matriculated to Canada where he earned an M.D. specializing in chemical pathology and co-founded a successful diagnostic laboratory firm, C.J. Coady Associates.
Richard van Breemen (b. 1958) is a chemist and pharmacologist who has made important advancements in the use of mass spectrometry to study botanical dietary supplements, among other compounds. In 2018 he began a tenure as director of the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University.
Dale Weber (b. 1929), professor emeritus of Animal Sciences, was on faculty at OSU from 1976 to his retirement in 1999. Born into an agricultural family, Weber worked as a farmer until entering graduate school in his late 30s. He began his first faculty position at age 45 and focused primarily on instruction during his years at Oregon State.
Conrad J. "Bud" Weiser (b. 1935) earned a Ph.D. in Horticulture from Oregon State College in 1960, and later served as head of the OSU Horticulture department from 1973-1991, and as Dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences from 1991 to his retirement in 1993. Weiser's research interests focused on cold hardiness in plants. Administratively, Weiser was central to a process that redefined definitions of scholarship at OSU.
Accruals: Future additions to this collection are anticipated.
More Extent Information: 42 sound files, 19 sets of video files, 9 photographs
Statement on Access: Access to the Cheryl Pauling Interview #1 is restricted due to the presence of confidential information. Permission for access may be granted only by Cheryl Pauling. All requests for access to this material should be directed to the University Archivist. All other materials in this collection are open for research.
Physical Access Note: Born digital wav or mp3 files created in the building of this collection are available on site.
Acquisition Note: All interviews were conducted by OSU Libraries Special Collections & Archives Research Center staff, sometimes in concert with other colleagues as indicated.
Related Materials: Certain of the interviews held in this collection specifically refer to individuals or topics described in the Karl and Erna Kordesch Papers (MSS Kordesch), Christopher Mathews Papers (MSS Mathews), and the Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers (MSS Pauling).
Preferred Citation: History of Science Oral History Collection (OH 017), Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.
Processing Information: Arrangement and description by Chris Petersen.
Oregon State University. Libraries. Special Collections & Archives Research Center
Carson, Mina Julia
Dicianna, Michael A.
Mead, Clifford
Petersen, Chris (Christoffer)
Sandgathe, Trevor A.
Arp, D. J.
Battery industry
California Institute of Technology
Chemistry--History.
Chemistry--Study and teaching (Higher)
Corliss, John B.
Egna, Hillary S.
Goldman, Michael A.
Guerrini, Anita, 1953-
Hedberg, Kenneth W., 1920-2019
History of Science
Kaiser, Matthew C.
Karplus, Martin, 1930-
Kordesch, Albert
Kordesch, Erna
Kordesch, K. (Karl), 1922-
Kurotaki, Hisako, 1948-
Lawson, Stephen R., 1951-
Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine
Local History
Mathews, Christopher K., 1937-
Newburgh, Robert W. (Robert Warren), 1922-
Nutrition--History.
Oregon Multicultural Archives
Oregon State University
Oregon State University. Department of Chemistry
Pauling, Ava Helen
Pauling, Cheryl
Pauling, E. Crellin (Edward Crellin), 1937-1997
Pauling, Kay Cole
Pauling, Linus, 1901-1994
Pauling, Linus, 1925-
Pauling, Stephanie
Richter, Robert, 1929-
Spitzer, Eloise, 1952-
Spitzer, Ralph William, 1918-
University History
Weber, Dale W.
Weiser, C.J.
Born digital.
Oral histories (literary genre)
Pauling discusses her upbringing and her memories of interactions with her grandparents, Linus and Ava Helen Pauling. [Interview conducted by Mina Carson and Chris Petersen]
Access to the Cheryl Pauling Interview #1 is restricted due to the presence of confidential information. Permission for access may be granted only by Cheryl Pauling. All requests for access to this material should be directed to the University Archivist.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.