Affiliation: Staff - Retired
Memories of Clackamas County Extension
Two life history interviews conducted by Mike Dicianna.
November - December 2016
The Oregon State University Extension Service traces its roots in Clackamas County
to 1917, when the service assigned a home economist to the region for the first time.
Today, the Clackamas County office oversees a robust schedule of programming focusing
on trees and forests, 4-H youth, family and community health, home gardening, agriculture,
and watershed health. In anticipation of Clackamas County Extension's one-hundredth
anniversary, two interviews were conducted in 2016 with individuals who maintain close
ties to the region and the office. Merilly Enquist, a 1959 OSC graduate and fourth-generation
descendent of Oregon pioneers, manages timber stands on her family's 300-acre estate
near Molalla, Oregon. Harold Black, a World War II veteran and 1947 OSC Farm Crops
graduate, worked as a 4-H Extension agent and administrator for more than three decades
in Columbia, Clackamas and Multnomah counties.
The Extension Tradition in the Columbia River Gorge
Two life history interviews conducted by Chris Petersen.
August 9, 2016
The Extension and Experiment Station traditions in Oregon's Columbia River Gorge date
back well over one-hundred years to the founding of the Mid-Columbia Experiment Station
in 1913, and the first employment of agricultural agents in Wasco County in 1916 and
Sherman County in 1918. In August 2016, two interviews were conducted with individuals
closely associated with the more modern history of Extension and Experiment Station
efforts across the region. Billie Stevens (b. 1951) is a retired 4-H Extension agent
who served Hood River County from 1985 to 2009. Sandy Macnab (b. 1953) is an OSU alum
who has spent nearly his entire life in Sherman and Wasco Counties, playing a major
role in a wide variety of area Extension efforts since 1979.
Memories of Hatfield Marine Science Center
A series of interview vignettes conducted by Mike Dicianna.
April 12, 2015
Established by Oregon State University in 1965 on Yaquina Bay in Newport, Oregon,
the Marine Science Center - re-named for Oregon Governor and Senator Mark Hatfield
in 1983 - is both a leading marine research laboratory and a center for instruction
of university students and the interested public alike. In April 2015, HMSC hosted
a reunion of past students, faculty and staff, four of whom contributed their memories
of the center on the occasion of its fiftieth anniversary. These interviews, conducted
with Range Bayer, Warren Hanson, John Markham and Anja Robinson, touch on the evolution
and impact of the Hatfield Center as observed over multiple decades.
Erin Haynes Oral History Interview
Life history interview conducted by Mike Dicianna.
July 25, 2014
Erin Haynes (b. 1950) attended OSU from 1968-1972, during which time he both played
on and helped to coach the school's freshman football team, and also served as Senior
Class President. Following graduation, Haynes built a long career at Oregon State,
working in the Department of Admissions for eight years, the OSU Foundation for twenty-two
years, and the Alumni Association for two more. Haynes has also served as an advisor
to the OSU chapter of Phi Delta Theta fraternity for more than four decades. His interview
focuses on fraternity culture at Oregon State, campus life in the late 1960s and early
1970s, and Beaver lore throughout its history, including several stories of notable
Oregon Staters from the past.
Aki Hill Oral History Interview
Life history interview conducted by Chris Petersen.
April 14, 2015
Aki Hill (b. 1940) is the winningest women's basketball coach in OSU history, compiling
a career record of 274-206. A native of Japan who counted legendary UCLA coach John
Wooden as among her mentors, Hill took over the Oregon State program during its third
year in existence and spent the next seventeen years as head coach. During that timespan,
OSU competed in the post-season eight times and won the National Women's Invitational
Tournament on two occasions. In her interview, Hill details her introduction to and
early love for basketball, the important role that John Wooden played in her advancement
as a coach, and the years that she spent building the women's basketball program at
OSU.
Andy Landforce Oral History Interviews
Six life history interviews conducted by Mike Dicianna and Debora Landforce.
May 2013 - October 2015
Andy Landforce (b. 1917) graduated from Oregon State College in 1942, serving as student
body president his senior year. A World War II veteran, Landforce enjoyed a long career
at Oregon State University, first as a County Extension Agent and later as a Wildlife
Management Specialist. He also worked for an additional fifteen years in retirement
as a professional fishing guide. Among many other topics, the Landforce oral history
interviews focus on campus life at Oregon State College during the 1930s, the 1942
Rose Bowl game, his military service during World War II, and his post-war career
at OSU.
Sylvia Moore Oral History Interview
Life history interview conducted by Janice Dilg.
March 31, 2015
Sylvia Moore (b. 1942) played a vital role in advancing women's athletics over a thirty-three
year career as a coach, official, instructor and administrator at OSU. Moore, who
at various points coached both the women's basketball and gymnastics teams, also served
as Director of Women's Athletics on two different occasions. She is likewise the
first woman to have worked as Athletic Director for the entire university, having
held that post as an interim appointment in 1985. Moore also volunteered as an unpaid
official for five different sports during her OSU career. Her interview focuses on
the early years of women's athletics at Oregon State, the implementation and impact
of Title IX, and Moore's activities both within the Athletic Department and in service
to other areas of the university.
The OSU Extension Service Centennial Oral History Collection
Sixteen life history interviews conducted by Elizabeth Uhlig.
August 2007 - June 2009
In anticipation of its centennial in 2011, the Oregon State University Extension Service
interviewed several of its emeritus faculty in 2007, 2008, and 2009. These interviews
help to tell the story of Extension in Oregon over a fifty-year period following World
War II, and cover topics including agriculture, 4-H, home economics, energy, community
development, Sea Grant, communications, administration, and support. The interviewees
who are included in the collection that is presented here are: Roberta Anderson, Len
Calvert, Dean Frischknecht, John Hansen, Bob Jacobson, Duane Johnson, Alberta Johnston,
Harold Kerr, Glenn Klein, Linda Modrell, Owen Osborne, Jack Ross, Jane Schroeder,
Walt and Sally Schroeder, Greg Tillson, and Tom Zinn.
Gilbert Shibley Oral History Interview
Life history interview conducted by Mike Dicianna.
November 10, 2015
Gilbert Shibley was born in Estacada, Oregon in 1938 on land that his family homesteaded
in 1863. After spending a decade teaching Biology at Lawrence University in Appleton,
Wisconsin, Shibley returned to the family property and found work as a 4-H Extension
Agent in Multnomah and Columbia Counties. After retiring in 1990, Shibley became increasingly
interested in family forestry, completing the Extension Service's Master Woodland
Manager program in 1993, and ultimately moving into a half-time position as Extension
Forestry Assistant for Clackamas County, from which he retired in 2008. Shibley's
interview details his deep family ties to the Estacada area and concentrates, in large
part, on his experiences managing the family property and working to educate other
family foresters on issues of resource management, taxation, and political action.
Clemens Starck Oral History Interview
Life history interview conducted by Janice Dilg.
July 30, 2015
Clemens Starck (b. 1937) is an accomplished poet whose first published collection,
Journeyman's Wages, received the Oregon Book Award for Poetry in 1996. Starck published the book at
the age of fifty-seven, after thirty-six years of writing in near anonymity. He was
also working as a carpenter for the OSU Physical Plant at the time, a job that he
held for eighteen years and from which he retired in 2005. Over the course of his
life, Starck traveled broadly and was employed, variously, as a journalist, ranch
hand, construction laborer, and merchant seaman. In addition to Journeyman's Wages, Starck has released three additional volumes of his verse and has recorded two CDs
of his poetry set to music. His interview focuses on his broad experience in a variety
of workplaces, his development as a writer, and his memories of OSU. At multiple
points throughout the session, Starck also reads selections of his work, both published
and unpublished.
Paul Valenti Oral History Interview
Life history interview conducted by Chris Petersen and Dominic Cusimano.
February 24, 2014
Paul Valenti (1920-2014) was integrally connected to Oregon State University for more
that seventy years, beginning with his arrival on the Oregon State College campus
as a student athlete in 1938. A member of the Beaver basketball squad during his
undergraduate years, Valenti later served as freshman baseball coach, freshman basketball
coach, head basketball coach and head tennis coach, spanning a time period from 1946-1970.
He continued on as Assistant Athletic Director until retiring in 1982, and remained
an enthusiastic ambassador for OSU until his death in 2014. His interview covers
his upbringing in California, his school and coaching experiences at OSU, and his
recollections of many people that he met along the way.
Tom Yates Oral History Interview
Life history interview conducted by Mike Dicianna.
February 10, 2016
Tom Yates (b. 1927) was among the very first individuals to be hired as a computer
programmer by the state of Oregon. Trained in mathematics and intending to become
a teacher, Yates instead discovered a love of computers in the mid-1950s. In 1957,
the state hired Yates to fill the newly created position of Electronic Data Processing
programmer, and over the course of the next five years he wrote programs that supported
the functions of multiple governmental departments. In 1962, Yates accepted a position
as director of the Statistics department computer lab at Oregon State University,
and he later proved crucial to expansion of computing functions on campus, including
the automation of OSU's class registration process. In 1976, he was named Director
of the OSU Computer Center, a position that he held until his retirement from Oregon
State in 1985. His interview traces his long and pioneering career in computer programming,
and provides institutional memories of the advancement of OSU's computing infrastructure
in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.