Theme: Psychology
Legends of OSU Gymnastics
Three life history interviews with Mary (Ayotte) Law and Joy (Selig) Petersen, conducted
by Janice Dilg.
October 2014
Gymnastics national champions Mary (Ayotte) Law and Joy (Selig) Petersen are two of
Oregon State University's most accomplished athletes. An Education major who attended
OSU from 1978-1982, Law won the 1982 national title in the floor exercise and finished
third in the all-around, still the highest all-around placing in school history.
A seven-time first team All-American, Petersen won two national championships in the
beam competition and another in the floor exercise. She graduated from OSU with a
degree in Psychology in 1991. Over the course of three interviews, Law and Petersen
reflect on their experiences as student athletes at OSU, sharing their memories of
going to school while training and competing at the highest levels of collegiate athletics.
Darlene Russ-Eft Oral History Interview
Life history interview conducted by Chris Petersen.
June 23, 2016
Darlene Russ-Eft (b. 1947) is a faculty member in OSU's College of Education who arrived
at the university in 2001 after spending seventeen years in the private sector. Known
today as a founder of the field of Human Resources Development, Russ-Eft has written
widely on program evaluation and the transfer of training. In 2008, Russ-Eft became
chair of the Adult Education and Higher Education Leadership discipline within the
College of Education and, for many years, she has been actively involved in OSU's
highly regarded doctoral program in Community College Leadership. In her interview,
Russ-Eft shares a series of recollections dating to her years in the private sector,
and provides her institutional memories of the evolution and growth of the College
of Education since the turn of the century.