The Oregon State University Sesquicentennial Oral History Project

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Russ Yamada Oral History Interview. August 17, 2015

Russ Yamada Oral History Interview

Life history interview conducted by Mike Dicianna.

August 17, 2015

Location:  Valley Library, Oregon State University.

Russ Yamada (b. 1946), a second generation Japanese American whose mother was interned during World War II, attended OSU from 1964-1968, earning a degree in General Science with a focus on pre-dentistry. Following further schooling, Yamada returned to Corvallis and established the city's first endodontic practice, which he ran for twenty-seven years. He retired from the dental profession in 2014 having spent more than forty years in the field. His interview focuses on his family background, including his mother's experience of internment and his father's military service during World War II; his own memories of a relatively placid OSU campus amidst the tumult of the late 1960s; and his reflections on his years as a local dental practitioner.