Emery Castle Oral History Interview

Dr. Emery Castle was interviewed in 2010 by three graduate students for a qualitative sociology course. Each student took about a half hour to ask questions of Dr. Castle, each focusing on a different period of his life. The interview opens with Castle mentioning when and where he was born and describing his childhood. He grew up in Kansas, where his parents had moved to work in the oil fields after abandoning an unsuccessful homestead in Colorado. Castle discusses how life was different when he was a child, particularly in terms of technological advances throughout the twentieth century. After struggling with motivation in school during his early years, Castle had a turnaround and became a good student. The first section of the interview concludes with Castle relating the circumstances of his first wife’s illness and subsequent passing and how he met his second wife. He then mentions the cultural events that he feels had the biggest impact on him personally and on his generation.

The second student then begins her turn, focusing on Castle’s years as a university student and his early professional life. Castle talks about why he went into economics, explaining that seeing how his family suffered during the Great Depression and witnessing the complete turnaround of the economy as a result of World War II inspired his interest in economic theory and applied economics. He describes his first academic forays into economics and doing his basic economics course via correspondence. He then talks about his move to Corvallis to take up a position at Oregon State University, and his first impressions of the university. He describes having to choose between becoming Dean of Faculty at OSU and becoming chair of Agricultural Economics at Washington State University, explaining that he and his family did not want to leave Corvallis, but he also did not want to leave the field of economics. He chose to stay at OSU but transferred back to the economics department as the head of the department a year later. Castle then talks about his pioneering work in studies of rural economies.

The final part of the interview focuses on Castle’s professional life and contributions to the field of economics. Castle emphasizes the importance of an inter-disciplinary approach, as a cooperation between different areas of specialization and different fields. He then talks about what he sees as the downfalls of the field, namely, the over-emphasis of the importance of economic theory over applied economics and the lack of education in the philosophy of science. He also mentions the merits of OSU’s program, including that it is particularly strong in applied economics compared to other universities around the country. He laments the major changes occurring at OSU over the years, saying it often feels like the university makes changes “for the sake of change” without those changes being necessary or in response to an identified issue. The interview concludes with a discussion of Castle’s book, which was unpublished at the time of the interview, on his research on applied economics in rural geographies.

Dr. Emery Castle was born in 1923 east of Wichita, Kansas, and spent most of his childhood on a farm. He attended a one-room schoolhouse for eight years and eventually married his high school teacher. They remained together until her death, and he eventually remarried. Castle began his career as an Oregon State University professor in 1954. During his years on faculty, he was involved in a pioneering study on the economic value of steelhead salmon sports fishing, and later served as dean of faculty as well as the department head in agricultural economics. He passed away in 2017.