Affiliation: College of Engineering
George Abed Oral History Interview
Life history interview conducted by Janice Dilg.
December 16, 2014
George Abed (b. 1938), a native of Jordan, attended Oregon State from 1958-1962, graduating
with a degree in General Social Science. During his undergraduate years, Abed was
heavily involved with campus life and especially with student government, ultimately
serving as the school's first foreign-born student body president. After completing
a Ph.D. in Economics, Abed went on to a lengthy and multifaceted career in international
development and public policy, including more than two decades spent working for the
International Monetary Fund. The founder and former director of the Palestine Welfare
Association, Abed is also a former head of the Palestine Monetary Authority, which
he oversaw for two years at the invitation of Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the
State of Palestine. Abed's interview focuses on his Oregon State years, his career
in public policy, and his association with development efforts all across the Middle
East.
Sami Al-AbdRabbuh Oral History Interview
Life history interview conducted by Chris Petersen.
September 13, 2016
Sami Al-AbdRabbuh (b. 1987) is a Ph.D. student in OSU's Industrial Engineering program
who completed his master's degree within the program in 2015. The CEO of a small
start-up company, Al-AbdRabbuh has also been active in both student government and
state politics, running as the Progressive Party candidate for state representative
during the 2016 election cycle. Al-AbdRabbuh was born in the United States and raised
in Saudi Arabia, and in his interview he provides perspective on the Muslim and Muslim
American experience in both the U.S. and the Middle East. His academic and entrepreneurial
pursuits as well as his community service projects are likewise included as secondary
topics.
Ken Austin Oral History Interview
Life history interview conducted by Mike Dicianna and Chris Petersen.
March 24, 2015
Ken Austin (b. 1931) attended Oregon State College from 1949-1953, graduating with
a degree in Industrial Engineering. While at OSC, Austin became the first Benny Beaver
mascot, wearing a costume of his own design and construction, and entertaining fans
with antics that often incorporated a starter's pistol that he wore on his hip. Following
the completion of his studies and a stint in the Air Force, Austin worked eight jobs
in eight years before launching his own business, Austin Dental Equipment Company,
or A-dec. Mechanically inclined and a habitual tinkerer, Austin's innovations revolutionized
the practice of dentistry and fueled dizzying growth for A-dec. Later on, Ken and
his wife Joan became heavily involved in numerous philanthropic endeavors, generously
supporting several programs at OSU and providing the lead gift for a new home for
the College of Business, Austin Hall. Austin's interview focuses on his life-long
interest in machinery, his rich undergraduate experience at OSC, the creation and
growth of A-dec, and his family's experiences in philanthropy.
Terry Baker Oral History Interview
Life history interview conducted by Mike Dicianna and Chris Petersen.
June 25, 2014
Terry Baker (b. 1941) is among the most accomplished and celebrated athletes in Oregon
State history. Winner of the 1962 Heisman Trophy as the nation's most outstanding
college football player, Baker's Oregon State basketball team also reached the Final
Four of the 1963 NCAA tournament. That same year, Baker was named "Sportsman of the
Year" by Sports Illustrated magazine. Baker graduated from OSU in 1963 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering.
Following a brief stint in professional football, Baker earned a law degree and enjoyed
a successful career practicing in the Portland area. Baker's interview focuses primarily
on his Oregon State memories, including his remarkable successes in 1962-1963 and
the tremendous attention that they garnered.
Eric and Jeff Ball Oral History Interview
Life history interview conducted by Chris Petersen.
July 13, 2015
Eric and Jeff Ball are brothers who were raised on a ranch near Roseburg, Oregon.
Both attended OSU in the early 1980s and graduated with degrees in Mechanical Engineering.
From there, both Eric and Jeff returned to the Roseburg area to help their father
build a company, Orenco Systems Industries, that today is a world leader in wastewater
treatment systems. Initially operated out of the Ball family home, Orenco now conducts
business on an international scale and stands as the eighth-largest employer in Douglas
County. The Balls' interview focuses on their experiences - both individual and shared
- as brothers attending OSU. They also chart the growth of Orenco through their years
of association and comment on the contemporary challenges facing their region of Oregon.
David Bella Oral History Interview
Life history interview conducted by Chris Petersen.
July 9, 2014
David Bella (b. 1938) was a member of the OSU Civil Engineering faculty for thirty
years, from 1968 to his retirement in 1998. In the 1970s, Bella's early interest
in computer modeling of rivers, lakes and estuaries shifted to a focused analysis
and application of systems theory, with a particular interest in human systems. Since
then, Bella has examined a wide variety of social problems through the lens of systems
theory, writing on the tobacco industry, nuclear waste disposal and global climate
change, among other topics. Bella has also served as a consultant to two chemical
weapons destruction operations, has proposed the creation of a Wild Salmon National
Park, and spent six years observing the Reagan administration's Strategic Defense
Initiative program meetings. His interview focuses on the arc of his career, his
wide-ranging research interests, and his involvement with the local environmental
movement.
Margaret Burnett Oral History Interview
Life history interview conducted by Chris Petersen.
January 10, 2017
Margaret Burnett (b. 1949) is a Distinguished Professor of Computer Science who has
been a member of the OSU faculty since 1993. A co-founder of the discipline of end-user
software engineering, Burnett is perhaps most prominently known for her development
of the GenderMag protocol, which helps software engineers to evaluate the gender inclusivity
of the programs that they create. Burnett has also made important contributions to
multiple visual programming languages and to the theory of information foraging. The
evolution of her research and her experiences as a woman in the field of computer
science are the primary emphases of her interview.
Darry Callahan Oral History Interview
Life history interview conducted by Mike Dicianna.
August 6, 2015
Darry Callahan (b. 1942) graduated from OSU in 1964 with a degree in Chemical Engineering
and moved directly into a career at Chevron that spanned some forty years. Over the
course of that time, Callahan worked as a research engineer, financial analyst, manager
and executive. At one time the president of Chevron Oil Bahamas, Callahan also served
as the chief executive at Chevron Chemical Company as well as the succeeding company
that he helped to merge, Chevron Phillips Chemical. Callahan has also been very actively
involved with the OSU Foundation, the OSU College of Engineering, and the OSU Board
of Trustees, of which he has been a member and vice chairman since its creation. His
interview focuses on his undergraduate years in Corvallis, his long and varied career
at Chevron, and his more recent activities with his alma mater.
Karim Hamdy Oral History Interview
Life history interview conducted by Chris Petersen.
October 10, 2014
Karim Hamdy (b. 1952), a native of Tunisia, has been associated with OSU since 1981,
first as a doctoral candidate in Civil Engineering, and later as an instructor of
both French and Arabic. A student activist who helped to form multiple groups representing
and supporting North African students at OSU, Hamdy later co-founded the university's
Tunisia Study Abroad program. He has also taught Arabic classes at Oregon State since
their first formation in 2002. His interview focuses on his upbringing in Tunisia,
his experiences studying and working at OSU, and the evolution of the university's
Arabic language courses and the Tunisia Study Abroad program.
Paula Hammond Oral History Interview
Life history interview conducted by Chris Petersen.
December 4, 2013
Paula Hammond (b. 1956), a native of Klamath Falls, attended Oregon State University
from 1974-1978, during which time she was one of eight undergraduate women in the
university's Civil Engineering program. Following graduation, Hammond began a thirty-year
career with the Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT), first as a field
engineer and later in administrative roles of increasing responsibility. In 2007
she was appointed Secretary of Transportation for Washington state, a position that
she held for six years until her retirement from WSDOT in 2013. Her interview focuses
on her undergraduate experience at OSU as one of a handful of women in engineering,
her career at WSDOT and her thoughts on the future of transportation.
Jack Higginbotham Oral History Interview
Life history interview conducted by Chris Petersen.
November 3, 2015
Jack Higginbotham (b. 1958) has been a member of OSU's Nuclear Engineering faculty
since arriving in Corvallis in 1987, and has led the Oregon Space Grant program since
2002. During his years at Oregon State, Higginbotham has also served as Senior Reactor
Operator and Senior Health Physicist at the OSU Radiation Center; chair of the Radiation
Health Physics program; Associate Dean of the Graduate School; and President of the
Faculty Senate. In a wide-ranging interview, Higginbotham discusses his education
and academic work in nuclear science and engineering; his institutional memories of
Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science at OSU; and the activities of Oregon Space
Grant during his years of association.
The Lives of International Students
Three life history interviews conducted by Chris Petersen.
March 3 - 6, 2015
In 2015, Oregon State University served as a home away from home for over 4,000 international
students hailing from 107 different countries. Over the course of three interviews
conducted in March 2015, the experiences and perspectives of four current OSU international
students were recorded, with particular emphasis paid to changing perspectives on
U.S. culture, contrasting systems of education around the world, and the major social
and cultural adjustments required of international students studying at Oregon State.
The international students who shared their stories are Jenny Urbina, a Ph.D. candidate
from Colombia; Kong Zheng Yeang, an undergraduate from Malaysia; Andrea Jara, also
a Ph.D. student from Colombia; and Chidi Okonkwo, a master's candidate from Nigeria.
Milo Koretsky Oral History Interview
Life history interview conducted by Chris Petersen.
November 13, 2015
Milo Koretsky (b. 1962) has been a member of the Chemical Engineering faculty at Oregon
State since his arrival in Corvallis in 1992. Koretsky is recognized internationally
as a pioneering scholar of engineering education whose textbook, Engineering and Chemical Thermodynamics, has been widely praised for its conceptual approach to the teaching of thermodynamics.
At OSU, Koretsky has also been instrumental in the development of virtual learning
modules that provide student engineers with practical experience that closely simulates
the environment that they will encounter in the workplace. Koretsky has likewise been
closely associated with OSU's MECOP internship program for the entirety of his career,
and has been instrumental in its growth over the decades. His interview focuses on
his personal development as an engineer and educator; his institutional memories of
Chemical Engineering and MECOP at OSU; and his continuing efforts to rethink and improve
engineering education.
Bob Lundeen Oral History Interviews
Four life history interviews conducted by Chris Petersen.
July - August 2013
Bob Lundeen (1921-2016) graduated from Oregon State College in 1942 with a BS in Chemical
Engineering. Lundeen served in the Army Air Corp during World War II as a weather
officer stationed in China. After the war, he began working for Dow Chemical Co.,
eventually rising to the position of Chairman of the Board. Following his retirement
from Dow in 1986, he served on the Board of Directors for Tektronix and later became
CEO. In retirement Lundeen has made a deep impact at OSU as a donor, an honorary OSU
trustee, and a member of the Board of Trustees for the OSU Foundation. Topics covered
in the Lundeen interviews include his early life, his experiences during wartime,
and his memories of Oregon State College. Other subjects discussed include his long
career at Dow, family life, retirement and philanthropy.
Alyssa Martin Oral History Interview
Life history interview conducted by Chris Petersen.
May 13, 2014
At the time of her interview, Alyssa Martin (class of 2015) was an OSU student athlete
who had spent four years on the women's basketball team while majoring in Civil Engineering.
The daughter of former Beaver basketball player Earl Martin, Alyssa concluded her
OSU playing days with 985 career points and earned Pac-12 All-Academic accolades three
years in a row. Her interview provides an insightful glimpse into the busy world
of the student athlete, juggling school, sports, travel and social life.
LaMont Matthews Oral History Interview
Life history interview conducted by Mike Dicianna.
July 1, 2015
LaMont Matthews (b. 1934) graduated from Oregon State College in 1956, earning a degree
in Mechanical Engineering. As a senior at Oregon State, Matthews began working part-time
at a local engineering firm called Cornell, Howell, Hayes, and Merryfield. The thirtieth
employee hired by what was later known as CH2M Hill, Matthews spent nearly fifty years
as an engineer, project manager and executive with the company, ultimately rising
to the position of Vice President of Industrial and Energy Systems and serving on
the CH2M Hill Board of Directors. His interview is largely devoted to reflections
on Matthews' many years at the company, with memories of undergraduate engineering
study at OSC included as a secondary topic.
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.
Bud Ossey Oral History Interviews
Two life history interviews conducted by Mike Dicianna.
October - November 2014
Bud Ossey (b. 1919) is the son of Russian immigrants whose father enrolled in the
Engineering program at Oregon Agricultural College shortly after arriving in the United
States in 1923. Ossey grew up attending Oregon State sporting events at Bell Field
and the Men's Gymnasium, and notably sat on the visiting bench as a spectator during
the famous OSC vs. USC "Iron Men" game in 1933. A 1943 OSC graduate in Civil Engineering,
Ossey led Combat Engineering units during World War II. Following the war, he spent
thirty-six years working as an engineer, primarily with the Bonneville Power Administration,
and specializing in the hydroelectric design of power houses across the Northwest.
Ossey is also a charter member of the Beaver Club and has been actively involved with
many other groups that have worked to advance the mission of Oregon State University.
Over two interviews, Ossey reflects on his early memories of campus life, his close
involvement with Beaver athletics, his service during wartime, and his career as a
BPA engineer.
Don Pettit Oral History Interview
Life history interview conducted by Janice Dilg.
March 26, 2014
Don Pettit (b. 1955), a native of Silverton, attended OSU from 1973-1978, graduating
with a bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering. After completing his Ph.D. at the
University of Arizona, Pettit began work at the National Laboratory in Los Alamos,
New Mexico. In 1996 he was selected to become a NASA astronaut and, in 2002, he participated
in his first spaceflight, Expedition 6, during which he spent over five months on
the International Space Station. While at NASA, Pettit has logged more than a year
in space, during which time he has filmed and televised experiments from space for
a series titled "Saturday Morning Science." His interview focuses on his upbringing
in Oregon, his undergraduate experience at OSU, and highlights from his career as
an astronaut.
John Selker Oral History Interview
Life history interview conducted by Chris Petersen.
August 25, 2015
John Selker (b. 1960) is a Distinguished Professor of Biological and Ecological Engineering
whose research has specialized in water resources engineering with a particular focus
on developing low-cost technical solutions to agricultural and environmental challenges
faced by the developing world. A veteran traveler who spent his initial years after
college leading cook stove programs in Africa and Asia, Selker is also a driving force
behind the Trans-African Hydro and Meteorological Observatory project, an initiative
that is using a collection of small weather stations to provide more accurate meteorological
information to the continent's agriculturalists. Selker's interview focuses on his
formative experiences traveling and working in Africa; his institutional memories
of agricultural engineering at OSU; and his continuing efforts to improve quality
of life for some of the planet's most vulnerable populations.
Lew Semprini Oral History Interview
Life history interview conducted by Chris Petersen.
February 22, 2017
Lew Semprini (b. 1952) is a Distinguished Professor of Environmental Engineering who
has been a member of the Oregon State faculty since 1993. An expert on in situ bioremediation of contaminated environments, Semprini has uncovered a wide array
of mechanisms for treating hazardous substances that have polluted industrial, military
and residential locations alike. One project in particular, which used samples of
Willamette River water collected in Corvallis, led to the discovery of microorganisms
that could metabolize chlorinated solvents. In his interview, Semprini details the
evolution of his career as a scientist and engineer, with particular attention paid
to the development of the Environmental Engineering program at OSU.
Jim Welty Oral History Interview
Life history interview conducted by Mike Dicianna.
April 21, 2015
Jim Welty (b. 1933) earned three degrees from Oregon State, completing bachelor's
(1954) and master's (1959) studies in Mechanical Engineering, as well as a doctorate
in Chemical Engineering, which he finished in 1962. His Ph.D. in hand, Welty was
promptly hired to the Oregon State Mechanical Engineering faculty, where he remained
until retiring in 1996. During this time, Welty served as department chair for fifteen
years, from 1970 to 1985. A respected scholar of fluid dynamics and heat transfer,
Welty, along with two OSU colleagues, co-authored a hugely successful textbook that
was first published in 1969 and is still used in classrooms today. His interview provides
an overview of a personal association with Oregon State's College of Engineering that
has few parallels, one that spans parts of seven decades.
Harry Yeh Oral History Interview
Life history interview conducted by Chris Petersen.
September 22, 2014
Harry Yeh (b. 1950) is a professor of Civil Engineering at OSU and an international
authority on tsunamis. Since 1992, Yeh has traveled around the world to conduct field
surveys of areas impacted by massive tsunami waves. In 2011 and 2012, Yeh made two
extended trips to his native Japan to conduct research on the effects of the devastating
Tohoku tsunami, trips which included visits to the restricted zone surrounding the
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. His interview focuses on his education in
multiple disciplines including hydrodynamics, his field work analyzing tsunamis in
Asia, South America and elsewhere, and the wave modeling research that he conducts
at OSU's O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory.