Affiliation: College of Veterinary Medicine
A Century of Extension in the Klamath Basin
Five life history interviews conducted by Chris Petersen and Geoff Somnitz.
July 2015 - March 2016
The Klamath Basin has been home to OSU Extension and Experiment Station activities
for more than one-hundred years. In July 2015, four interviews conducted at the Klamath
Basin Research and Extension Center traced this history, with particular emphasis
placed on the work of legendary Extension Agent Charlie Henderson (1892-1969), as
well as that of Extension Veterinarian Guy Reynolds (1920-1995). Each of these sessions,
as well as a fifth interview conducted in March 2016, touches upon the impact that
Extension and Experiment Station work has made on the region and provides perspective
on the challenges and opportunities facing the Klamath Basin today. Of particular
interest are the interviewees' thoughts on the water crisis that crippled the area
in 2001, making national headlines in the process. Interviewees include Linda Weider,
Sen. Doug Whitsett, Rodney Todd, Jean Pinniger, and Ron Hathaway.
Kelvin Koong Oral History Interview
Life history interview conducted by Chris Petersen.
October 9, 2014
Kelvin Koong (b. 1943) worked in numerous administrative and faculty positions at
OSU from 1987 to 2011. During his tenure at Oregon State, Koong did much to advance
the missions of the College of Agricultural Sciences, the College of Veterinary Medicine,
and the OSU Extension and Experiments Stations. Known for his ability to work well
with state legislators, in 2001 Koong secured funds to expand the university's veterinary
medicine curriculum into a complete four-year program. He also led the fundraising
campaign that resulted in the Oldfield Animal Teaching Facility, opened in 2012. His
interview focuses on his upbringing in Taiwan, his education and research in animal
sciences, and his multifaceted administrative career at OSU.
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.
Erwin Pearson Oral History Interview
Life history interview conducted by Chris Petersen.
July 8, 2016
Erwin Pearson (b. 1932) graduated from Oregon State College in 1954 with a bachelor's
degree in Animal Husbandry. Following a career in private veterinary practice that
spanned nearly two decades, Pearson earned a master's degree from the OSU College
of Veterinary Medicine and later joined its faculty, working primarily in the college's
teaching hospital. A full-time member of the faculty for eighteen years, Pearson spent
an average of 1,200 hours per year teaching practical veterinary medicine to OSU's
Vet Med students, and also established himself as an expert on the impact of different
toxins on animal livers. In addition, Pearson chaired the college's curriculum committee
for many years and was central to the creation and implementation of a new organizational
plan that was put into place once Vet Med had secured funding for a full four-year
program at OSU. His interview touches upon his student experience and his years in
private practice, but is more centrally focused on the sometimes tumultuous history
of OSU's College of Veterinary Medicine.
Fred Stormshak Oral History Interview
Life history interview conducted by Chris Petersen.
December 22, 2015
Fred Stormshak (b. 1936) is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Animal Sciences
who was a member of the OSU faculty from 1968 to his retirement in 2001. Stormshak
spent much of his career at Oregon State studying the ovary and uterus of the domestic
animal, with particular attention paid to the functioning of the corpus luteum, an
ephemeral and short-lived gland that plays a crucial role in the reproductive process.
In 1996, he and a colleague began a program of research on the biological basis of
male-oriented behavior in rams; work that eventually made headlines around the world.
Funded by the NIH and continuing to this day, the studies have focused on a group
of neurons in the anterior hypothalamus that may play a crucial role in the scientific
understanding of sexual behavior in sheep. Stormshak's interview details his upbringing
in rural Washington; his education in Dairy Science and Endocrinology; the broad array
of research that he has conducted at OSU; and his institutional memories of Animal
Science at OSU.