Helen M. Berg earned an MS in statistics from Oregon State University in 1973 and worked as a statistician and Director of the Survey Research Center at OSU from 1975 until her retirement in 1993. She was active in a variety of community organizations including the Madison Avenue Task Force and the Corvallis Community Day Care Board. She served on the Corvallis City Council from 1991 to 1994 and as mayor for three 4-year terms (1995-2006).
Emery N. Castle joined the faculty of Oregon State in 1954 in agricultural and resource economics. He held several administrative posts including department head, Dean of Faculty, and Dean of the Graduate School before leaving OSU in 1976 for a position as senior research fellow at Resources for the Future. Castle returned to Oregon State in 1986 as chair of the University Graduate Faculty of Economics, a position he held until his retirement in 1992.
Gwil Evans graduated from Oregon State in 1961 and was editor of the student newspaper, the
Wilbert (Wil) Gamble became a faculty member in biochemistry and biophysics at Oregon State in 1962; Gamble retired in 1998.
C. Warren Hovland was a professor of religious studies at Oregon State from 1949 until his retirement in 1986. Under his leadership as chair, the Oregon State Department of Religious Studies was the first authorized by the Oregon State System of Higher Education to offer an undergraduate degree in religious studies.
Appointed to the OSU Board of Visitors in 1986, Phyllis Lee served as acting director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs before assuming the directorship in 1992. After earning a doctorate in counseling from OSU in 1983, Lee worked for Kaiser Permanente in Portland before returning to campus in 1991. Lee also worked as a public school teacher and in counseling education at Portland State University prior to her post with the Office of Multicultural Affairs.
Richard Morita began his career at Oregon State University in 1962 as an Associate Professor of Microbiology and Oceanography. Specializing in the study of microbial life forms in oceanic environments, Morita participated in several deep-sea research expeditions early in his career. In 1964, Morita achieved the post of Professor; he retired in 1989.
Carol Menken-Schaudt was a Kodak All-American in basketball for Oregon State University. In 1981, she led the nation in scoring and in field goal shooting percentage (.750). At 6-5, she was the first player in school history in either men’s or women’s basketball to score 2,000 points in a career. Menken led the 1981 team to a 21-6 record and won the Olympic gold medal with the United States team in 1984. She graduated from Oregon State in 1983 and played professional basketball in Italy before returning to Corvallis.
Gail Nickerson attended Oregon State College and lived in Waldo Hall in 1956.
Miriam Orzech was Assistant Director and Academic Coordinator for the Educational Opportunities Program (EOP) from 1969 to 1974, when she became Director of the program.
Clara Pratt joined the faculty of Oregon State University in 1978 as director of the gerontology program and a professor in human development and family sciences. Pratt served as Interim Dean of the College of Home Economics beginning in 2000 and retired in 2005.
Clifford Trow was a faculty member in history at Oregon State University from 1965 until his retirement in 1997. He also served seven 4-year terms (28 years total) as an Oregon State Senator, representing the Corvallis area from 1975 until 2003.
The Voices of Oregon State University Oral History Collection consists of 12 oral history interview conducted by Oregon State students as part of Anthropology 498 (Oral Traditions) and Sociology 518 (Qualitative Research Methods). The interview subjects include Oregon State alumni, faculty, and administrators.
Gail Nickerson was interviewed in February 1995 by Natasha Allaire for the Anthropology 498 course. The interview includes information about Waldo Hall dorm life and campus activities in 1956. Recordings of the interview on audiocassettes and a transcript are available.
Interviews of Helen Berg, Gwil Evans, and Clifford Trow were conducted by students in fall 2008 for Sociology 518. The collection includes only digital sound recordings for these interviews. No transcripts are currently available for these interviews.
Eight interviews were conducted in 2010 by students in Anthropology 518. The interviewees were Emery Castle, Wil Gamble, C. Warren Hovland, Phyllis Lee, Carol Menken-Schaudt, Richard Morita, Miriam Orzech, and Clara Pratt. Transcripts and digital sound recordings are available for all these interviews. A digital photograph of Wil Gamble taken at the time of his interview is also included. All of these interviews provide information about the subjects' personal background and family history, educational background, and activities as a faculty member or administrator at Oregon State University. Several of the interviewees (Gamble, Lee, and Orzech) describe the environment at Oregon State for minority college students. Phyllis Lee describes the establishment and development of the Office of Multicultural Affairs; Miriam Orzech provides information about the Educational Opportunities Program (EOP) and the Science and Math Investigative Learning Experimence (SMILE) Program. Emery Castle discusses his research and writing in rural studies and agricultural economics. Clara Pratt provides information about the College of Home Economics and its changes in the 1990s and 2000s, especially the merger to form the College of Health and Human Sciences. Carol Menken-Schaudt describes student life and women's athletics at Oregon State in the late 1970s and early 1980s and the role of athletics in her life.
The digital sound files are in several formats, including *.aif, *.wma, *.mp3, and *.dss. Some of these are available on CD for reference use; other digital sound recordings will be made available to patrons upon request.
Collection is open for research.
Voices of Oregon State University Oral History Collection (OH 09), Oregon State University Archives, Corvallis, Oregon.
This collection is not fully processed; this guide is preliminary.
The materials were transferred to the Archives in several accessions from 1995 through 2010.
Additions to the collection are expected.
A 1980 oral history interview of Miriam Orzech is part of the