Born at Portland, Oregon, in August 1887, Samuel H. Graf entered Oregon Agricultural College in 1903 to study engineering. He received five engineering degrees from the college - B.S., Electrical Engineering (1907); E.E., Electrical Engineering (1908); B.S., Mechanical Engineering (1908); M.E., Mechanical Engineering (1909); and M.S., Electrical Engineering (1909). Between 1909 and 1954 Graf held several faculty appointments in engineering at Oregon State. From 1909-1912 he was an instructor in mechanical engineering; from 1912-1920 he was the head of experimental engineering; head of the Department of Mechanics and Materials (1920-1934) and of the Department of Mechanical Engineering (1934-1954); director of engineering research (1928-1944); and director of the Engineering Experiment Station (1944-1954).
Graf participated in several professional organizations, including the State Board of Engineering Examiners, the American Society for Metals, the American Society for Testing Materials, and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He also served on the Board of Trustees of Linfield College from 1954 to 1966 and was a member of several honorary societies, including Phi Kappa Phi, Sigma Xi (General Science), Eta Kappa Nu (Electrical Engineering), Sigma Tau (General Engineering), and Tau Beta Pi (General Engineering). Among his publications were Gas Appliance Testing Code, the Gas Engineers' Handbook, and several Engineering Experiment Station research bulletins.
Graf was married three times and had four children. He died in July 1966; Graf Hall on the OSU campus and Graf Hall at Linfield College are named for him.
The Samuel H. Graf Collection consists of materials created and assembled by Graf during the course of his years as a student and faculty member at Oregon State College. The materials include letters written to his family during his student years and early years on the faculty from 1903 to 1918; a text in mechanical drawing co-written by Graf; a history of mechanical engineering at Oregon State; and a scrapbook. The scrapbook consists primarily of notes and letters written to Graf by former students and colleagues on the occasion of his retirement in 1954. The collection also includes two photographic prints of Graf receiving an honorary degree from Linfield College in 1959. Also of note is a reprint of a 1933 article in
Collection is open for research.
Organized into 5 series: I. Family Letters, 1903-1920; II.
Samuel H. Graf Collection, Oregon State University Archives, Corvallis, Oregon.
The family letters were donated to the OSU College of Engineering in 1999 by Samuel Graf's daughter, Therese Graf Tanalski. They were transferred to the University Archives in December 2000.
Additional biographical information on Graf can be found in the
The Family Letters consist of letters that Graf wrote to his family between 1903 and 1918 while a student at Oregon Agricultural College (OAC) and later a faculty member. The letters provide a detailed account of student life at OAC. Graf discusses faculty members; his classes; fellow students; athletics; and costs, such as his cadet uniform and room and board. They also provide insight into OAC faculty life in the 1910s. The series also includes an invitation to Graf's 1920 marriage to Blanche Edlefsen. The letters are arranged chronologically.
Series II is a text and supplemental drawings written by Graf and fellow faculty member M. Clyde Phillips in 1909.
Series III consists of a summary of the development of mechanical engineering at Oregon State prepared by Graf in the mid 1940s. It describes department facilities, faculty, curriculum, and degrees awarded.
Series IV consists of a reprint from the January 1933 issue of
The scrapbook consists predominantly of notes and letters from former students and colleagues presented to Graf at the banquet given in his honor by the Oregon Section of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1954 at the time of Graf's retirement. The scrapbook also includes clippings, brochures, and memorabilia from the dinner as well several items from the late 1950s and early 1960s. These later materials include clippings, correspondence, and photographs pertaining to Linfield College's award of an honorary degree to Graf in 1959.