Emery Neal Castle was born on April 13, 1923 in Greenwood County, Kansas. He received a BS and MS in Agricultural Economics from Kansas State University in 1948 and 1950 respectively and a Ph D in Agricultural Economics from Iowa State University in 1952. Before coming to the Oregon State University Department of Agricultural and Reserve Economics in 1954, Castle served as an instructor in the Department of Economics at Kansas State University from 1948 to 1952 and held the position of agricultural economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City from 1952 to 1954. At OSU, Castle was promoted to associate professor in 1957 and to professor in 1959. Castle also held a number of administrative posts at OSU, including Dean of Faculty (1965-1966), Head of Agricultural Economics (1966-1972), Director of the Water Resources Institute (1966-1969), and Dean of the Graduate School (1972-1976). In 1976, Castle resigned from OSU to accept a position as vice president and senior research fellow at Resources for the Future (RFF), a Washington, DC public policy research institute. He served as president of RFF from 1979-1986.
In 1986 Castle returned to OSU as chair of the University Graduate Faculty of Economics, a position he held until 1992. In 1987 he received a grant from W.K. Kellogg Foundation which enabled him to establish a National Rural Studies Committee. In 1992 Castle was awarded professor emeritus status at Oregon State University. From 1992 to 1994, Castle chaired the Extended Education Transition Committee, which examined the administrative placement of the Extension Service Program at OSU and offered recommendations for its reorganization.
A summary of Castle's publications, awards, and professional activities is contained in a vita available in the MSS central file for Castle.
Series I primarily consists of correspondence pertaining to Castle's research and editorial work and relates to foundation grant funding, requests for reviews of articles and books, and involvement in professional organizations and conferences. This series also documents Castle's work in Resources For the Future and Winrock International. Series II contains correspondence, memoranda, reports, testimony and research proposals from University committees served on by Castle. Included among the issues addressed by these committees are foundation grants for research projects, Oregon land use legislation, the administrative placement of the OSU Extension Service Program, and water resources research projects.
Series III consists of reviews written by Castle of books related to natural resources and agriculture. Series IV are speeches, lectures, and testimony Castle presented at professional conferences, universities, and the U.S. Congress. The topics addressed in these presentations include: water resources, the global agricultural economy, the future of American agriculture, government involvement in agricultural markets, and think tanks.
Series V consists of reports and studies covering the years 1976 to 1995 and pertaining to university agricultural and extension service programs, administrative costs at OSU, and public expectations of higher education. Included in this series are the draft and final reports of the Extension Education Transition Committee, a body headed by Castle which examined the OSU Extension Service and offered recommendations concerning its administrative reorganization and placement. Series VI consists of journal articles, Extension publications, and books written and edited by Castle. Series VII is an editor's copy of a book, The Changing American Countryside: Rural People and Places, edited by Castle in 1994-1995. Notes on small post-its on the edge of pages in the manuscript pertain to needed additions and changes to maps and figures in the book.
The Emery N. Castle papers are organized into seven series: I. Correspondence; II. Committees; III. Book and Article Reviews; IV. Speeches and Lectures; V. Reports and Studies; VI. Publications; and VII. Manuscripts.
Emery N. Castle Papers, Oregon State University Archives, Corvallis, Oregon.
Other materials relating to Castle and his work can be found in the Agricultural and Resource Economics Department Records (RG 128) and the Rockefeller Project Records (RG 161). Photographs documenting Castle and his work at OSU can be found in the photographic collections of News and Communications (P 57) and the R.W. Henderson Collection (P 98).