Jo Anne J. Trow (then Jo Anne Johnson) came to Oregon State University in 1965 to serve as the Dean of Women. In 1969 the university appointed Trow as Associate Dean of Students after a structural reorganization eliminated the Dean of Women position. A year later, she married Clifford W. Trow, a faculty member in the Oregon State University History Department. Jo Anne Trow was one of the central figures in a group of campus women who addressed issues of inequality faced by female faculty, such as salary parity. These discussions and activities eventually led to the formation of the OSU Women’s Network, the Women's Center, and the President's Commission on the Status of Women. In 1984, Trow was named Vice President for Student Affairs -- the first female vice president at Oregon State. She retired in 1995.
Jo Anne Trow has been active in a number of community organizations such as the Corvallis Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and the Old Mill Center for Children and Families. She has received many honors, including the Howland Special Achievement Award and Corvallis Senior First Citizen, in recognition of her civic actvities.
Trow earned a BA in Sociology at Denison University in 1953 and an MA in Counseling and Guidance, with a minor in Sociology, at Indiana University in 1956. She completed her Ph.D. in Student Personnel Administration in 1965 at Michigan State University. Trow served as Assistant Dean of Women at Denison University (1953-1954) and Washington State University (1959-1963) before joining the faculty of Oregon State University in 1965.
The Jo Anne J. Trow Papers consist of materials generated and collected by Trow that document her career at Oregon State University, college education, involvement in professional organizations, receipt of awards, and service in community organizations. The collection includes certificates, correspondence, diplomas, drawings, employment records, greeting cards, a guestbook, newspaper clippings, photographs, plaques, a scrapbook, speeches, student papers, a thesis, and a VHS videotape.
About half of the collection -- which includes the guestbook, scrapbook, videotape, and greeting cards - reflects events and notes of congratulations on Trow's promotion to Vice President and on her retirement. The two professional organizations reflected in these papers are NAWDAC (National Association of Women's Deans, Administrators, and Counselors) and NASPA (National Association of Student Personnel Administrators). A copy of Trow's doctoral dissertation,
The photographs are color prints; five of the prints are included with the scrapbook of letters and other remembrances prepared at the time of her retirement in 1995. The other images are of Trow with other Corvallis civic leaders and a 1995 image of Trow forming the "OSU" letters with two OSU students near her office in the Kerr Administration Building.
Collection is open for research, with the exception of employment records that include confidential personal information.
Jo Anne J. Trow Papers (MSS TrowJ), Oregon State University Special Collections & Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.
The papers were donated to the Special Collections & Archives Research Center in 2014 by Jo Anne Trow.
This collection is not fully processed; this guide is preliminary.
The Student Affairs Records (RG 102) include extensive documentation of Trow's career at Oregon State University. The Dean of Women's Office