Jean W. Scheel joined the Oregon State College Extension Service in 1946 as an information specialist. Within a year, he was re-assigned as Assistant to the Director, a position he held until his retirement in 1971. Prior to his appointment at Oregon State, he was an Extension Editor at Kansas State University from 1934 until 1942 and served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps from 1942 until 1946.
Scheel was an active member of the Rotary International. He joined the Corvallis Rotary Club in 1950, served as President of the club in 1966-1967, and was the District Governor for southern Oregon and northern California in 1974-1975. Scheel was a member of the Silvies Hunting Club and continued hunting into his early 90s.
Jean Willard Scheel was born in Emporia, Kansas, on July 1, 1911 and died in Albany, Oregon, at the age of 96, on February 19, 2008.
The Jean W. Scheel Photographs consist of images taken and assembled by Scheel documenting his Extension Service career and Rotary Club activities; his wife, Ada Scheel's participation in local and national garden clubs; and Oregon landscapes.
The collection includes portrait photographs; an image depicting Scheel's World War II service in the Army Signal Corps; group photographs of Extension Service workers; and images of a meeting of the Northwest Association of Extension Agents meeting in Missoula, Montana. Photos of Rotary Club meetings and conferences as well as regional and national garden club conventions, including the Oregon Federation of Garden Clubs, the National Council of State Garden Clubs, and the western regional meeting in Alaska in 1967 are part of the collection. Images of the Scheels' garden and residence; trees, flowers, flowering shrubs, and gardens; and a flower arrangement symposium are included. Oregon landscape photographs include the Oregon Coast (Ecola and Shore Acres); central Oregon; snow in the Willamette Valley and central Oregon; and elk hunting trips with the Silvies Hunting Club. The collection also includes several images of the Corvallis Arts Center in Central Park taken in 1972.
The photographs consist primarily of color slides (730); the collection also includes 39 prints and 1 negative. Newspaper clippings, certificates, invitations, and other ephemeral items pertaining the Scheels' involvement in the Rotary Club are also included.
Collection is open for research.
Jean W. Scheel Photographs (P 279), Oregon State University Archives, Corvallis, Oregon.
This collection is not fully processed; this guide is preliminary.
The photographs were donated to the Archives in 2009 by a friend and fellow Rotarian of Scheel.
Scheel's career with the Oregon State Extension Service is documented
in the