Adelaide Lake, Associate Professor of Journalism, Spring 1952

Title: Adelaide Lake, Associate Professor of Journalism, Spring 1952
LC Subject: Universities and colleges--Faculty Journalism Portraits
Creator: OSC News Bureau Photo
Description: Adelaide Lake was an Instructor and Associate Professor of Journalism. She was born in 1897, in Harrisburg, Oregon. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the University of Oregon in 1920, and attended Oregon State College from 1939 to 1940 for graduate study in education. She began teaching at OSC in 1940 as a half-time instructor, and attended University of Oregon for a term, while still working in Corvallis. She received her master’s degree from OSC in 1942. She was a reporter and department editor at the Oregonian for about 14 years; she also owned and edited a weekly newspaper in Sheridian, Oregon, for two years. Her practical experience in the journalism field was highly valued, and in 1942, she was offered the position of editor of the Oregon Educational Journal if/when the present editor was called into military service. To secure her employment, OSC raised her rank and salary from a part-time instructor, making $1800, to assistant professor with a salary of $2,250. She was granted sabbatical leave in 1955 for the spring and summer terms, while she attended classes at Stanford, University of Washington, and a college in Ames, Iowa. While on sabbatical, she attended a national convention of Theta Sigma Pi, a journalism honorary society for women, of which she was an active member. She periodically sent updates to her OSC coworkers, some of whom were astonished that she chose to go to Iowa during the heat of summer. In 1951, she was promoted to Associate Professor. In 1960, she suffered a fall and was incapacitated for winter and spring terms, but, as a valued member of the staff, received full pay for winter term. She reached mandatory retirement age in the summer session of 1963, but continued teaching through her summer classes, receiving an annual salary of $8,800. She was an incredibly well-liked and respected figure on campus, and higher-ups requested that she be allowed to continue teaching on a part-time basis for the following two years. She insisted on retiring after the conclusion of spring term of 1965, for her health. She worked at OSU for 23 years, and reached emeritus rank before retiring. Professor Lake was a legacy at OSC, as her maternal grandfather, Joseph Emery, a Southern Methodist minister, taught at Corvallis College 1865-71, while her great-uncle-in-law, W.A. Finley, was president.
Work Type: negatives (photographs) photographs black-and-white photographs
Location: Corvallis >> Benton County >> Oregon >> United States
Date: 1952
Identifier: P082:73-1268
Rights: In Copyright
Local Collection Name: Gwil Evans Photographic Collection, 1930-1968 (P 082)
Type: Image
Format: image/tiff
Set: OSU Special Collections & Archives Research Center Historical Images of Oregon State University
Primary Set: OSU Special Collections & Archives Research Center
Institution: Oregon State University