Natalie Ann Smith was an instructor in Household Administration and head teacher in Park Terrace Nursery School from 1949-1951.She was born in 1918 in Oakland, California. She was divorced with one child when she came to OSC. She studied at Willamette University and OSC, graduating from the latter with a Bachelor of Arts in Home Economics and Education in 1942. She attended further graduate school at OSC, studying child development and nursery school education. She had worked as nursery school assistant at OSC in 1942, and taught at middle schools, kindergarten, and nursery schools throughout Portland. She was hired at $2700 per year, replacing Jocelyn Skinner. When hired she had not yet had enough experience to warrant Skinner’s salary, but she had the potential. In Spring term of 1951, she took on additional teaching responsibilities during a colleague’s leave of absence.
Viola Brainerd Shaffer was a Polk County home demonstration agent from 1946 to 1948. She was born in 1898, in Kansas City, Missouri. She earned her Bachelor of Science from OSC in 1939 in family relations and sociology, with additional study in clothing and manual arts. She did further study at Columbia University, Kansas State, and Chicago Technical Normal School, studying family economics. She was widowed when she came to OSC, with one 15-year-old son. She had five years of experience as a high school food and clothing teacher, and also had experience as a rural branch librarian. She maintained twenty-six rural branch libraries in two counties, and organized reading groups in connection with Home Department Extension Service in California. She also served as a Farm Security County Supervisor, District and Area Supervisor, and State Director of Home Management Supervisors in Oregon. She was a personal friend of Azalea Sager, who vouched for Shaffer’s work. She took a significant pay cut from her Farm Security work in joining OSC staff as an extension agent, but preferred this work so she could spend more than with her son. She was hired at $3300 per year. She resigned in 1948 to be married, at which point she took the name Mrs. Wells.