Elvera C. Horrell was an extension statistician and secretary for the Federal Cooperative Extension at Oregon State College from 1928 to 1937 and from 1939 to 1968. Horrell was born in 1906, in Portland, Oregon. She received her undergraduate education in business administration from Oregon State College from 1927 to 1937. She was brought on to work at Oregon State in 1928 as a stenographer for the Department of Agricultural Economics at $100 per month. Horrell was promoted to secretary of the office of Agricultural Economics in 1935. She resigned in 1937 to join her husband, Everett Horrell, in Eastern Oregon. She returned to work at OSC in 1939 as a secretary. In 1942, she was promoted to Junior Extension Statistician, at an annual salary of $1,800. In her new position, Horrell handled statistical questions for the County Agricultural program. She prepared statistical reports and handled special requests for her department’s statistical data. She was promoted to Agricultural Economist in 1965. She retired in 1968 with the rank of Assistant Professor.
Mary Beth Minden was a Home Management Specialist from 1947 to 1958. She was born in 1919 in Boise, Idaho. She completed undergraduate work at the College of Idaho and OSC, receiving her Bachelor of Science from the latter in 1940, where she studied home economics, education, and biological science. She received her Master of Arts from Columbia University Teachers College in 1947, in the field of home management and consumer education. She spend three years as a vocational home economics teacher in Idaho, and spent three years in the U.S. Navy, serving as an Administrative Assistant in the Navy Officers’ School. She was hired at a salary of $3,408, and was granted the rank of associate professor in 1950. She applied for sabbatical leave for the calendar year of 1955, to pursue her Ph.D at Purdue University, catch up with newer developments in these fields, and improve her work as an Extension specialist. OSC granted her request, as they felt this would set her up to provide for the growing need for assistance to Oregon families with economic problems. She extended this absence until October 1956 in order to complete her degree. She graduated in the fall of 1956 with a degree in Consumer Economics and Marketing, with minors in Economic Theory and Home Management. Her thesis was titled “Consumption Decision and Implications for Consumer Education Programs.” She resigned from OSC in 1958 at a salary of $9,156, having spent eleven years on staff. She left to become head of the Home Management Department of the School of Home Economics at the University of Connecticut.
Rebecca K. Johnston was a county extension agent for Oregon State College from 1949 to 1952 and from 1956 to 1958. Johnston was born in 1925, in Marshall County, Kentucky. She received her Bachelor of Science in Vocational Home Economics from Western Kentucky State Teachers College in 1946. She was a member of the National Education Association and the National Vocation Association. Before coming to work at Oregon State, Johnston taught home economics at an Illinois high school. Johnston made the move to Oregon to be closer to her mother, a resident of Grant County. She was hired by Oregon State to work in Crook County at an annual salary of $3,480. She resigned in 1952, but came back to work in 1956, where she was assigned as an extension agent in Malheur County. She resigned in 1958 to accept a position as an extension agent in Alaska.
Edith Jeffers Freeman was an Extension Rural Sociologist at Oregon State from 1946 to 1954. She was born in 1900, in Frederick, South Dakota. She received her Bachelor of Science in Home Economics from the University of Washington in 1932. She received her Master of Science in Family Relations from Cornell University in 1939 and her Ph.D. in Rural Sociology from Cornell in 1943. Her thesis for her master’s degree was titled “Family Education through Home Visits”. Her thesis for her Ph.D. was titled “Social Class as a Factor in the Family Group Relations of Certain Farm Families”. Before coming to OSC, she worked as an Assistant Professor in Sociology for Pratt Institute. She was hired as a home demonstration agent at large for OSC in 1946, at an annual salary of $3,408. But due to high enrollment levels in the Department of Sociology during the Fall of 1946, she was transferred to the department to serve as an instructor from October to December. She returned to being a home demonstration agent after the Fall term of 1946. In 1948, Dr. Freeman was transferred to work under a new project under the Federal Cooperative Extension Department called “Rural Sociology”. She received the new title of Sociology Specialist, and an annual salary of $3,948. Under this project, Dr. Freeman studied the relations between marriage, family, and class in rural Oregon. She resigned in 1954, after her position was discontinued.
Dora Braughton Cooper was a home demonstration agent for Wasco County for Oregon State College from 1944 to 1948. She was married with no children when she began working for OSC. Her annual salary was $2604. She was previously a teacher at Roseburg High School. She also did work with the 4-H Club in rural schools in Douglas County. She received two Bachelor of Science degrees, one in education and one in home economics, from OSC in 1942. She was promoted to assistant professor with an annual salary of $3,000 and relocated to Deschutes, Oregon in 1946. She resigned in 1948 to become a stay at home wife. She was born in 1913, in Paradise, Oregon.