After a distinguished career with the Oregon State College Extension Service, Frank Llewellyn Ballard was appointed as the college's eighth president in 1940. He served less than a year because of illness and returned to the Extension Service administration. Ballard was the first OSC alumnus to serve as president.
Charles Buren Mitchell (1886-1955) joined the faculty of Oregon Agricultural College in 1920 to head the new Department of Speech. As department head, he established and developed the dramatics and forensics programs at Oregon State. More than 200 plays were produced under his administration. Mitchell retired in 1952; the College Playhouse was renamed in his honor as the Mitchell Playhouse in 1961.
Lui, who was from Hong Kong, was the first woman to receive a PhD at Oregon State, earning a doctorate in physics in 1941. She also received an MS from OSC in 1937.
Coming to Oregon Agricultural College in 1908, Arthur L. Peck served as a Professor of Landscape Architecture until his retirement in 1948. Peck was also chair of the Fine Arts Department and directed the planning and supervision of the Oregon State campus grounds. Peck is credited for introducing formal education in landscape architecture to the western United States. He died in 1962.
