Sara Watt Prentiss was a Professor of Child Development and Parent Education from 1930 and Head of Household Administration from 1936 until her retirement in 1952. She was born in 1886 in Sarnia Ontario, Canada. At age eight, her family moved to Tillamook County, Oregon, where her father hoped to succeed in the timber industry. After she graduated high school, she earned money teaching in schools, which put her through her first year as a pharmacy student at the University of Washington. By the end of her freshman year, “this enterprising girl” was engaged to her physiology professor, Dr. Charles W. Prentiss. They married in the spring of her sophomore year, and spent the summer visiting his family and friends in Vermont, and briefly lived in Washington D.C. In February, they moved to Chicago, where her husband began work as a professor of microscopic anatomy at Northwestern University Medical School. They had three sons, but the first passed away at 15 months. After seven years of marriage, her husband passed away in 1915 from complications from a surgery for appendicitis. Her sons, Robert and Donald, were four and two years old each at the time. She had two options: return to her parents, as she was expected to, or support her family herself. She chose the latter. Prentiss hoped that her early chemistry training might make her employable as a laboratory technician. One of her husband’s friends discouraged this, and recommended she talk with the head of the home economics department at the University of Chicago. This person strongly advised her to study home economics at OSC, although at the time Prentiss “hardly knew what home economics meant.” She decided to go to OSC, as it was close to her parents, but intended to return to Chicago to receive her Bachelor of Science. After two years and a summer session, she received a Bachelor of Science from OSC in 1917, and accepted a teaching position. Prentiss was described as someone of “dignity and poise [whose] white hair and calm, assuring personality command the respect and admiration of her many friends.” Ava B. Milam recommended her appointment to the faculty, and wrote that she considered Prentiss to be “one of the strongest graduates” of the Home Economics Department, a “woman of broad experience,” and well-suited to handle child care for the department. Prentiss taught the first course in child care ever offered at OSU--a one credit course in fall of 1917 entitled “Mothercraft,” which mostly discussed the “physical care of the child.” As demand increased, she had more opportunities to teach varied courses: on child development, behavior problems, parent education, and family relationships, occasionally making use of a nursery school laboratory. She initially taught courses concerning nutrition, but eventually devoted most of her time to the newly-established nursery school. In 1930, she was made a full professor of Child Development and Parent Education. Soon after, the National Research Council offered her a fellowship in child development. She studied at Merrill-Palmer, and the Universities of Minnesota, Chicago, and the University of California at Berkeley. In 1930, she received her master’s degree in psychology from UC Berkeley, where she was awarded a Laura Spelman Rockefeller Scholarship. She worked with UC Berkeley’s extension service, as a parent education specialist from 1934-36. In 1936, she returned to OSC to become head of the Department of Household Administration. She reached retirement age in 1951, but they retained her on a part-time basis for the summer session, in order to teach seminar readings in Child Development and Family Relationships. Upon her retirement, she was given Emeritus status. Upon her first hire, she made $810 fro a 10 month term, and upon her retirement in 1951 she was earning $7000 a year. As for her sons, Robert graduated OSC in 1932 with a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture in the field of entomology. He was a member of the “record-beating relay hurdle team in his senior year,” and after completing graduate school, lived in Salem with two children. Donald attended OSC for three years as a science major and member of Phi Kappa Phi, and thereafter attended the University of Oregon Medical School in Portland. Both had two sons, but Donald passed away shortly before Prentiss’ retirement. She took in his children until her daughter-in-law, Marion, finished her education. She died at age 68 on August 1st, 1954. She co-authored an article titled “the Observation of Food Habits in Young Children” with Dr. Mary C Jones, which was published in the seventh volume of Childhood Education. She was a member of numerous learned societies, including Phi Kappa Phi, the Society for Research in Child Development, and the American Association of University Professors. As a member of Delta Kappa Gamma, she was nominated for a Women of Achievement award in 1956. She was also a member of the Presbyterian church.
Eva N. Seen was Head of the Department of Physical Education for Women from 1935 to 1963. She was born in 1900 in Sandoval, Illinois. She earned her Bachelor of Science from Knox College in 1922, in the field of economics with minors in psychology and philosophy. She earned her Master of Arts from the University of Wisconsin in 1926, and completed an additional year and summer school in addition. She completed one year of graduate work at New York University for her doctoral degree, which she anticipated finalizing in the following year. Before coming to OSC, Seen was Director of Physical Education for Women at Wisconsin Central State Teachers College, and an instructor in physical education at Illinois State Teachers Normal School. She also had experience as a Director of the Rural Recreation Institute, the Director of City Recreation, the Director of Daily Vacation Bible School, and a camp counselor. She was hired to OSC in 1935 as Department Head at $3500 for a ten month term. She was recommended by Wisconsin colleagues which described her as a woman of “delightful personality, high standards and ideals,” who did not smoke or drink. She was described as “peculiarly qualified” to join Oregon State. She was awarded indefinite tenure in 1939. In her career, she published a number of articles in various journals, on subjects such as “Physical Education in the Elementary Grades,” and “Co-recreation Planning.” She was a member of numerous professional societies and honoraries, including the American Association for Health, P.E., and Recreation (serving as vice-president and president-elect of the Northwest Section) and the Oregon State Education Association. She was President of the Oregon State Association for Health, P.E., and Recreation, and vice-president of the Wisconsin P.E. Association. She took sabbatical from October 1941 to January 1942 in order to travel and observe college programs in health and physical education, with full salary. She took another sabbatical leave from March-June 1952, in order to travel and visit professional schools of physical education. She took additional sabbatical leave from March--June 1961 for the purpose of travel and studying other universities, as well as new procedures in major programs for professional preparation of teachers, on full salary. She served on the Board of Trustees at the Good Samaritan Hospital. She was a member of the Federated Church. She retired in 1963, at which point she was earning $13,200 at professor rank.
Jocelyn Rea Skinner was an instructor in Household Administration from 1946 to 1949. She was born Jocelyn Ann Rea in 1917 in Toronto, Canada. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts from the University of Toronto in 1938, and her Master of Arts in Psychology, with a special emphasis on child psychology, from the same institution in 1940. Her thesis for her master’s degree was titled “A systematic analysis of the content of the children’s stories.” Before coming to OSC, she worked as Acting Director of Mary B. Eyre Nursery School at Scripps College. She also had experience as a supervisor at other nursery schools throughout Ontario, and had served as a director of a wartime day nursery. She worked as a camp counselor for four summers. When Wartime Programme was started in Ontario, she was chosen to open the first school as a “demonstration school for the province.” She had complete responsibility to plan and organize this project, ad went on to train and supervise staff in 28 schools. Dean Milam interviewed her in Los Angeles and recommended her for the appointment. She was hired at $2600 for a ten month term. On December 17, 1948, she married Charles S. Skinner, a graduate assistant in Biology with the Botany Department. She resigned in 1949, as her husband's work needed them to move out of Oregon. She was a member of Alpha Phi Sorority and the American Camping Association.
Ethel Allen worked as an assistant professor and assistant editor at Oregon State’s publications office from 1917 to 1948 and then from 1950 to 1955. She received her undergraduate education from Oregon Agricultural College in 1916. Initially, she worked in the library, but was promoted to Assistant in Office Publications in 1923 and in 1931 she was promoted to Assistant Editor of Publications. She was born in 1883, in Rickreall, Oregon. Before working at OSU, she was a rural school teacher, and taught in Independence, Oregon. Her annual salary was $2200. Before she retired, she made $2600. She was a member of the Business and Professional Women’s Club. After working at OSU for 20 years, she took sabbatical leave in 1937. Ethel Allen came to OSU because there was a shortage of staff in the library, as one of the employees was helping an ailing mother and was getting engaged, which meant she would not be working anymore. Allen was hired onto the library staff, working seven hours a day for $38 a month. She initially made about $600 a year. Ida Kidder wrote a letter to President Kerr in 1917 to ask for a rise in the wages of her library staff, pointing to the rise in living expenses, and recommended that Allen’s wages be raised to $720 a year. Kerr granted the salary increase. She retired in 1948, but came back in 1950 to work part time. Her previously held position was difficult to fill, as women often left to have babies, get married, or they found a better-paying job. Initially, she was only supposed to work for a year, but the rate of turnover for female staff was so great that she stayed on until 1955. Other faculty frequently said she was extremely skilled and experienced.