Joan Patterson was a Professor of Clothing, Textiles, and Related Arts from 1940 to 1956. She was born in 1907 in Baker, Oregon. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Interior Design and Architecture from the University of Oregon in 1931, and later went on to obtain her graduate degree from UO in art appreciation and sociology in 1934. For her professional degree, her thesis discussed three interior design problems: oriental library, aviation waiting room, and one complete home. Before applying to be a professor, she was an extension agent in home furnishings at OSC, and previously worked as an instructor and research assistant at the University of Oregon. She also had been employed as an assistant decorator at the Meier and Frank Company in Portland, Oregon. She was said to have been “under observation” by OSC’s home economics department for a long time, which considered her very favorable for the home management specialist position. She published at least 24 articles in her field, including those on such subjects as “Color and its use in the home,” “Curtaining the home,” and “Home-made rugs--how to design and make them.” She served as the extension specialist in home furnishing for four years and was a member of the faculty for 29 years. She was an instructor until 1937, assistant professor in 1938, associate professor in 1940, and full professor in 1951. She served as acting head of the Clothing, Textiles and Related Arts Department in 1961-62. In 1949, she was appointed to Associate Textile Specialist in the Experiment Station in the Department of Home Economics, at an annual salary of $4,578 for ten months of service. She worked in experiment station research with the Oregon Flax and Linen Board, wrote bulletins for the extension service and agricultural experiment station, and was an advisor for at least thirteen master's theses. As an extension agent, she aided community members in furnishing their homes and public buildings, and made an important cultural contribution with her design of woven fabrics. She took sabbatical leave twice in her career at OSC. The first was from January to September of 1948 to do advanced study in Cranbrook, Michigan, for which she received a half-salary. When her sabbatical ran out, she took a leave of absence in 1949-50 in order to continue her research. She studied the “utilisation of flax yarn, principally from Oregon fiber, in upholstery and drapery fabrics.” This project held the promise of a “new market outlet” for Oregon flax. The Flax and Linen Board understood the research conducted by Patterson to be of “fundamental importance…to the Oregon flax industry.” Thus, they awarded her $500 for signing a memorandum of understanding between herself and the Flax and Linen Board, $50,000 upon submission of a report to the Board, and $1000 to reimburse her for purchase of materials and services rendered. She took another sabbatical in 1957 from March to June, when she visited craft centers and industry centers of textile design for inspiration in teaching and information, visited colleges and universities to study teaching, and designing textiles she normally did not have the time to do. In 1953, she was named one of five Oregon “Women of Achievement” for her contribution to “industrial development in Oregon.” An article was written about her recognition in the Gazette-Times. She was a member of Delta Delta Delta Sorority and the Episcopal Church.
Grace Mary Scully was a Professor of Physical Education for Women from 1946 to 1957. She was born in 1915 in El Reno, Oklahoma. She studied at Eastern Oregon College, University of Washington, and University of Oregon, graduating from the latter in 1942 with a Bachelor of Science in Physical Education and Biological Science. She earned her Master of Science in 1946 from University of Oregon, in health and physical education. For her thesis, she studied flexibility. While attending University of Oregon, she was a graduate assistant and briefly an instructor. She also had experience teaching elementary and secondary school, supervising health and physical education at University High School in Eugene, Oregon, and had been a director of a summer playground program and camp counselor. OSC hired her at $2400 for a ten month term. She became an assistant professor in 1950. She took sabbatical leave from 1954-55, on half salary, to get her doctorate from Columbia University Teachers’ College. After this, she requested an an additional leave of absence to complete her dissertation. Her work was funded by the Ford Foundation and “some Carnegie money.” The organization supervising her work was the Greater New York Council for Foreign Students. She felt that, though her subject might at first glance seem unrelated to her work at OSC, she was learning more about people foreign and domestic, which she considered “basic to the excellent teaching of anything.” In June 1956, she received her PhD. in Guidance and Student Personnel Administration, with additional study in counseling. Her doctoral thesis was titled “A Study of Students from Abroad Who Do Not Wish to Return Home.” Unlike her study subjects, Scully was anxious to return to her “beloved Oregon.” She wrote two separate, very similar letters announcing her graduation to President Strand, who teased her for already developing “professorial absent-mindedness.” Apparently she had forgotten to sign the first by hand, and so she wrote another, but could not retrieve the first from the postal service. In 1957, she accepted a position as Associate Professor at Northern Illinois State College at De Kalb, where she taught dance education, in addition to counseling, and guiding a number of graduate students. She made it clear she had “made every effort to stay in this state.” President Strand apologized she had “come to the decision she did,” and chalked it up to a “personality conflict.” Professor Scully responded that the issue was not due to personality conflict and was instead because others were “firstest with the mostest”--a famous Southern phrase which essentially means that one group got there first, with greater numbers, and dominated the scene thereafter. Dr Seen attributed her decision to leave to the fact that Professor Scully wished to teach dance, but OSC already had a dance education professor. After Illinois, she became Associate Professor and Assistant Director of Student Personnel Services at Paterson State College. She was president of Phi Beta Sigma, and a member of Sigma Alpha Chi and Kappa Delta Pi.
Lois Ann Sather (nee Young) was Assistant Food Technologist. She was born in 1923 in Wilsonville, Oregon. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Home Economics from OSC in 1945. She joined OSC in 1945 as a research assistant with the Food Technology Department, with a salary of $1800 per year. She left in 1948, and returned to the same position in 1952. After two years, she became Assistant Food Technologist with the rank of assistant professor in 1954, where she was in charge of the Flavorium, Food and Dairy Tech Department. She was also in charge of several significant flavor studies, studying the formulation of commercial food products and researched which factors influence consumer preferences for beef. Her lab developed new recipes for using dried apples, dried green beans, and dried cherries. Her work was considered expedient by the university, who felt that the “tremendous increase in the number of insecticides and fungicides,” made it necessary for the “Food Technology Department… to make numerous tests on the effect of these materials on flavor of crops treated with [pesticides].” Sather was a member of the National IFT committee on Flavor Evaluation Procedures, and published numerous publications, with titles such as “Flavor Studies of Ice Cream vs. Ice Milk by Student Flavor Panels,” and “Building Convenience into Green Beans.” She was a member of the Institute of Food Technologists and the American Home Economics Association, as well as Kappa Delta Sorority Alumnae Association, the Eastern Star, and Corvallis Parent-Teachers Association. She was married to Glenn V Sather in 1946, who owned and managed a Corvallis laundry and dry cleaning business. By 1958 they had three children: Craig (10), Ronald (8), and Larry (7).