Gayle Corinne Timmons was an instructor in Foods and Nutrition from 1946 to 1949. She was born in 1925, in Eureka, California. She received her Bachelor of Science in Home Economics Education from OSC in 1946. She married and changed her name to Gayle C. Merlin in 1947. By 1948, while working as a part-time instructor, she finished off all the requirements for her Master’s degree. When a colleague, Miss Riedesel, fell ill, Merklin went full-time to cover her classes. By the next year, she was given a 5% raise for her able teaching, as well as her “real flare for food preparation.” She began in 1946 at a salary of $850 for part-time teaching, and resigned in 1949 at a full-time salary of $2,835.
Philis Louise Parsons was a laboratory assistant in the Department of Art and Architecture in 1946. She was born in 1912 in Twin Falls, Idaho. She was divorced with four children, who ranged in age from 14 to 8 at the time of her hire at OSC. She attended undergraduate college at Chapman College in Los Angeles, and then received her degree in arts and crafts, with additional study in painting, from Oregon State in 1945. Before coming to OSC, she was the Arts and Skills Coordinator for the Camp Adair Navy Hospital. She also had experience teaching art in an eighth grade country school on a volunteer basis, and lived for two years in Alaska. At OSC, she was hired at $1,500 on a nine-month basis. She worked from nine to five every weekday with instructors and their classes, taking care of supplies and equipment, and organizing materials for “demonstration and reference.” As a recent student at OSC, she was familiar with the classes. She was a member of Kappa Kappa Alpha, as well as the secretary of the Valley Rangers, an amateur riding club.