August LeRoy Strand was appointed as the ninth president of Oregon State College in the fall of 1942 and led the college through both World War II as well as the post-war period of extensive growth in students and facilities that followed.
Sager was a State Home Economics Leader with the Extension Service. Rachel Azalea Sager was a clothing specialist and Home Economics specialist from 1932-1952. Sager also served on the Oregon Nutrition Committee for 17 years. The Azalea House, named after Sager, is a women's cooperative.
Jeanette Alice Brauns Dixon was a physical education instructor at Oregon State College from 1930 to 1973. She previously worked at Bosse High, in Evansville, Indiana, and from 1941 to 1943 she took administrative leave from OSC to become an instructor for the National Red Cross Aquatic School. She received her Bachelor of Science in Physical Education from Battle Creek College in 1930, and her Master of Science from Oregon State in 1940. Her initial salary was $1,800 for ten months. She was promoted to assistant professor in 1943, with an annual salary of $2,400. She was married to James Dixon without children when she came to work for OSC. She took sabbatical leave from OSC in 1947 to complete a study on swimming, and later published a book called, “Simplified Swimming”. In 1967, she was granted indefinite tenure and promotion to an Associate Professor. She was born in 1907, in Evansville, Indiana.
Beatrice Beebe worked as an English instructor at OSC from 1934 to 1952. As an undergraduate, she attended the University of Illinois, Boston University Law School, the University of Washington, and she received her L.L.B. from the University of Oregon Law School in 1912. She received her Master of Arts from the University of Oregon in 1925. She was born in 1886, in Chicago, Illinois. She listed her son, William Beebe, as her beneficiary. Before coming to OSC she had worked on various school boards throughout Washington and Oregon, from as early as 1911. She was a member of the National Writers Club and the American Poetry League. She also taught English and math at various high schools in Oregon. She published articles, poems, and translated plays in her spare time. Before her retirement, she was promoted to assistant professor. Her beginning wage was $195 a month and grew to $3920 a year.
Jane Catherine Dale was an English instructor at Oregon State College from 1946 to 1947. She was paid an annual salary of $2,000. She had previously worked as a supervisor of teaching at Oregon College of Education in Monmouth from 1939 to 1946. She came to OSC because she wanted to teach English. She received her undergraduate education from James Milikin University and the University of Delaware and George Washington University from 1927 to 1932. She received her Bachelor of Arts in English in 1938 and her Master of Arts in English in 1939 from the University of Wisconsin. She was unmarried when she came to work at OSC, and listed her friend, Miss Ruth Elizabeth Lautenbach, as her beneficiary. She resigned in 1947 to take another position elsewhere with a higher rank and salary. She was born in 1907, in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Dora May Himmelsbach Costello was a reference assistant at the Oregon State College library off and on from 1923 to 1925, then from 1938 to 1943, and from 1945 to 1948. Her annual salary was $1,920. She was twenty-nine years old when she came to work at OSC in 1923. She had previously worked as an English instructor at an Idaho high school. She received her Bachelor of Education in 1921, and her Bachelor of Library Science in 1923 from the University of Washington. She was a member of the American Library Association and the Pacific Northwest Library Association. From 1926 to 1937, she worked as a library assistant at Louisiana State University, California State University, and at Yakima Public Library. She came back to work at Oregon State College in 1938 because she wanted a permanent position. From 1943 to 1945, she took a leave of absence for military service to join the Women’s Army Corps. At this time, OSC’s library was already suffering from staff shortages due to the war, but her leave was granted. She resigned in 1948. She was born in 1894, in Crookston, Minnesota.
Emma S. Coe was a secretary for the Department of Housing and Employment for Men at OSC from 1941 to 1945. Coe was born in 1888, in Niverville, Manitoba, Canada. She received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of North Dakota in 1915. Previously, she had been a high school and substitute teacher and worked for several newspapers in North Dakota. She also published an article titled “History of Crary, North Dakota and Southern Ramsey County”, which was published to the North Dakota State Historical Collections. Coe moved to Corvallis in 1936. Before coming to OSC, she was a housewife, and she explained on her job application that she wanted to help the family income. She was paid an annual salary of $1,200.
Laura Cornelia McAllester was an Assistant Professor and Chairman of Physical Education. She was born in 1883 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. She began at OSC in 1926, at a salary of $2,200. She received a certificate from the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics in 1906, and completed further undergraduate work at Wellesley College. In 1932, she received her Bachelor of Science from OSC. Before coming to OSC, she spent seven years as the Director of Physical Education at North Carolina College for Women. She was the director of a high school in Rochester, New York, did physiotherapy at a private office for four years in Sacramento, and spent two years doing health corrective work at a private school. After starting as an instructor at OSC in 1926, she became Chairman of the Department in 1932, and an Assistant Professor in 1935. She took sabbatical for winter term of 1945 to conduct a survey of new methods and procedures in body mechanics, particularly as they related to posture and relaxation. She planned to conduct this work in either San Francisco or New York, in order to contact resident leaders in the field. She was a member of Kappa Delta Pi and the Episcopal church.
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.