Elma Marshall Bemis began working at OSC as an Assistant Instructor in the Circulation Department at the library from 1944 to 1961. She received her Bachelor of Science in 1917 from Phillips University, and her Master of Arts in 1942 from the Colorado State College of Education. She also received a Bachelor of Science from the Denver University Library School in 1944. As an undergraduate and graduate student she studied English. She was born in 1896, in Mankato, Minnesota. Before coming to OSC, she was a teaching fellow at Colorado University and an Assistant in English at Phillips University, as well as a high school teacher. By the time she came to work at OSC, she was widowed with one child. She received a letter in 1954 from the director of libraries explaining that despite being due for a promotion, she would remain an instructor, as she had been for the previous six years. The director explained that given the workload in the department, she needed to stay on as an instructor, despite taking on an increase of work. In 1944, she received $1,800 a year for her salary. By 1961, she was listed as a senior instructor, with a $5,472 yearly salary. She died in 1973.
Mildred Riedesel was an instructor in Foods and Nutrition from 1946 to 1948. She was born in 1916 in Ames, Iowa. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Home Economics Education from Iowa State College in 1939, and her Master of Science in Foods and Institution Management in 1946. Her thesis for her master’s degree was titled “Palatability of Frozen Pork as Influenced by Defrosting and Cooking Methods