Melvin Chikara Hironaka, from Hawaii, attended Oregon State College (OSC) from 1956 until 1960 when he earned a BS in Civil Engineering. His wife, Florence Miya Endo Hironaka, also from Hawaii, attended OSC from 1954 until 1958 and earned a BA in Home Economics in 1958.
Born in 1900 in England, Fred Merryfield came to the United States after serving as a pilot for the Royal Air Force in World War I. He completed his undergraduate education in civil engineering at Oregon Agricultural College in 1923. Specializing in the study of sanitary engineering (later known as environmental engineering), Merryfield was a faculty member in the School of Engineering from 1927 until 1966. With fellow Oregon State alumni Holly Cornell, Jim Howland, and T. Burke Hayes, Merryfield founded CH2M, an engineering consulting firm, in 1946. With a focus on sewage treatment projects and water engineering problems, Merryfield became well known as an advocate for pollution control and abatement. This led to his appointment by the Oregon governor to the State Water Resources Board in 1955. Merryfield died in 1977.