Born in Portland, Oregon, in August of 1887, Samuel H. Graf entered the Oregon Agricultural College in 1903 to study engineering. He received five engineering degrees from the college - B.S., Electrical Engineering (1907); E.E., Electrical Engineering (1908); B.S., Mechanical Engineering (1908); M.E., Mechanical Engineering (1909); and M.S., Electrical Engineering (1909). Between 1909 and 1954, Graf held several faculty positions in engineering at Oregon State. From 1909-1912, he was an instructor in mechanical engineering; from 1912-1920, he was the head of experimental engineering; head of the Department of Mechanics and Materials (1920-1934) and of the Department of Mechanical Engineering (1934-1954); director of engineering research (1928-1944); and director of the Engineering Experiment Station (1944-1954).
Mark Clyde Phillips, a lifelong resident of Corvallis, was born February 10, 1877. He entered Oregon Agricultural College in 1892 and studied mechanical engineering. He played on the 1894 and 1895 football teams. Phillips received a Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering degree in 1896. The next year he was hired as an instructor of mechanical engineering at OAC, and taught until 1947. He also served as superintendent of the college heating plant from 1910-1947 and superintendent of the physical plant from 1937-1947. Phillips was a member of the Pi Tau Sigma and Tau Beta Pi engineering honor societies and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He married Mary Alice Crawford in 1922; she died in 1961. Mark Clyde Phillips died in 1965.