Hildred Atkinson Rice was a half-time English instructor from 1946 to 1952. She was born in 1907 in Portland, Oregon. She received her Bachelor of Science from OSC in 1931 in English, commerce, French, with additional study in Sociology. She attended graduate school at the University of Oregon Extension Center, and continued attending graduate school at OSC while she was employed part-time. Before she came to OSC, she worked in the Home Service Department with the American Red Cross in Portland, until her husband returned from service. She had stenographer experience with Bonneville Power Administration, where she was in charge of office and engineering equipment inventory for about 200 employees and also handled correspondence. She was secretary at Eastern Oregon College of Education, where she was in charge of a newspaper staff of about 25 students. She was involved with the Trails Club of Oregon, where she worked as the Business Manager and was also a reporter. While attending graduate courses, she applied to OSC as a part-time English instructor. She was hired at $1000 per year for a ten month term, part time. After fall term of her first year, she was increased to three-quarters time. In 1952, she resigned due to ill health, at which time she was earning $1700 for part-time work. During the summer of 1936 she traveled through England, Scotland, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, and France. She was once President and District Deputy of the Daughters of St. George.
Dr. Clare Rose Comebellack was an English instructor at Oregon State College from 1946 to 1954. Her annual salary was $2,700. She was previously an English instructor at the University of Oregon. She also worked as a high school and middle school teacher at various schools in California. She was listed as married with no children when she came to work at OSC. She received her undergraduate education from San Jose State Teachers College and the University of California from 1924 to 1927. She received her Bachelor of Arts in 1928 and Master of Arts in 1930 from Stanford University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California in 1937. Her master’s thesis was titled, “The Marvelous in the Earlier Middle English Metrical Romances”, and her doctoral thesis was titled, “The Husband’s Return: A Study in Medieval Fiction”. She had published an article called, “Root, Eye, and Mind”, in The American Mercury in 1941. She also received a letter from President A.L. Strand complimenting her on an article she published in the American Journal in 1948, titled “The Identity and Origin of Eurychus in the Ships' Catalogue of Hyginus” This article is still available through jstor.com. Combellack requested sabbatical leave from the university in 1953 after working for six years, but was told that she did not qualify because she had been hired on a temporary basis, with annually renewed contracts for six years. She was also informed that since she would not be granted a permanent, tenured position within the English department, she would have to be terminated due to State Board policy. Her employment with the university was terminated in 1954. She was born in 1907, in Kennett, California.
Vivian E. Gilkey was an English instructor at Oregon State College in 1946. Gilkey was born in 1912, in Butte, Montana. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Music from the University of Oregon in 1935, and as a graduate, she studied the violin at Columbia University, Juilliard, and the American Conservatory. She was a recipient of the Phi Beta Violin Scholarship, and even played for the Houston Symphony in 1942. Before coming to OSC, she taught at various grade schools in Roseburg, Oregon and Oakland, California. She was married when she came to OSC. She was hired on a ten-month term basis, at a salary of $2,200.
Ruth Ann Musselman was an instructor in English in 1947. She was born in 1924 in Lansing, Michigan. She received her Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, with additional study in history, economics, and Spanish from Michigan State College in 1945. She studied at the University of Missouri and the University of Minnesota, receiving her Master of Arts in American Studies from the latter in 1947. She previously worked as a graduate assistant at the University of Minnesota. She was hired at $2,500 for ten months of service.
Jane Margaret Ireland was an English instructor at Oregon State College from 1946 to 1949. She was born in 1909, in Portland, Oregon. Ireland received her Bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Oregon in 1928, and went on to study education as a graduate at the University of Washington, the University of California, and Oregon State College. Before coming to work at OSC, Ireland worked as a high school teacher in Bend and Klamath Falls. She resigned in 1949 to be married.