James Franklin Bishop was born 5 September 1912 at Tigard, Oregon. He graduated from Oregon State Agricultural College in 1934 with a B.S. degree in Agricultural Technology. Between 1943 and 1955 Bishop served as Assistant County Agent in Coos County (1943-1944), County Club Agent in Marion County (1944-1947), Umatilla County Club Agent (1947-1949), and as the first City Extension Agent for Salem (1949-1955). Bishop then became a County Extension Agent at Large, a position he held until he resigned in September 1956 to become Public Relations Officer for George Fox College in Newberg. Later, he was employed by the Tigard School District. He was married to Elizabeth O. Bishop, and died July 22, 1997.
Ralph S. Besse was a farm management Extension specialist from 1922-1932, then served as Assistant Director of the Agricultural Experiment Station from 1932-1949. From 1949-1953, Besse was Associate Director of the Experiment Station.
Nellie Catherine Lyle was a Home Demonstration Agent from 1939 to 1947. She was born in 1913 in Glendale, Arizona. After completing work at University of California, Los Angeles, University of California, Berkeley, and OSC, she received a Bachelor of Arts in Home Economics from the Arizona State Teacher’s College in 1936. She received her Master of Science from OSC in 1939 in household administration. Her thesis was titled Normative Study of Growth and Development of 1938-1939 Oregon State College Home Management House Infants. During her final year of school, she worked as a graduate assistant in the Home Management House. In addition, she had five years’ cumulative experience teaching elementary school and home making in Arizona. She also co-led a 4-H home economics club. In 1947, her superiors at OSU planned to arrange sabbatical leave for her so she could take on research in additional areas, thereby allowing her to become an extension specialist in housing or home management, as they expected rural families’ needs for housing information to increase considerably. They expressed that she showed a “marked ability” for the field. Instead, she chose to resign later in the year to be married, at which point she was earning a salary of $3,456.
Wanda Cecil Thorson was a home demonstration agent for Douglas County for the 1946-1947 school year. She was born in 1920 in Tacoma, Washington. She received her Bachelor of Science in Home Economics from OSC in 1943. Before coming to OSC, she spent three years serving in the Navy as a supply officer at the Mare Island Naval shipyard. She attended high school in Myrtle Creek, Oregon, and was a resident of Douglas County herself. In December, she married and changed her name to Mrs. Wanda Matson. She began to work half time in June of 1947, and resigned at the end of the month.