Laura Cornelia McAllester was an Assistant Professor and Chairman of Physical Education. She was born in 1883 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. She began at OSC in 1926, at a salary of $2,200. She received a certificate from the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics in 1906, and completed further undergraduate work at Wellesley College. In 1932, she received her Bachelor of Science from OSC. Before coming to OSC, she spent seven years as the Director of Physical Education at North Carolina College for Women. She was the director of a high school in Rochester, New York, did physiotherapy at a private office for four years in Sacramento, and spent two years doing health corrective work at a private school. After starting as an instructor at OSC in 1926, she became Chairman of the Department in 1932, and an Assistant Professor in 1935. She took sabbatical for winter term of 1945 to conduct a survey of new methods and procedures in body mechanics, particularly as they related to posture and relaxation. She planned to conduct this work in either San Francisco or New York, in order to contact resident leaders in the field. She was a member of Kappa Delta Pi and the Episcopal church.
Gayle Corinne Timmons was an instructor in Foods and Nutrition from 1946 to 1949. She was born in 1925, in Eureka, California. She received her Bachelor of Science in Home Economics Education from OSC in 1946. She married and changed her name to Gayle C. Merlin in 1947. By 1948, while working as a part-time instructor, she finished off all the requirements for her Master’s degree. When a colleague, Miss Riedesel, fell ill, Merklin went full-time to cover her classes. By the next year, she was given a 5% raise for her able teaching, as well as her “real flare for food preparation.” She began in 1946 at a salary of $850 for part-time teaching, and resigned in 1949 at a full-time salary of $2,835.