Mary Beth Minden was a Home Management Specialist from 1947 to 1958. She was born in 1919 in Boise, Idaho. She completed undergraduate work at the College of Idaho and OSC, receiving her Bachelor of Science from the latter in 1940, where she studied home economics, education, and biological science. She received her Master of Arts from Columbia University Teachers College in 1947, in the field of home management and consumer education. She spend three years as a vocational home economics teacher in Idaho, and spent three years in the U.S. Navy, serving as an Administrative Assistant in the Navy Officers’ School. She was hired at a salary of $3,408, and was granted the rank of associate professor in 1950. She applied for sabbatical leave for the calendar year of 1955, to pursue her Ph.D at Purdue University, catch up with newer developments in these fields, and improve her work as an Extension specialist. OSC granted her request, as they felt this would set her up to provide for the growing need for assistance to Oregon families with economic problems. She extended this absence until October 1956 in order to complete her degree. She graduated in the fall of 1956 with a degree in Consumer Economics and Marketing, with minors in Economic Theory and Home Management. Her thesis was titled “Consumption Decision and Implications for Consumer Education Programs.” She resigned from OSC in 1958 at a salary of $9,156, having spent eleven years on staff. She left to become head of the Home Management Department of the School of Home Economics at the University of Connecticut.
Thelma Elizabeth Smith was a home demonstration agent for Josephine and Polk County from 1946 to 1949. She was born in 1906 in Roseburg, Oregon. She received her Bachelor of Science in Home Economics and Education from OSC in 1929. She attended Iowa State College for graduate work, and received her Master of Arts from Columbia University in 1941, where she studied textiles, economics, psychology, and sociology. She taught at Smith-Hughes schools in Roseburg in Eugene, spending ten years as a home economics teacher at Roseburg Junior High School, and two years as a Clothing and Home Furnishings Teacher at Eugene High School. In 1944, she was granted a year’s leave from Eugene High School due to illness, and spent the next twelve months recovering at her parent’s ranch in Riddle, Oregon. She sought a change from her previous employment expressing that she wished to work with adults. She began in 1946 at a salary of $3,150 annual as a home demonstration agent for Josephine County. In 1948, she resigned to move to Salem and be married. In February of 1949, she agreed to take over as Acting Polk County Extension Agent, while OSC sought someone to fill the position permanently. In August, she resigned at a salary of $4,200.
Rebecca K. Johnston was a county extension agent for Oregon State College from 1949 to 1952 and from 1956 to 1958. Johnston was born in 1925, in Marshall County, Kentucky. She received her Bachelor of Science in Vocational Home Economics from Western Kentucky State Teachers College in 1946. She was a member of the National Education Association and the National Vocation Association. Before coming to work at Oregon State, Johnston taught home economics at an Illinois high school. Johnston made the move to Oregon to be closer to her mother, a resident of Grant County. She was hired by Oregon State to work in Crook County at an annual salary of $3,480. She resigned in 1952, but came back to work in 1956, where she was assigned as an extension agent in Malheur County. She resigned in 1958 to accept a position as an extension agent in Alaska.