Ethel Ida Sanborn was a Professor of Botany from 1914 to 1948. She was born in 1882 in Goodwin, South Dakota. She earned her Bachelor of Science from South Dakota State College in 1903, a Bachelor of Arts from the University of South Dakota in 1904, her Master of Arts from the University of South Dakota in 1907, and her PhD. from Stanford in 1928. She attended further graduate school at the University of Oregon and the Puget Sound Biological Station Friday Harbor. Before coming to OSC, she had extensive experience teaching botany at the University of Oregon, where she spent 18 years. She began at OSC in 1932 as an Assistant Professor of Botany, and graduated to Associate Professor the next year. She authored and co-authored several articles on Oregon botany, with titles such as “The Goshen Flora of west central Oregon,” and the “Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of western Oregon.” She took sabbatical leave at least four times during her career, for a year in 1919, 1923, and 1927. In 1940, she took another for the period April-July 1940 on full salary, conducting research, writing, and attending the International Botalian Congress at Stockholm. She worked with Max Doty conducting research on marine algae. After having worked at OSC for 34 years, she was given Emeritus status at her retirement in 1948, in recognition of her “able teaching” and outstanding work in paleobotany. Her research on algae at the Institute of Marine Biology since it opened in 1925 “[was] known all over the Pacific Coast.” She was a member of several societies, such as Phi Sigma, and the American Association for Advanced Science, and the Paleontological Society of America. She was also a member of the DAR, the Baptist Church, and lifetime member of the American Association of University Women.
