Jeanette Alice Brauns Dixon was a physical education instructor at Oregon State College from 1930 to 1973. She previously worked at Bosse High, in Evansville, Indiana, and from 1941 to 1943 she took administrative leave from OSC to become an instructor for the National Red Cross Aquatic School. She received her Bachelor of Science in Physical Education from Battle Creek College in 1930, and her Master of Science from Oregon State in 1940. Her initial salary was $1,800 for ten months. She was promoted to assistant professor in 1943, with an annual salary of $2,400. She was married to James Dixon without children when she came to work for OSC. She took sabbatical leave from OSC in 1947 to complete a study on swimming, and later published a book called, “Simplified Swimming”. In 1967, she was granted indefinite tenure and promotion to an Associate Professor. She was born in 1907, in Evansville, Indiana.
Sara Watt Prentiss was a Professor of Child Development and Parent Education from 1930 and Head of Household Administration from 1936 until her retirement in 1952. She was born in 1886 in Sarnia Ontario, Canada. At age eight, her family moved to Tillamook County, Oregon, where her father hoped to succeed in the timber industry. After she graduated high school, she earned money teaching in schools, which put her through her first year as a pharmacy student at the University of Washington. By the end of her freshman year, “this enterprising girl” was engaged to her physiology professor, Dr. Charles W. Prentiss. They married in the spring of her sophomore year, and spent the summer visiting his family and friends in Vermont, and briefly lived in Washington D.C. In February, they moved to Chicago, where her husband began work as a professor of microscopic anatomy at Northwestern University Medical School. They had three sons, but the first passed away at 15 months. After seven years of marriage, her husband passed away in 1915 from complications from a surgery for appendicitis. Her sons, Robert and Donald, were four and two years old each at the time. She had two options: return to her parents, as she was expected to, or support her family herself. She chose the latter. Prentiss hoped that her early chemistry training might make her employable as a laboratory technician. One of her husband’s friends discouraged this, and recommended she talk with the head of the home economics department at the University of Chicago. This person strongly advised her to study home economics at OSC, although at the time Prentiss “hardly knew what home economics meant.” She decided to go to OSC, as it was close to her parents, but intended to return to Chicago to receive her Bachelor of Science. After two years and a summer session, she received a Bachelor of Science from OSC in 1917, and accepted a teaching position. Prentiss was described as someone of “dignity and poise [whose] white hair and calm, assuring personality command the respect and admiration of her many friends.” Ava B. Milam recommended her appointment to the faculty, and wrote that she considered Prentiss to be “one of the strongest graduates” of the Home Economics Department, a “woman of broad experience,” and well-suited to handle child care for the department. Prentiss taught the first course in child care ever offered at OSU--a one credit course in fall of 1917 entitled “Mothercraft,” which mostly discussed the “physical care of the child.” As demand increased, she had more opportunities to teach varied courses: on child development, behavior problems, parent education, and family relationships, occasionally making use of a nursery school laboratory. She initially taught courses concerning nutrition, but eventually devoted most of her time to the newly-established nursery school. In 1930, she was made a full professor of Child Development and Parent Education. Soon after, the National Research Council offered her a fellowship in child development. She studied at Merrill-Palmer, and the Universities of Minnesota, Chicago, and the University of California at Berkeley. In 1930, she received her master’s degree in psychology from UC Berkeley, where she was awarded a Laura Spelman Rockefeller Scholarship. She worked with UC Berkeley’s extension service, as a parent education specialist from 1934-36. In 1936, she returned to OSC to become head of the Department of Household Administration. She reached retirement age in 1951, but they retained her on a part-time basis for the summer session, in order to teach seminar readings in Child Development and Family Relationships. Upon her retirement, she was given Emeritus status. Upon her first hire, she made $810 fro a 10 month term, and upon her retirement in 1951 she was earning $7000 a year. As for her sons, Robert graduated OSC in 1932 with a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture in the field of entomology. He was a member of the “record-beating relay hurdle team in his senior year,” and after completing graduate school, lived in Salem with two children. Donald attended OSC for three years as a science major and member of Phi Kappa Phi, and thereafter attended the University of Oregon Medical School in Portland. Both had two sons, but Donald passed away shortly before Prentiss’ retirement. She took in his children until her daughter-in-law, Marion, finished her education. She died at age 68 on August 1st, 1954. She co-authored an article titled “the Observation of Food Habits in Young Children” with Dr. Mary C Jones, which was published in the seventh volume of Childhood Education. She was a member of numerous learned societies, including Phi Kappa Phi, the Society for Research in Child Development, and the American Association of University Professors. As a member of Delta Kappa Gamma, she was nominated for a Women of Achievement award in 1956. She was also a member of the Presbyterian church.
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.
Harriet Janet Warner was First Assistant in the Reference Department from 1930 to 1961. She was born in 1895 in Mason City, Iowa. She studied at Cornell College and the University of California at Berkeley, earning her Bachelor of Arts from the latter in 1919 in English Literature. For the next five years she taught at high schools in Idaho and California, and for the next four years was a librarian of the high school and junior college library in Reedley, California. She then spent a year with the Palo Alto Public Library as a member of the circulation department. She returned to school and studied at the University of California School of Librarianship, where she showed “ability and interest… particularly in the courses in reference materials.” Of the eight courses she took she received four A’s and four B’s, and was described as “alert, capable, and energetic…unhesitatingly recommended.” She was hired by OSC as First Assistant in the Reference Department, for $1700 per year. She was a substitute for Evangeline Thurber, who was on leave for the time period. She continued in this position for some time, periodically taking charge as Acting Head of the Reference Department when the permanent Head took leaves of absence. In 1943, Circulation Librarian Ruth Krueger took leave of absence to run her family farm in the summers, as her father had recently passed and her brother was drafted into the army. Warner was transferred to supervise the Circulation Department, due to her experience as periodic Acting Head of Reference. For this increase in work, her salary was raised from $1800 to $2000. Warner took sabbatical from March 1--June 30 1949 to rest, travel, and visit libraries throughout the southwestern states and Mexico, for which she took full salary. She retired in 1961, at which point she was earning $6695, and was given emeritus status. She passed away in 1982. She was a member of the American Library Association, the Pacific Northwest Library Association, and the Oregon LIbrary Association. She was described as active in community work, popular among faculty and students, and “Extremely loyal to the interests” of OSC.
