Front row: (left to right) Mercy Jane Gain Whaley, Ruth Norman Pine, Mabel Maginnis, Minnie Koopman, Dean John A. Bexell, Altha Cooper, Bertha Whillock, Lillian Burns, unknown person. Middle Row: Elinore Sweeney, Minnie Frick, Dr. F. A. Magruder, H. T. Vance, Dr. Hector McPherson, Dr. U. G. Dubach, E. B. Lemon, Dr. N. H. Comish, Dr. W. H. Dreeson, Mrs. P. A. Magruder. Back row: unknown person, John Corcoran, Locke Mardis, Frank L. Robinson, Lee C. Ball, Roy R. Hewitt, James F. Page, and Dr. E. B. Mittelman.
John R. Hardison was a Research Pathologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Corvallis from 1944 until 1980. In 1950-1955, he had a joint appointment with the USDA and the Agricultural Experiment Station. In 1981, he was appointed to a part-time research faculty position in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology. Hardison earned his BS in 1939 from Washington State College and his MS (1940) and Ph.D. (1942) from the University of Michigan. Hardison's research on field burning as a means to control diseases in grass seed production began in the 1940s and continued until the early 1980s.