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A Photographic History of Oregon State University

1950s

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Dean of Forestry Paul M. Dunn observing a pinecone, November 1950. Dunn (1898-1988) was OSC’s dean of forestry from 1942 to 1955. He was instrumental in OSC obtaining the 6,200 acre Adair Tract from the federal government after World War II. A large portion of this tract became the Paul M. Dunn Research Forest. Prior to coming to OSC, he had been dean of forestry at Utah State College from 1931 to 1938. After leaving Oregon State, Dunn worked for the St. Regis Paper Company until 1968. He was a 1975 recipient of the Society of American Foresters’ Gifford Pinchot Award. (HC 200)
College Playhouse, ca. 1951. The old armory and gymnasium building was converted to a playhouse for Oregon State’s excellent theatre program in 1950. It was renamed Mitchell Playhouse in 1961, in memory of C.B. Mitchell, longtime chair of the Speech Dept. and director of the theatre program. The building was used as the playhouse until 1990, when fire safety concerns closed it for that purpose. In 1992 it was restored with gift funds from the Wayne and Gladys Valley Foundation, and reopened as the Gladys Valley Gymnastics Center. (P16:814)
Oregon State Housemothers, ca. 1950. Greek houses and housing co-operatives employed housemothers, who served “in loco parentis” for those living groups, acting as administrator, supervisor, social coordinator, and sometime confidante. One of the most famous housemothers affiliated with Oregon State was Florence Kincaid Naismith, widow of James Naismith, who is credited with inventing the game of basketball in 1892. She served as housemother for the Delta Delta Delta sorority from 1941 to 1947. Housemothers also had their own organization – the Resident Hostess Club of Oregon State College. It was created in 1948, and the members met monthly to discuss common issues and problems at the living groups, and to plan social events for the residents. The club had a close connection with the Dean of Women. The club disbanded about 1968. (P25:2715)
Physics Professors David Nicodemus and Richard R. Dempster work with OSC’s cyclotron, ca. 1954. Nicodemus joined the Oregon State faculty in 1950 after receiving his doctorate at Stanford, where he worked on establishing its cyclotron. During World War II he worked on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, and participated in the detonation of the first nuclear device at the Trinity site in 1945. Dempster came to Oregon State in 1944 after earning his doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1942. While at Cal, Dempster worked in Ernest O. Lawrence’s Radiation Lab. Lawrence developed the first cyclotron at the University of California in 1932. (P25:2888)