The history of Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon, United States, began in the era of the

Oregon Territory The Territory of Oregon was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from August 14, 1848, until February 14, 1859, when the southwestern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Oregon. O ...

. At first a private school, the college later became a state supported agricultural institution. Nineteen presidents have led the school over the years while the school has been transformed from a single building to a campus of and approximately 30,000 students in 2015.

Corvallis College

In 1856, a school building was constructed in the

Willamette Valley The Willamette Valley ( ) is a long valley in Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The Willamette River flows the entire length of the valley and is surrounded by mountains on three sides: the Cascade Range to the eas ...

at Corvallis.Horner, John B. (1919). ''Oregon: Her History, Her Great Men, Her Literature''. The J.K. Gill Co.: Portland. p. 164-5 The structure would serve as home to a private academy until 1858. Named Corvallis Academy, this was the area's first community school for primary and preparatory education. The local chapter of the Freemasons played an important role in developing the concept to eventually establish a state college in the city and initiated the construction of the early campus with the original donation of land. In 1858, what would become Oregon State University began as Corvallis College as it was formally incorporated by members of the Freemasons. At that time the school did not offer college level courses. Years later the school's ownership was transferred to the

Methodist Episcopal Church The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself on a national basis. In ...

. In 1865, William A. Finley was named as the school's first president. The school as began offering a bachelor's degree that year.

State school

Corvallis College was incorporated by the church in 1868, and the state of Oregon designated the school as the State Agricultural College (SAC). In 1873, the school became the first West Coast school to offer a course in agriculture. The two-year program had been approved by the Oregon Legislative Assembly. State Agricultural College became a completely state run school in 1885. In 1889, the original building of Corvallis College was torn down. In 1888 the college informally became known as Oregon Agricultural College (OAC), a name not made official until 1907. Osc waldo hall room

By 1934, Mary J. L. McDonald made donations that allowed for the purchase of the land that comprises the McDonald Forest owned by the school, which also includes Peavy Arboretum.

Oregon State

The school's growing diversity in degrees led to another name change in 1937, when the college became Oregon State College. Naval ROTC, and the program of Naval Sciences, were added to the existing

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

ROTC program in 1946. The

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an ...

ROTC program was included in 1949, making Oregon State one of only 33 universities in the country to offer officer training for all branches of the

United States Armed Forces The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is ...

. Although OSU's academics mainly focused on agriculture, engineering and business through the 1960s; liberal arts remained an important part of the curriculum throughout its history. In fact, one of the more famous novelists of the 20th century taught English composition in 1940s and 50s.

Bernard Malamud Bernard Malamud (April 26, 1914 – March 18, 1986) was an American novelist and short story writer. Along with Saul Bellow, Joseph Heller, and Philip Roth, he was one of the best known American Jewish authors of the 20th century. His baseba ...

used his experiences as a professor at OSU for the basis of his novel '' A New Life''. He was also awarded the 1967 Pulitzer Prize for his novel '' The Fixer'', named after a store in downtown Corvallis. Malamud's most famous book,

The Natural ''The Natural'' is a 1952 novel about baseball by Bernard Malamud, and is his debut novel. The story follows Roy Hobbs, a baseball prodigy whose career is sidetracked after being shot by a woman whose motivation remains mysterious. The story mo ...

, was said to have been greatly influenced by OSU's first appearance in the college world series playoffs in 1952. Linus Pauling, Class of 1922, became Oregon State's first Nobel Laureate alumnus in 1954 when he received the

Nobel Prize in Chemistry ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then "M ...

for his work elucidating the nature of the atomic bonds. In 1962, he was awarded the

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiolog ...

for his campaign against nuclear weapons testing. He joined

Marie Curie Marie Salomea Skłodowska–Curie ( , , ; born Maria Salomea Skłodowska, ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first ...

as the only person to win two different Nobels. Curie's physics prize was shared with her husband,

Pierre Curie Pierre Curie ( , ; 15 May 1859 – 19 April 1906) was a French physicist, a pioneer in crystallography, magnetism, piezoelectricity, and radioactivity. In 1903, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics with his wife, Marie Curie, and Henri Becq ...

. Both of Pauling's prizes were unshared. The university's current title, Oregon State University, was adopted on March 6, 1961 by a legislative act signed into law by Governor Mark Hatfield. A new library, the William Jasper Kerr Library, opened in 1963.Edmonston, Jr., George P
“A Steady Hand” Back in the Day
''Oregon Stater'', Spring 2008. Vol. 93, No. 2. p. 40. That building was expanded twice, and after the latest expansion nearly doubled the size that ended in 1999, the library was renamed as

The Valley Library The Valley Library is the primary library of Oregon State University and is located at the school's main campus in Corvallis in the U.S. state of Oregon. Established in 1887, the library was placed in its own building for the first time in 1918 ...

.Khanna, Roma. "OSU’s new library lets students kick back, plug in", ''

The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 18 ...

'', May 28, 1999.

School presidents

The position of President was created in 1865. From 1868 to 1929 the president reported to the institution's own Board of Trustees/Regents. Since the creation of the

Oregon University System The Oregon University System (OUS) was administered by the Oregon State Board of Higher Education (the "Board") and the Chancellor of the OUS, who was appointed by the Board. It was disbanded in June 2015. OUS was responsible for governing the s ...

(OUS), the president has reported to the OUS chancellor. List of presidents: # William A. Finley (1865–1872) # Joseph Emery (1872, acting) # Benjamin L. Arnold (1872–1892) # John D. Letcher (1892, acting) # John M. Bloss (1892–1896) # H. B. Miller (1896–1897) # Thomas M. Gatch (1897–1907) # William Jasper Kerr (1907–1932) # George Wilcox Peavy (1932–1934, acting) (1934–1940) # Frank Llewellyn Ballard (1940–1941) # Francois Archibald Gilfillan (1941–1942, acting) # August Leroy Strand (1942–1961) # James Herbert Jensen (1961–1969) # Roy Alton Young (1969–1970, acting) # Robert William MacVicar (1970–1984) #

John V. Byrne John Vincent Byrne (born May 9, 1928) is an American marine geologist and academic. He served as the 12th President of Oregon State University from 1984 to 1995. Early life and education Born in Hempstead, New York, Byrne attended Hamilton Col ...

(1984–1995) #

Paul G. Risser Paul Gillan Risser (September 14, 1939 – July 10, 2014) was an American ecologist and academic from Oklahoma. He served as president of Miami University and Oregon State University before becoming chancellor of the Oklahoma State System of Hig ...

(1996–2002) # Timothy P. White (2003, acting) # Edward John Ray (2003–2020) # F. King Alexander (2020-2021) # Rebecca Johnson (2021-2022) # Jayathi Murthy (2022-present)

References

External links

Oregon State University ArchivesOregon History Project: Education, Arts, and Letters: Professionalizing Education''Oregon Stater'': Keeping the Sheriff Away ''Oregon Stater'': Echoes of 1907
{{DEFAULTSORT:History Of Oregon State University Oregon State University

Oregon State Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering col ...