As we march forward towards our big 150 sesquicentennial at OSU, SCARC is ramping up efforts to highlight our collections and build new ones. A team of staff and students are working to collect approximately fifty in-depth videotaped interviews with prominent alumni, faculty, staff and supporters over the next two years to add to our already robust oral history collections. 

The project is being sponsored by the OSU Vice-Provost’s Office, OSU Relations and Marketing, OSU Libraries and Press, the OSU Foundation and the Oregon Stater alumni magazine.

Most recently, interviews have been conducted with Major General Julie Bentz, Robert Lundeen, and Andy Landforce. We’ll let you know when the interviews are processed and available, but in the meantime I tempt you with these short bio pieces! But you can find more alumni stories on OSU’s YouTube page.

Major General Julie Bentz

Born in rural Oregon, she is the daughter and sister of two Army National Guard veterans. She followed in their footsteps, and upon enrolling at OSU, joined the ROTC, and upon graduating in 1986 with a BA and BS in Nuclear Engineering, accepted a commission as a Lieutenant in the Oregon National Guard. Julie’s first posting was in Germany, where she dealt with the fallout from the Chernobyl disaster. She has served at various posts throughout the US and Europe, where she specialized in nuclear health and nuclear security. She received an MS and PhD from University of Missouri. She worked at the Pentagon during the 9-11 attacks, and helped train nuclear safety during the first Gulf War. As of 2013, Julie is an adviser to President Obama on nuclear security, and was also promoted in June, 2013 to the rank Major General. She is the first woman to reach the rank of General in the Oregon National Guard.

Robert Lundeen

Bob was born and raised in rural Oregon in 1921. His father was an OSU (though at the time called Oregon Agricultural College) graduate, and worked in the lumber industry. Bob graduated from OSU (called Oregon State College at the time) in 1942 with a BS in Chemical Engineering. His class was the first group of American university students sent off to World War II. He served in China as a weather forecasting officer for the US Army Air Corps, eventually attained the rank of Major, and won a Bronze Star. After returning from the war, Bob began working for Dow Chemical Company in 1946. He spent almost 12 years in Hong Kong in charge of Dow affairs in China, and also briefly as the director of their Latin America division. He eventually served as the company’s Vice-President and Chairman of the Board. After retiring from Dow in the ’80s, he became the CEO of Tektronix, and was responsible for saving the company. Bob and his late wife, Betty, had three children, and donated extensively to the construction of the Valley Library at OSU.

Andy Landforce

Andy was the Associated Student Body President in 1941-1942. He graduated from then Oregon State University (at the time Oregon State College) in 1942, and was amongst the first class of American university students to be shipped off to World War II, where he served in both the European and Pacific theaters as the white commanding officer of the otherwise entirely African-American 3533rd Quartermaster Truck Company. By the time he was discharged, he had achieved the rank of Major. Upon returning, he became the first extension agent in Wallowa County, a job he held for seven years. In 1957, Andy returned to Corvallis and became the first Extension Wildlife Management specialist at OSU. He retired in 1977. Andy and his late wife Evelyn had multiple children