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Kenneth B. Grimm, '12, Suisan City, Calif.
Leonard Christensen, '39, Nov. 2, 1999, Woodland, Wash. He performed the first corneal transplant operation in Oregon and trained nearly 100 ophthalmologists. A laboratory at the Oregon Health Sciences University is named in Dr. Christensen's honor. George B. Wint, '48, Dec. 28, 1999, El Reno, Okla. He was retired director of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, earning many honors for his work in restoring several wildlife species to Oklahoma. He was an accomplished wildlife artist and received the Distinguished Graduate Award from the OSU department of fisheries and wildlife in 1998. Robert Ward, '48, Dec. 16, 1999, Selah, Wash, ATW. When he retired as president of Tree Top in 1982, it was the largest apple juice producer in the world. Frances Jean Gannon, '50, '57, Oct. 8, 1999, Portland. She was a physical education teacher, chairwoman of the Girls and Women's Sports Division for the state of Oregon and served on the board of directors of the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame from 1982 to 1997. William Bennett, '51, Jan. 3, Jeffersonville, Pa. He was the host of the WCAU-TV show, Farm Reporter, in Pennsylvania, for nearly two decades. He also taught at the Saul School of Agriculture in Philadephia for 20 years. Wayne H. Yunker, '57, Sept. 15, 1999, Richland, Wash., SFE. He was a Fellow Scientist specializing in sodium chemistry and received a literary award given by the Material Science Division of the American Nuclear Society in 1980. His father, Edwin A. Yunker, was head of the OSU physics department for many years and originated the Yunker Physics Lectures. Warren W. Denner, '63, '69, Carmel Valley, Calif., SX. He was the first occupant appointed to the Office of Naval Research Chair in Arctic Marine Science at the Naval Postgraduate School in Barrow, Alaska. He was the owner and president of EOS Research Associates in Monterey, Calif. Veneta Hunter Vincent, '67, Jan. 24, Corvallis. Her father named the town of Veneta, Ore., after her, when she was four years old.
Robert L. Arthur, Jan. 27, Albany.
Longtime Beaver supporter succumbs Martin J. Chaves, '46, who was widely known as captain of Oregon State College's 1942 Rose Bowl team, died Feb. 12 in Corvallis. He was a prominent fund-raiser for the OSU athletic department, raising more than $1 million for the Beaver Club. "Martin epitomized Beaver spirit," former OSU Beaver club executive director Scott Spiegelberg said. "He was tough, compassionate, always willing to go that extra mile. He was just a relentless worker, and he loved Oregon State from the bottom of his heart." Chaves' efforts during the 1980s and 1990s when the athletic department spiraled into debt, helped raise the private donations needed to keep OSU facilities up to date. He helped coordinate the 1983-84 Gill Coliseum renovation project, which added 500 seats and upgraded lighting, concessions, meeting rooms, restrooms and hallways. All the offices were remodeled and furnished with Chaves' help. "No improvement project was ever too insignificant or overwhelming for Chaves' attention," said former football coach Jerry Pettibone. Along with Bert Babb, he helped raise more than $325,000 of donated construction materials or tradeoffs for the 1995-97 Valley Football Center renovation, regularly calling alumni and boosters to seek needed materials and going to pick them up, if necessary. The Babb-Chaves Beaver Spirit Room on the third floor honors these men. Chaves was an education major at Oregon State College. He lettered in football in 1940 and 1941 and was the team captain, starting right guard and a famous 1942 Rose Bowl champion. He enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II and then returned to Oregon State, earning his 1946 football letter and playing in the 1947 East-West Shrine all-star game. Except for two years in Eureka, Calif., he lived the rest of his life in Corvallis, where he was a building contractor and then partner in Forest Product Sales, Inc., until his retirement in 1975. This past fall, as he suffered with stomach cancer, Chaves was thrilled to be a guest in athletic director Mitch Barnhart's skybox to watch all the home games of the Beavers famous winning season of 1999. Chaves was a member of Alpha Tau Omega. He is survived by his wife, Gloria; daughters, Nikki White of Santa Cruz, Calif., Marlea Merickel of Corvallis and Viki Stewart of San Diego, Calif.; son, Jim Solberg, of Portland; brother, Willford Chaves, of Oklahoma City, Okla.; sisters, Lena Clements of Mount Vernon, Wash., Darlene Gelsky of Eugene and Judy Spearin of Cheshire; six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Margaret Weatherford 1906-1999 Margaret Cartwright Weatherford, '28, a lifelong supporter of the Albany Carnegie Library, died Dec. 5, 1999, in Albany. She helped keep the downtown library operational through a lifetime of generous donations and served on several community service boards. Mrs. Weatherford grew up in Seaside and studied home economics at Oregon Agricultural College. During her college days she was an actress and officer in the National Collegiate Players, a dramatic organization that presented plays and vaudeville productions at Corvallis' Majestic Theater. In 1986, she donated some original programs and photographs of plays from her college years to the OSU Archives. Margaret's involvement with the Albany library began when she married J.K. Weatherford Jr. in 1929. They moved to Albany when J.K. Jr. joined the law practice of his grandfather, J.K. Weatherford Sr. (Weatherford Hall on the OSU campus was built in 1928 and named for the senior J.K. Weatherford. He was a member and often chairman of the OAC and OSC Board of Regents for the entire 38 years it operated, until it was absorbed by the State Board of Education. The residence hall has been closed since 1995 awaiting funds needed to complete safety and modernizing renovations.) Margaret Weatherford began bringing stacks of books weekly to her husband's housebound grandmother, Annette Cottle Weatherford. The senior Mrs. Weatherford had been instrumental in petitioning the Carnegie Foundation for funds to build a library in Albany, one of 2,509 free public libraries Carnegie built throughout the world. Citizens of the town were required to raise $2,500 toward the total cost of $20,000 for the building, which opened in 1914, and Annette Weatherford was involved in fund raising for this civic project. Remembered by her great-nephew, former OSU Alumni Association president Michael Cowgill, as a "voracious reader," Margaret Weatherford would read almost one book a day. She became a member of the library board in 1935 and served on it for 20 years. When World War II began, local librarian Ary Neptune came to her and suggested they start a "Friends of the Library" group whose purpose would be to enlarge the library's book collection to be ready for the influx of families and servicemen stationed at nearby Camp Adair. The "Friends" group still holds yearly benefits to buy books for the library and sell unneeded ones. When property tax limitation Measure 5 was implemented, and cities everywhere scrambled for operating funds, Weatherford's beloved library was in peril. Consolidating Albany's two libraries was the most cost-effective plan that city leaders could conceive, and the smaller, older, quaint and cozy Carnegie library was heading for closure. She began with a $5,000 donation in 1991, which was matched with a grant that secured the library's operation for one more year. She said then that she had told stories at story time and been at the desk when the little children came up with their hands full of books and that she wanted to ensure that "children should always have a place to read books." In subsequent years, as budget cuts would force reduced hours or days of service at the library, Weatherford would come up with another contribution to encourage donors in the community to keep the library open "for the children." She eventually sold her house after moving to a retirement village in Albany and donated all the proceeds in memory of the original "friend of the library," Annette Weatherford, to secure the future of the Albany Library Foundation. The foundation had been established to keep the downtown library operational. With Margaret's final contribution, her beloved library would continue to serve the children of Albany well into the next century. Margaret Weatherford was an active member of Alpha Chi Omega, receiving her 75-year pin in 1999. She was a past worthy matron of Barzillai Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star and served on the Albany General Hospital board. She is survived by her brother, Charlie Cartwright of Seaside, and numerous nieces and nephews.
Bobb McKittrick: 49ers' coach loses battle with cancer Former Oregon State player and coach Bobb McKittrick, '59, '78, died March 16 of cancer. McKittrick, the San Francisco 49ers' gritty offensive line coach who worked with five Super Bowl-winning teams in 21 years, was 64. McKittrick was diagnosed with bile duct cancer in January 1999 and died at Stanford University Medical Center. The former Marine Corps officer was known for taking his military training onto the field, instilling the virtues of hard work and dedication in his players. He favored shorts and T-shirts on the sidelines during practice, no matter how chilly the temperature. His on-field coaching duties were assumed by Pat Morris last season, but McKittrick stayed involved with the 49ers despite undergoing surgery and chemotherapy. A native of Baker, Ore., McKittrick started his coaching career in 1961 as an assistant with his alma mater, Oregon State. He also coached for UCLA and the Los Angeles Rams before returning to Oregon State for graduate work in 1973. McKittrick lettered for the Beavers in 1956 and 1957, playing in the Rose Bowl under coach Tommy Prothro following the 1956 season. Oregon State boasted a 15-5-1 record during the two seasons McKittrick played. His son, Ladd, played for the Beavers in 1983-84. McKittrick returned to the NFL as an assistant with the San Diego Chargers in 1974 and joined Walsh's staff with the 49ers in 1979. McKittrick was scheduled for a liver transplant last April,
but it was canceled when doctors determined the cancer had spread.
He responded by returning to work, prowling the sidelines at
training camp in a golf cart. McKittrick is survived by his wife of 42 years, Teckla McKittrick, '59, his sons, Mike and Ladd, and two grandchildren.
Alice Wallace Alice Ingalls Wallace, '32, assistant professor emeritus of speech communication, died in Corvallis Feb. 9 at the age of 88. Her teaching career spanned 40 years, including Corvallis High School, Hawaii and Illinois, before joining the OSU faculty in 1954. She taught speech communication, speech education, and the graduate program on university teaching. She retired in 1976. Born in Kansas, Wallace moved to Corvallis in 1915 when her father, Oregon newspaper pioneer Claude E. Ingalls, purchased the Gazette-Times. Her late brother, Robert C. Ingalls, '36, succeeded their father as editor and publisher of the newspaper. Wallace's mother, Eleanor Ingalls, taught English at OSU for many years. Wallace was educated in the Corvallis public schools, graduated from Oregon Agricultural College (later OSU) in 1932, and earned a master's degree in speech communication at Northwestern University. She was a member of Pi Beta Phi. Many of Wallace's activities were connected to her love of teaching and Oregon State. She served as president of the Faculty Womens' Club and Corvallis Area Alumnae Panhellenic and was a board member of the Y Round Table and Friends of OSU Library. In a gift to the OSU Foundation, she left funds to establish scholarships in speech communications. Survivors include her husband, Stanton Wallace; son, Richard, '70, of Corvallis; daughter, Barbara Cullicott, '63, of Lake Oswego; and two grandchildren.
Legendary editor, first OSU sports information director dies J.W. "Bud" Forrester Jr., '35, died Feb. 22, in Portland. The longtime Oregon newspaperman and public servant also was the first sports information director at OSU. His career in the newspaper business began when the Oregon State College Barometer needed a student reporter and he volunteered. While city editor of the East Oregonian in Pendleton, he met his future wife, Eleanor, the daughter of the paper's editor, Edwin Aldrich. After their marriage, they moved to Corvallis, and Forrester finished his education degree in 1946 while working as director of the new athletic news department. He served in the Merchant Marines during World War II and then returned with his wife to the newspaper business, running the weekly Coos Bay Harbor in North Bend until 1950. After the death of Eleanor's father in 1950, the Forresters returned to Pendleton, where Forrester became editor and publisher of the East Oregonian, and Eleanor became business manager. They continued in these roles until 1973, when Forrester switched places with his son, Mike, and became the editor of another family-owned newspaper, The Daily Astorian. He retired from The Daily Astorian in 1988. Forrester was chairman of the board for the East Oregonian Publishing Company, which includes the East Oregonian and weekly newspapers The Capital Press in Salem, the Blue Mountain Eagle in John Day and the Chinook Observer in Long Beach, Wash. Forrester's editorials were influential in Oregon and carried much weight, due to his expansive volunteer service on wide-ranging boards and commissions throughout the state. He was often in the middle of some of the state's most difficult and controversial decisions. He strongly believed in editors taking leadership roles in the communities in which they live. He believed that "the editor of a community newspaper shouldn't sit at his typewriter and preach to people. He must be actively involved in community problems and solving them." He served 12 years on the state Board of Higher Education and for three years was a member of the Land Conservation and Development Commission. He served on the Pendleton Round-Up board, the Umatilla Basin Development Committee and chaired a funding drive for St. Anthony Hospital in Pendleton. He was given the First Citizen Award in Pendleton in 1956 and later was named Citizen of the Year by the Oregon Education Association. After moving to Astoria, he chaired the Clatsop Economic Development Committee and the Maritime Science Advisory Panel. At the time of his death, he was chairman of the board of the Seafood Consumer Center, a research and education facility in Astoria. Forrester received the Dan Poling Distinguished Service award from the OSU Alumni Association in 1992 and was past president of the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association. He was a member of the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity. He is survived by his wife, Eleanor, of Portland; two sons, Mike Forrester, editor and publisher of The Capital Press in Salem, and Steve Forrester, editor and publisher of The Daily Astorian; and four grandchildren. TOP OF PAGE | '40s '50s '60s | '70s '80s '90s | MARRIAGES | NEWSMAKERS OBITUARIES | NOTABLES | FACULTY AND FRIENDS |
