Appendix. Personal Biography

PAUL M. DUNN

1898 - 1988

With an inherent interest in education and finely-tuned skills for diplomacy, Paul M. Dunn was an asset wherever he applied his touch. The career he pursued allowed him to weave together positions in forest conservation, forest industry and forest education. He enjoyed every kind of work he did. He was a gentleman who made friends easily and kept them a lifetime.

Though he chose Corvallis, Oregon to be his home for the last twenty years of his life, his career led him in earlier years to many homes in the United States and abroad.

Dunn was born October 15, 1898 to James W. and Belle Howard Dunn in Lennox, South Dakota. He graduated from Lemars, Iowa High School in 1917.

He served in World War I with the U.S. Army on the Mexican border and in France with the 34th Division from August 1917 to July 1919.

He received bachelor's and master's degrees in forestry from Iowa State University in 1923 and 1933 respectively. On January 21, 1926, he married Neva Kissinger.

Dunn was associate state forester in Missouri from 1926 to 1931. During these years in Ellington, Missouri his two sons, Robert Paul and James W. were born. From 1931 to 1938, he was a professor of forestry at Utah State University. In 1938 he became the first dean of the School of Forestry at U.S.U. and the first Utah State Forester, serving as both until 1942. That year he became dean of the School of Forestry at Oregon State College (now Oregon State University) and director of the OSU Forest Products Laboratory. He led the School of Forestry and the Laboratory at OSU with great style until 1955. During this time he also served as a member of the Oregon Board of Forestry.

When Dunn took over as dean of Forestry in 1942 he faced unrest in the school. The former dean, George Wilcox Peavy, had become president of Oregon State College two years earlier but had retained responsibility for the forestry school. Faculty defections and internal conflict soon surfaced. It was only when Dunn was named as dean that order began to be restored. He was widely recognized as a gentleman, and even more importantly he had the substance and style of a statesman. He was able to consider all the differing opinions with respect to each. Then he moved on to make wise decisions and present them in a manner that resolved conflict. Dunn was known for bringing people together. He had great ability to calm difficult situations and make sense out of chaos.

Because of Dunn's highly valued leadership and service to Oregon State College, a 6,200-acre portion of the McDonald-Dunn forest near Corvallis is named for him. The area is still used by the school for forest research.

In 1952, Dunn was granted a year's leave of absence from OSU to assist the government of Chile in establishing a school of forest engineering at the University of Chile in Santiago, Chile.

In 1955 he joined the St. Regis Paper Company in New York City as technical director of forestry. In 1962 he became vice president in charge of timber lands. A believer in education, he took the initiative to set up a St. Regis scholarship program for students from Forestry Schools throughout the United States. This was not a new interest: he had also implemented scholarship programs while he was teaching.

From 1963 to 1981 he was president of Gulf Pine Co., Inc., a subsidiary of St. Regis. He retired from St. Regis in 1968, and he and Mrs. Dunn returned to Corvallis to live.

During his career he found time for several professional forestry organizations. He was president of each of the following: The Society of American Foresters, The Southern Pulpwood Conservation Association, the Forest History Society and the American Forestry Association.

In addition to this he found opportunities to support forest conservation and forest industry research. From December 1956 to June 1957 he was chairman of the Task Force on Forest Products for the President's Bipartisan Commission on Industrial Use of Agricultural Products. From 1955 to 1976, he was a member of the Advisory Committee for the Northeastern Forest Experiment Station, U.S.D.A. From 1964 to 1973, he was a member of the McIntire-Stennis Federal Forestry Research Committee.

Dunn received many important honors and awards, including the Iowa State University Alumni Association's Distinguished Achievement Award in 1968, the Western Forestry and Conservation award for Lifetime Service in 1971, and the Society of American Forester's Gifford Pinchot Award for Outstanding Service to Professional Forestry in 1975, and Utah State University's Centennial Award for an Exceptionally Distinguished Career in 1987.

He was a Fellow of the Society of American Foresters and the Forest History Society and was listed in "Who's Who in America," "Who's Who in Education" and "American Men of Science." He was a member of Phi Kappa Phi, Gamma Sigma Delta, Sigma Delta Chi, Alpha Zeta, Xi Sigma Pi and Lambda Chi Alpha.

He also was a member of the First Presbyterian Church, the American Legion, the Masonic Lodge and the Corvallis Rotary Club.

In addition to these many forms of recognition he was a trustee of the Oregon State University Foundation, the Good Samaritan Hospital Foundation of Corvallis, the World Forestry Center, and Keep Oregon Green Association.

Dunn is remembered by his forest industry associates for caring deeply for the forests. He attended to conservation issues constantly, contributing his time and efforts wherever they were needed.

His students remember him vividly. They knew him as a source of motivation and inspiration to do well. The words of one of his students say it best: "He was an outstanding forester, educator and administrator but most of all a thoughtful, caring man."

Thayer Willis, Biographer World Forestry Center Portland, Oregon