2. Forestry Education

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: And President Strand was then President of the University?

William A. Davies: Yes.

2. FORESTRY EDUCATION

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: And Paul Dunn was dean at that time?

William A. Davies: [He] was dean. Paul's the one who hired me.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Had you known him before?

William A. Davies: Just at meetings. I used to go to the forestry meetings and Paul Dunn was one that attended all of the forestry meetings. He never missed any of them. That's why I'd see him at meetings. And he was the type of fellow that made it his business to become acquainted with everybody. You know Paul?

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Yes. Had you ever had any teaching experience before you came here?

William A. Davies: No, except as a graduate assistant. I was at the University of Washington for two years; I taught courses.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: What did you teach when you got here?

William A. Davies: When I got here, I taught surveying courses in forest engineering. Of course, I had spent a lot of my life surveying; I worked two years for a surveyor, and that was part of my job at Weyerhaeuser.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: How big was the department when you came into it in 1946?

William A. Davies: I think three.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Three professors in forest engineering?

William A. Davies: Yes.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: And who was department head at that time?

William A. Davies: Patterson, Harry Patterson. He'd been department head for 25 or 28 years. He was really about the first one. They had one that started it, but he didn't reaily quit his job as logging manager while he was head of the department here; he managed a big lumber company and came here and set the thing up. Then they hired Patterson. I was really the second one.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: What person or persons stand out in your mind in those first few years here?

William A. Davies: I think the three people that I had maybe the most contact with that stand out in my mind are president Strand, Paul Dunn, and McCulloch. McCulloch was head of the forest management department while I was head of forest engineering. We worked pretty closely together on things. Those three, I think.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: For what qualities did you admire McCulloch?

William A. Davies: Oh, for his straightforwardness and his command of the English language, which had always been a struggle for me. And his straightforwardness -- you knew where you stood with Mac; he didn't beat around the bush. If he didn't like the things you did, he would say so. He'd say, "That's a stupid thing to do." Things like that.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: How about some of the previous deans? Had you known, for example, Dean Peavy?

William A. Davies: I knew him slightly, yes.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: What do you remember about him? What was your impression of him?

William A. Davies: Well, the first time, I think, that I met Dean Peavy was a meeting at the University of Washington when I was up there as a student. I think that he spoke at our banquet; and when this little guy came in there and started speaking with that big, booming voice, everybody jumped off his seat about that far (laughter). The thing that I really remember about Peavy is that booming voice for such a little guy. But he was really well liked by the students. You know, he'd get right out in the field with them and hike through the brush with them, even as dean.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: When you came, did most of the professors get out in the field on the annual cruises and activities with the students?

William A. Davies: Well, they did in our department and some in forest management, yes.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: What departments, besides yours, were in the school?forest engineering, forest management, and what else?

William A. Davies: And forest products.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Who was the head of that department?

William A. Davies: When I came here, Phim Procter was head of the department. Phimister Procter, son of a very famous sculptor; sculptured the horse up in Portland, I think, and the Michigan Lions, and a few others. Then he was followed by Jack Grantham, Jack is with the forest service now; and then by Bill West, whom you may remember.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: I've heard of him.

William A. Davies: And then, I can't remember the fellow's name; he's in Australia now, in the school over there.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: What about Earl Mason? Did you know him at all?

William A. Davies: No, only to speak to him. d met him at meetings and so forth. He left the year before I came here. That's quite a story in itself, that era of Mason's acting deanship.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: What can you tell us?

William A. Davies: Well, we heard all about it up at the University of Washington, about the squabble they were having here. They were taken off the accredited list, the school was.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Why was that?

William A. Davies: Because they weren't doing any teaching here. They were just fighting about Mason's side and the opposite side. I think the forest management side was anti-Mason and the forest products side was pro-Mason, and the forest engineering side was in the middle.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Why was Mason so controversial? Did he have some extreme views?

William A. Davies: He was a very, very poor administrator, as I understand. He was an outstanding scientist and, I guess, a good teacher. But, he just had a way of antagonizing faculty people and so forth.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Why was he selected as dean if he had those qualities?

William A. Davies: I don't know why Peavy selected him. I guess because Mason was such a good teacher and had such a good knowledge of the field of forest management. Unfortunately, that's the way a lot of people are selected in universities. But afterward, he didn't want Peavy to come back even in the school here, when Peavy retired as president. Peavy wanted to come back and be on the faculty here at the school, you know, and Mason fought that.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Why was that?

William A. Davies: I don't know. Afraid he'd go back and be dean, I guess, and Mason wanted to be dean. He was just acting dean; he never was dean.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: And that was only for one year, wasn 't it? 1940 and 1941?

William A. Davies: I'm not sure whether it was one year. Must have been more because there was so much hullabaloo about it, maybe not. But T. J. Starker was the leader of the opposition to Mason. You can get the whole story from T. J. Starker, if you want that story, because he was right in the middle of the fight; and he went to the State Board of Higher Education and told them they had to get the guy out of here, and that type of thing. And that is when they brought PaW Dunn in here.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Why was T. J. so opposed to Earl Mason?

William A. Davies: I'm not sure, except that they just didn't get along; their personalities conflicted. And T. J. would never admit it, but I think he would have liked to have been dean.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: 7'. J. left shortly thereafterthen, didn't he?

William A. Davies: Yes, he was on the facully, but he was on leave for quite a few years; and he left a year before I came here too, in 1945.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Why did Mason leave in 1945?

William A. Davies: He was fired.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Who fired him?

William A. Davies: It was a combination of Paul Dunn and President Strand. Mason asked for a hearing, of course, which is a right with the state board. I guess that was quite a meeting. He blasted Paul Dunn for spending so much money on faculty travel, things like that.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Was Earl Mason a tenured professor?

William A. Davies: I dont know, probably was. As I understand it, after he was put back down to teaching from acting dean and they brought Paul Dunn here, he just did everything he could to make things bad for Paul. He wouldn't go to faculty meetings; he refused to accept committee assignments; he came over here, went to his classes, and went home, things like that. That couldnt go on, you know.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: What did he teach?

William A. Davies: I'm not sure. Something in forest management, but Paul Dunn can tell you that whole stoly, because he was right in the middle of it.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: How did you like working under Paul Dunn?

William A. Davies: Very well. Very well. Excellent dean.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Good administrator?

William A. Davies: A very good administrator, excellent. The whole faculty liked him. I dont know anybody that didnt

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Let's go back a second to when you first came here. You talked about Corvallis, but you didn't talk about the School of Forestry and what it was like right after the war. Can you describe that a little bit?

William A. Davies: Well, that first year after the war was a little hectic, because we were short of faculty and a lot of them were new. Several of us were that first year, and then we had a big influx of students right after the war.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Why was that?

William A. Davies: Well, the students, of course, couldn't go to school when they were over there fighting in the war and everything; and right after the war they all came back and went to school. They got the G.I. Bill.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: So it wasn 't just the School of Forestry?

William A. Davies: Oh, the whole university. The whole country, you know. We were just flooded with students due to that backlog while they were in the service, and then coming out; and also, some of them went to school at the universities that never would have gone if it wereift for the G.I. Bill.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Do you remember any outstanding students from that period ?

William A. Davies: Oh yes, Marv Rowley for one.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Was Marv Rowley a good student?

William A. Davies: Yes, he was good. He wasnt an outstanding student, but he was a darn good student. Practical, very practical; Marv is practical, you know. He isnt brilliant, but he's practical; and he was a good student. "B" student, I guess; hard worker.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Any other student that you had that became well known? Any names stand out to you?

William A. Davies: Oh yes, I was just reading in the paper yesterday where the Associate Chief of the Forest Service retired. A student of mine in that era, Rex Ressler. Makes me feel a little old.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Were students any better in those days than they are now, or were they lazier?

William A. Davies: They were a little older, and there was a lot more cheating in class.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Cheating in class?

William A. Davies: Right, a lot more than there is now - well, I don't know now - than there was five years ago. I talked to some of the students and asked them why, and they said, "When we were in the service, we got used to cutting corners on everything and coming back here we noticed cheating by other students and we figured if we're going to compete - going to make it - we've got to cheat too."

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: What form did that cheating take?

William A. Davies: Mostly copying in the exams; that was most of it. Also, in the copying of back reports and papers, stuff to hand in. But copying in the exams was the big one.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: What did you do about that?

William A. Davies: I started a system of my own. I caught 22 of them in one exam that way. My examinations in that particular course were quantitative problem type. I made out the exam and then I went through and transposed a number in each question in a red pencil and told the secretary to type, half of them the way it was and the other half substitute that transposed number. The answer came out different, but it looked exactly the same on paper. Then I piled them this way. When I handed them out, they came automatically alternate. So when someone came in with the right questions for the wrong paper, I was a little suspicious.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Did you catch a lot ofpeople then?

William A. Davies: 22 the first time I did it.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: What did you do about that?

William A. Davies: I called them in, each individually, and it was really kind of fun to get their reaction.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Each admitted it?

William A. Davies: Oh, they had to. Some of them denied it. You know, vehemently denied it until I laid the paper down and showed them what had happened. And one of them, every time he comes to town, he calls me up now. When I went down to a meeting in California where he works, he's manager of a company down there, he always takes me out to lunch and asks me if I remember the time he cheated in class. (laughter)

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: He never forgot that, huh?

William A. Davies: No, he said, "Anytime I think about cheating on anything now, I remember that and I don't do it." I could have crucified him, you know, but I didn't. I didn't even tell anybody that he cheated.