The Oregon Graduate Center was a unique, private, postgraduate-only research university in Washington County, Oregon, on the west side of Portland, from 1963 to 2001. The center was renamed the Oregon Graduate Institute in 1989. The Institute merged with the Oregon Health Sciences University in 2001, and became the OGI School of Science and Engineering within the (renamed) Oregon Health & Science University. The School was discontinued in 2008 and its campus in 2014. Demolition of the campus buildings began February 2017.
Oregon Graduate Center The Oregon Graduate Center for Study and Research (OGC) was incorporated on 2 April 1963 as a university at the behest of Gov. Mark O. Hatfield, Tektronix co-founder Howard Vollum and the City Club of Portland, with the help of $2M grant from the Tektronix Foundation. Retired physician Samuel L. Diack of the Oregon Medical Research Foundation was named the first chairman of OGC's board of trustees, and Vollum was a board member. Diack is also noted as a founder of the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. Physicist Donald L. Benedict of the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) was hired as the first president of OGC in 1966. The original campus, a former Martin Marietta building, was located at 9430 SW Barnes Road near the intersection of Oregon Route 217 and U.S. Route 26 in an unincorporated area just north of Beaverton next to Tek's Sunset facility."Tektronix to Donate 10,000 Ft. Facility for Grad Center," Grow with Oregon, State of Oregon, Dept. of Planning and Development (1965).G.B. Dodds, C.E. Wollner & M.M. Lee, The Silicon Forest, Oregon Historical Society Press, 1990, p 99-124. Hatfield was unsuccessful in his attempt to get $1.5M in seed funding for OGC from the state legislature. Financial support was an ongoing problem for OGC, as demonstrated by the brief terms of several of its presidents. Funding in the late 1960s was received from Pacific Northwest Bell Telephone Company, and sought from the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare and the National Institutes of Health."Oregon Graduate Center Plans Unveiled," Chemical & Engineering News, V47, #3 (Jan 20, 1969) p 38. Other early backers and board members included Douglas Strain of Electro Scientific Industries (ESI), John Gray of Omark Industries Inc. and Ira KellerIra Keller, The Oregon Encyclopedia. of Western Kraft Corporation.
A report by a committee of the Portland City Club asked, "Why does Portland lag so far behind in the great surge of science-based industry?" in 1963. At the time, metropolitan Portland had about 800,000 residents and its employment mainstays were timber and agriculture. The committee's answer to its question was, "Portland is the largest metropolitan area in the West without a full university." Portland State College (PSC), Reed College, Lewis & Clark College, the University of Portland and other halls of academe in northwestern Oregon were primarily undergraduate schools. PSC was also under pressure to become a university and a research institution, which it did in 1969 when it was renamed Portland State University (PSU). The Portland interests were competing with the University of Oregon (U of O) in Eugene and Oregon State University (OSU) in Corvallis for research funding.
Tektronix ("Tek"), the largest private employer in Oregon from the 1960s through the 1980s, was quoted, "...the creation of a graduate center 'an absolute necessity' for its operations because 'we find it extremely difficult to attract competent people to our plant, and we find those who have acquired with us a degree of scientific competence often leave us for the specific reason that they do not find here further help or stimulation to their scientific development. Tektronix stated that it would have to establish research and development facilities elsewhere near universities if a graduate training and research center was not founded in Portland." Tek encouraged employees to pursue advanced degrees and sometimes provided financial support. Tek started an in-house continuing education program in the late 1950s that rivaled the local community colleges in size.
Benedict's vision for OGC was based on the European model of research for a civilian-based economy, rather than a wartime economy as was common in the United States. Benedict liked the Oxford University tutorial system in the United Kingdom and the Technische Hochschule network in West Germany. Benedict had been in charge of SRI's European operations before he was hired by OGC.
The first six faculty—all chemists—and staff were hired in 1966, and the first students were admitted in 1969. Carl Miller, a structural engineer, was the first staff member hired, and laser expert J. Richard Kerr was the second. OGC moved to a newly developed 74-acre site at 20000 NW Walker Road on the Hillsboro-Beaverton boundary in August 1969, which was intended to be its permanent campus, adjacent to the Oregon National Primate Research Center. The new site had been the Donovan family's wheat farm."Celebrating 30 Years at OGI," Visions, V9, #3 (Summer 1993) p 22-23. Both campuses used Portland mailing addresses, although neither is in Portland proper. The initial programs were in chemistry, physics and mathematics, without any departmental divisions. OGC had no undergraduates, dormitories, sororities, fraternities, student-athletes, mascots, Latin motto, homecoming parade or social science departments, ever. The first research project was a study of the propagation of laser beams through the atmosphere by Kerr.B. Nelson, "Oregon Graduate Center: A New Portland Scientific Institution," Science, V157, #3793 (8 Sep 1967) p 1151-1154.
The first master's degree was awarded to Terry D. Lee in organic chemistry in 1971, and the first doctor of philosophy to Paul M. Perry in applied physics in 1973. All programs were accredited by the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges. In 1979, OGC had 23 faculty and 33 students. By 1988, OGC had 48 faculty members, all untenured, and 150 students.R.M. Baum, "Oregon Graduate Center Looks to Future with Confidence," Chemical & Engineering News (Nov 28, 1988) p 26-27. The purpose of OGC was to provide training, research and graduate credentials pertinent to Silicon Forest and other local industries, without the bureaucracy and politics of a conventional university, somewhat similar to Rockefeller University.
Original board of directors The original board of trustees of OGC was Harry Alpert (U of O), Henry Cabell, Vernon Cheldelin (OSU), Arno H. Denecke, S.L. Diack (chairman), physicist Walter P. Dyke (Linfield College, Field Emission Corp.), Gerald W. Frank (Governor's Advisory Committee), educator James T. Marr, Harold M. Phillips, Donald E. Pickering (OHSU), G. Herbert Smith (Willamette University), Willard B. Spalding (dean of PSC), Richard H. Sullivan (president of Reed College), metallurgist R.H. "Rudy" Thielemann (Martin Marietta Metals Co.), C. H. Vollum and Harry White.S. Dodge, "25 Years of Science Inquiry at OGC, Part One: Origins of the Graduate Center," Visions, V3, #2 (Spring 1988) p 13-20.
Presidential eras Donald L. Benedict was originally hired as a consultant to Gov. Hatfield's committee. Benedict favored theoretical or pure research, as opposed to the applied research favored by most of the industrialists and philanthropists on the committee. His major accomplishment was acquiring the new campus on Walker Road from Tektronix Foundation, where the first new building was dedicated on 15 August 1969. Cost overruns resulted in his dismissal by the trustees just 12 days after the dedication.
E. Robert de Luccia, a Pacific Power & Light Co. executive and board member became interim president in 1969, following Benedict's dismissal. De Luccia had been a trustee from 1968 to 1972. OGC had to borrow money to meet the payroll and pay contractors for new buildings. Mergers with Lewis & Clark College and PSU and a takeover by Tek were proposed, and most OGC employees were looking for other jobs. De Luccia left OGC for a job in the Nixon administration in Southeast Asia in June 1971, and the original OGC facility on Barnes Road was sold for $350k that year.S. Dodge, "25 Years of Science Inquiry at OGC, Part Two: A Permanent Home," Visions, V4, #2 (Summer 1988) p 17-24. De Luccia was named a Life Trustee of OGI in 1990 for his longtime support.Visions, V6, #1 (Spring 1990) p 29.
Arthur F. Scott (1898-1982), a provost of OGC and former chemistry professor and president (1942 to 1945) at Reed College, was appointed acting president in 1971–1972. Negotiations with PSU failed to produce a merger, a request for $1.5M in operating funds from the state legislature was denied, and OGC was on the brink of extinction during this time. The chemistry building at Reed is named for Scott.
Western Kraft Corp. founder Ira C. Keller (1899-1978) was appointed president in 1972. His business approach kept OGC afloat, and brought full accreditation in 1973. Applied physics professor Lynwood W. Swanson and partners incorporated FEI Company in 1973, although Swanson remained on the faculty at OGC until 1987."FEI Company - Company Profile, Information, Business," Advameg, Inc., 2015. The National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and Weyerhauser Co. all made generous grants to OGC during Keller's tenure. Keller retired as president in 1977 and became chairman of the board of trustees upon Diack's retirement. The Keller Fountain Park in downtown Portland was named in honor of Ira Keller for his philanthropy and civic involvement, and Keller Auditorium for his son Richard B. Keller. Western Kraft began as a joint venture between the Willamette Valley Lumber Co. and Santiam Lumber Co. in 1954, and merged with Willamette Industries Inc. in 1973.Willamette Industries, Inc. History, International Directory of Company Histories, Vol. 31, St. James Press, 2000. The younger Keller was a trustee of OGC from 1984 to 1987.
J. Richard "Dick" Kerr, a professor of electrical engineering at PSC and OGC and later the executive vice-president of OGC, was promoted to president in 1977. Kerr, a laser expert, was hired by OGC as a researcher in 1966. He resigned in 1979 amid more financial crises and controversy with the faculty over cutbacks. The Jack Murdock Research Laboratory, housing the physics and electrical engineering programs and funded by a $2M grant by the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, opened in 1978 as the third building on the OGC campus.Visions, V8, #2 (Summer 1992) p 19. After OGC, Kerr was an executive at Flight Dynamics Inc. and FLIR Systems Inc., and founded Max-Viz Inc. in Portland.