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Chris Petersen

Chris Petersen is Archivist for Oral History and Digital Projects at the Special Collections and Archives Research Center (SCARC), Oregon State University Libraries, where he has worked since 1996. Much of his career has been devoted to exploring the life and work of Linus Pauling; he is the editor of The Pauling Blog as well as two books, The Pauling Catalogue (2006) and Visions of Linus Pauling (2022). He administers the SCARC Oral History Program and, from 2013-2017, served as director of the Oregon State University Sesquicentennial Oral History Project. He is also OSU Services Manager for the Oregon Digital 2 development initiative and has contributed to the creation of a number of digital collections and exhibits related to the history of OSU.

Author's Entries

  • CH2M Hill

    CH2M Hill was perhaps the most successful engineering concern established in Oregon. Founded by an engineering professor at Oregon State College (now Oregon State University) and one of his students, at its peak the firm was among the five largest consulting companies in the United States. Broad in its …

    Oregon Encyclopedia

  • Reser's Fine Foods

    Reser’s Fine Foods Inc. traces its origin to a kitchen in Cornelius, Oregon, where Mildred Reser prepared salads, coleslaw, and gelatins, which her husband Earl sold to local shops and stores. Mrs. Reser’s Salads quickly found a local audience and in 1951 relocated out of the family kitchen to a …

    Oregon Encyclopedia

  • Warren Morton Washington (1936–2024)

    A groundbreaking climate scientist, Warren M. Washington played a major role in the scientific understanding of global warming and made important contributions to modeling the world’s weather patterns. A Portland native and graduate of Oregon State College, he was among the earliest generation of scientists to use computers to develop …

    Oregon Encyclopedia

  • William Appleman Williams (1921–1990)

    William Appleman Williams was a prominent radical historian and a leading figure in what was called the revisionist school of historiography. While on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, he published two classic reinterpretations of the United States’ rise to superpower status, The Tragedy of American Diplomacy (1959) …

    Oregon Encyclopedia