Oral history interview with Jane M. Armentrout

Collection

Identifier: SR 9565

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This oral history interview with Jane M. Armentrout was conducted by Roberta Watts on June 5, 1978, as part of the Oregon Historical Society Research Library’s oral history program.

In this interview, Armentrout discusses her family background, and talks about the life and career of her father, Dr. Harold Bunce Myers. She talks about his early life, about his education, and about her parents' marriage. She describes how her parents came to Oregon in 1914, and speaks at length about Harold Bunce Myers' career as a professor at the University of Oregon Medical School, now Oregon Health & Science University. She also talks about some of her father’s students. She describes her interest in studying science, shares her experience of being discouraged from applying to medical school because of her gender, and talks about jobs she held before starting a family. She closes the interview by talking about her father’s personality and by sharing memories of her early life with her parents.

Dates

1978 June 5

Creator

Armentrout, Jane Myers (Interviewee, Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Joint copyright for this interview is held by the Oregon Historical Society and the estate of Jane M. Armentrout. Use is allowed according to the following statement: In Copyright – Non-Commercial Use Permitted, https://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-NC/1.0/

Biographical note

Jane Myers Armentrout, nee Jane Agnes Myers, was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1916. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Oregon, and later earned a master’s degree in biochemistry. She was a bacteriology lab technician for the Oregon State Board of Health, taught biology and English at St. Helen's Hall, and was a hematology research assistant at the University of Oregon Medical School. In 1940, she and Herbert Leppen Armentrout were married; they later had three children. In the 1950s, she organized a campaign for polio shots through the Wilson High School Parent Teacher Association. She died in 1999.

Sources: Vital records on Ancestry.com.

Extent

0.1 Cubic Feet (1 audiocassette (1 hr., 4 min., 31 sec.))

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Oral history interview with Jane M. Armentrout conducted by Roberta Watts on June 5, 1978. Armentrout discusses the life and career of her father, Dr. Harold Bunce Myers, and her own interest in science.