Pat Reser (b. 1938) and her family have made a major impact on OSU as donors, leaders and high profile advocates for a variety of university initiatives. Pat and her husband Al both graduated from Oregon State College in 1960, she in Elementary Education and he in Business Administration. A public school teacher and mother of five children, Pat organized Reser family life while her husband worked long hours building Reser's Fine Foods from a family business to an international corporation employing more than 3,000 people. The Reser family later played a significant role in advancing multiple goals important to OSU, including the renovation and expansion of the school's football stadium, which was renamed Reser Stadium in 1999 in honor of a major gift made by the family. The Resers later provided lead gifts for two signature projects of the Campaign for OSU - the Linus Pauling Science Center and Austin Hall. Pat Reser served as a co-chair of the school's capital campaign, and later was elected as the first chair of the OSU Board of Trustees. Reser's interview focuses on her life and partnership with her husband Al, her professional work in education and her volunteer work in Beaverton and Corvallis, and her insight into the Reser family's key involvement with development at OSU.
Life history interview conducted by Chris Petersen for inclusion in the Oregon State University Sesquicentennial Oral History Collection (OH 26), Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Oregon State University Libraries.
