The Starker Chair in Private and Family Forestry

The Starker Chair in Private and Family Forestry was made possible by the 1995 gift of a 260-acre demonstration forest from the late Elizabeth Starker Cameron of Corvallis.

Mrs. Cameron owned Starker Forest Inc. along with her two sons, Bond and Barte Starker. The Starker brothers continue to operate the family business as a progressive, non-industrial forest products company that owns and manages about 63,000 acres of forest land in the central Oregon Coast Range.

Ongoing revenues from the donated tract fund research and Extension outreach on issues of private forest management, including the establishment of an endowed chair that will provide leadership in the field.

The Starker family has a long history at Oregon State, starting with the late Thurman James "T.J." Starker, Mrs. Cameron's father-in-law, who was a graduate of OSU’s first forestry class in 1910. T. J. Starker taught at the School of Forestry from 1922 to 1942 and played a major role in the acquisition of the school's first research forest land. His son, the late Bruce Starker, and grandsons Bond and Barte, all earned forestry degrees at OSU.

In addition to benefiting the College of Forestry, Mrs. Cameron also specified that $1 million from the sale of timber from the land would go toward the renovation of The Valley Library.

John C. Bliss

In late 1997, the College of Forestry launched the nation's first chaired program in private forestry when it named John C. Bliss its inaugural Starker Chair. Dr. Bliss worked in the field of non-industrial private forestry for more than 20 years, first as a private lands forester for the state of Wisconsin, then as an associate professor and Extension specialist in the School of Forestry at Auburn University, Alabama.

A native of Wisconsin, Dr. Bliss received his undergraduate degree in cultural anthropology and his master's degree and doctorate in forestry from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Two years of service as a Peace Corps volunteer in Afghanistan inspired Dr. Bliss' interest in relationships between people and their environment, and led him to complete a Ph.D. minor in international development, and participate in forestry projects in Central and South America. This combination of academic training and experience informs Dr. Bliss' research on social dimensions of forest resources management and policy. He has published articles on forest-based rural development, private forest policy, public attitudes toward forest practices, and social science research applications in forestry.

As Starker Chair in Private and Family Forestry, Dr. Bliss brings a new focus to the College of Forestry at OSU, and a commitment to interdisciplinary collaboration. "I'm attracted to research that seeks solutions to problems real people are having. These problems aren't usually the kind that can be solved by a narrow, disciplinary focus," he says. "I envision an integrated program of research and education relevant to Oregon's private forest resources, and hope to imbue the program with an appreciation for the human resource associated with the forest resource."