Thomas R. Meehan

Feb. 1, 1919 - Oct. 3, 2006

Thomas R. Meehan died Tuesday, Oct. 3, in Corvallis. He was 87.

Born to Lillian and Thomas Meehan on Feb. 1, 1919, in Jersey City, N.J., at the death of his mother of the Spanish flu, he was raised by his great-aunt and uncle, Nora and Edward Kenny in Brooklyn, N.Y.

As a young teenager he lived briefly with his father in Belleville, N.J. Graduating from Barringer Evening High School, Newark, he was awarded the Bamberger Medal for Highest Scholastic Average.

With the outbreak of World War II, he interrupted his classes in English at the University of Newark to volunteer for Army duty. He was assigned to the First Cavalry, Signal Corps, and he served for more than three years, almost always overseas in the Pacific Theater. Sent by troop ship to Australia, he saw action across the Pacific Islands, among them New Guinea, the Admiralty Islands, and the Philippines. He made five beach-heads.

When the company was not engaged, he was given the task of lecturing to the troops with material supplied by the military and U.S. news magazines on the U.S. movements in the European Theater. With the First Cavalry, he was among the first U.S. soldiers to occupy Japan. He was awarded the Bronze Star.

Once discharged, he resumed his studies with the help of the G.I. Bill, majoring in history. He earned his undergraduate degree from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and Summa Cum Laude.

In 1948 he married Margaret E. Garbarini. They were married 58 years.

Beginning in 1949 he pursued a two-year program for a master's degree at Rutgers with a concentration in American history and American political science. At Rutgers he was a teaching and research assistant and an instructor in Western civilization.

Following his M.A., he completed a year of graduate study at Princeton University. In 1952 he was awarded a Knapp Fellowship from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, working toward a Ph.D. in U.S. intellectual and constitutional history.

With the completion of his doctorate, he accepted a position at Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh, Pa., where he taught American and European history for five years.

In 1962 he began teaching at Oregon State University (then Oregon State College), Department of History. In addition to survey and specialized courses in U.S. history, he was asked to teach a class in "Early Modern Europe," a course he carried for some years with ever increasing enrollment. His "Great Americans" course became a Department of History institution.

In 1963 he was selected for the Oregon State Outstanding Teacher Award. The 1965 State Legislature provided for all state colleges and universities who wished to participate, $1,000 merit awards for teaching excellence. Thomas R. Meehan was one of 47 OSU faculty to win the award. An entirely

student-run competition executed on the Memorial Union Quad for the "Red Hot" Professor was won by Dr. Meehan n a prize for which he was justly proud. In 1982 he was presented The Elizabeth P. Ritchie Distinguished Professor Award.

At his retirement in 1987, the Department of History established the Thomas R. Meehan Excellence in Teaching Award to be given each academic year to a faculty member of the College of Liberal Arts. His doctoral dissertation, under Dr. Merrill Jensen, on Pennsylvania's first state constitution led to the publication of articles and reviews in "The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography."

In retirement, Thomas volunteered in a reading program at the Hoover School, and he served on city commissions, particularly and especially on the Advisory Commission on Transit. In 1991 Thomas and Margaret became members of the OSU Foundation William Jasper Kerr Society.

There will be a memorial service at 4:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 23, on the Oregon State University campus at the CH2M Hill Alumni Center library and lounge.

Memorial contributions may be made to the OSU Department of History, to the College of Liberal Arts, to the OSU Foundation, Thomas R. Meehan Excellence in Teaching Award, and to a humane society of choice.