1974 President Francis Clair Stahl

Francis Clair Stahl was born October 25, 1913, to Charles Myron and Evadna Elizabeth Stahl in Philomath, Oregon. His Iowa father and Oregon mother were both teachers in Oregon schools. At 16 Clair changed his name to Clair Francis Stahl.

1974 - Francis Clair Stahl

Graduating from Bellfountain High School in 1932, he was employed in the lumber industry at various places in Oregon. His enlistment in the 29th Engineer Topographic Battalion, U.S. Army in 1938 where he learned topographic mapping and photogrammetry, started him on his career. After being honorably discharged from the Army in 1945, he studied Civil Engineering at Vanport Extension Center and enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve.

Clair and Marguerite S. Shatter were married in Vancouver, Washington on August 24, 1946.

Leaving school in 1948, he received a U.S. Civil Service appointment with the Corps of Engineers, Walla Walla District, as a surveyor. Transferring to the Pacific Northwest Region of the U.S. Forest Service in 1955, he continued his career as a topographer and photogrammeterist.

Clair became interested in geology upon trying to explain the topographic features he saw on topographic maps and aerial photographs that he used in his profession. After several night classes in geology at Portland Extension Center, he joined the Geological Society of the Oregon Country in 1965.

Clair retired from the U.S. Army Reserve in 1973. He is a life long Democrat (Conservative, he says). Photography used to illustrate and explain natural history, especially invertebrate paleontology is one of his special interests. Another is the study of intertidal life. Geology is one of his special studies since it is also part of his profession.