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.

1983 President Francis Clair Stahl

Born at Philomath, Benton County Oregon on October 25, 1913 as Francis Clair Stahl.

1983 - Francis Clair Stahl

Parents : Charles Myron Stahl, a teacher, and Evadna Elizabeth (Springer) Stahl, a teacher.

After graduating from Bellfountain High School, Benton County Oregon, in 1932 and trying various sawmill and logging jobs, enlistment in the US Army 29th Engineer Topographic Battalion, then stationed in Portland Oregon, on June 25th 1938 I had the opportunity to learn mapping from Aerial Photographs and by Survey methods. Discharge from the US Army was after WW2 on October 31, 1945. As a Civilian working for the Corps of Engineers with an appointment of Photogrammetric Aide, I married Marguerite (Peigi) S. Schatter on August 24, 1946. A year — 1947 — at Vanport Extension Center then back to the Corps of Engineers in Surveying and later Topographic Drafting.

April 25, 1955 found me transferred to the US Forest Service, Surveys and Maps Branch in Portland Oregon where summer field work and winter in the office was the usual regimen. Later field work was eliminated and plotting and producing maps of all sorts was our responsibility.

While at Vanport Extension Center I enlisted in the US Army Reserves in June 1947. For the next 25 years, with Artillery, Transportation Corps and Training Battalion assignments the reserve affiliation was maintained until 1973 and retirement from the US Army as a Chief MSG.

Retirement from the Civil Service on March 10 1978. My Hobbies of Photography and Natural History especially Geology and Conchology led me into several night classes in Geology at Portland State University to learn why the hills and streams were there in that particular place. June 1964 Peigi and I joined the Geological Society of the Oregon Country. Peigi has been Editor twice and I was also President in 1974.