Hall of Fame Member Biographies

Oliver S. Willham

Oliver S. Willham joined the faculty at Oklahoma A&M College—now Oklahoma State University—in the department of Animal Husbandry in 1935. He began his career in 1923 at Panhandle A&M College, later serving as dean and vice president. Willham earned a solid reputation at OSU in animal breeding and genetics, and later became an administrator. In 1950, he became Executive Vice President under Henry G. Bennett, and was appointed by the A&M regents as the fifteenth president of OSU at Bennett’s untimely death in 1952. During his tenure, Willham led the university through one of its greatest periods of growth. He retired in 1966, and died in 1974. He was inducted into the Oklahoma Higher Education Hall of Fame in 1995.