Clark, Ava Milam, 1884-1976

Home economics Dean Ava Bertha Milam was born on November 27, 1884 in Macon Missouri, one of 5 daughters of Ancil and Louisa Milam. She taught at the Blees Military Academy from 1904 to 1907 and came to Oregon Agricultural College in 1911 as professor and head of the Department of Foods and Nutrition. She was appointed Dean of the School of Home Economics in 1917 and served in that capacity until her retirement in 1950. In 1948, she acted as a consultant in home economics colleges in Korea and China. Ava Milam married Jesse C. Clark in 1952. She died in 1976. Milam Hall on the Oregon State University campus is named in Ava Milam's honor. Alumnus Jesse Claude Clark graduated from Oregon Agricultural College in 1904 and joined the staff of the YMCA in Portland. In 1907, he married Julia Fuller (a 1906 OAC graduate) and they had 3 children; she died in 1951. During his 40-year career with the YMCA, he spent 12 years in Shanghai, China and several years as general secretary of the Seaman's Y in New York City. After his retirement in 1944, he became director of the Northern Baptist Assembly summer conference center at Green Lake, Wisconsin. He returned to Oregon in 1952 and married Ava Milam. He died in 1956 after a brief illness.

From the description of Ava Milam Clark and Jesse C. Clark photographic collection, ca. 1890-1968. (Eugene Public Library). WorldCat record id: 54757482

Home economics dean Ava Bertha Milam was born on November 27, 1884 in Macon Missouri, one of 5 daughters of Ancil and Louisa Milam. She taught at the Blees Military Academy from 1904 to 1907 and came to Oregon Agricultural College in 1911 as professor and head of the Department of Foods and Nutrition. She was appointed Dean of the School of Home Economics in 1917 and served in that capacity until her retirement in 1950. In 1948, she acted as a consultant in home economics colleges in Korea and China. Ava Milam married Jesse C. Clark in 1952. She died in 1976. Milam Hall on the Oregon State University campus is named in Ava Milam's honor.

Alumnus Jesse Claude Clark graduated from Oregon Agricultural College in 1904 and joined the staff of the YMCA in Portland. In 1907, he married Julia Fuller (a 1906 OAC graduate) and they had 3 children; she died in 1951. During his 40-year career with the YMCA, he spent 12 years in Shanghai, China and several years as general secretary of the Seaman's Y in New York City. After his retirement in 1944, he became director of the Northern Baptist Assembly summer conference center at Green Lake, Wisconsin. He returned to Oregon in 1952 and married Ava Milam. He died in 1956 after a brief illness.

From the guide to the Ava Milam Clark and Jesse C. Clark Photographic Collection, ca. 1890-1968, (Oregon State University Libraries University Archives)

Ava Milam Clark was born on November 27, 1884 in Macon, Missouri. She was one of five daughters of Ancil and Louisa Milam. She attended the University of Chicago and obtained her Ph.B. in 1910 and her A.M. degree in 1911. Ava Milam Clark taught two years in public school, 1902-1904, and at Blees Military Academy (Macon, Mo.) from 1904-1907. She was an instructor of Foods and Nutrition at Iowa State College in the summer of 1911, after which she came to Oregon Agricultural College.

From 1911 until 1916 she was professor and head of the Department of Foods and Nutrition. She was made Dean of the School of Home Economics in 1917, serving in that capacity until 1950. In 1922 Clark went to China to help establish a home economics department at Yenching University in Peking. She left Oregon State College in 1931 for one year to work as a consultant in home economics at various universities in the Far East. In 1932 she was made Director of Home Economics for the Oregon State System of Higher Education.

In the summer of 1937 Clark and Alma Fritchoff conducted a home economics tour to China and Japan. For five and one-half months in 1948 she acted as a consultant in home economics colleges in Korea and China and made an educational survey in the Philippines for the Foreign Missions Conference of North America. From 1950 until 1952 Clark served as a home economics advisor to the governments of Syria and Iraq for the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). She retired from OSC in 1950 and was made Dean Emeritus.

Clark wrote many articles for various professional magazines and two books, A Study of Student Homes of China (1930), and her autobiography, Adventures of a Home Economist, with Kenneth Munford (OSU Press, 1969). Ava Milam married J.C. Clark on November 1, 1952. She received the Distinguished Service Award from OSU in 1966 and the same award from Yonsei University in 1968. Ava Milam Clark died on August 14, 1976.

From the guide to the Ava Milam Clark Papers, 1888-1972, (Oregon State University University Archives)