On Jul. 1, 2001, Governor John Kitzhaber signed legislation that expanded Oregon Health & Science University’s (OHSU) mission and paved the way for a merger with Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and Technology (OGI). The new OGI School of Science and Engineering joined three other schools in existence at OHSU, which included dentistry, medicine and nursing.

In 1963, Mark O. Hatfield, the governor of Oregon and Howard Vollum, co-founder and chairman of Tektronix, Oregon’s largest employer at the time, combined their vision and created a unique, graduate-only science and engineering research university on the west side of greater Portland. The Oregon Graduate Center (OGC) for Research and Study in suburban Washington County was the result, with Stanford physicist Donald Benedict as its first president.

Four decades of financial turmoil forced OGI to merge with the state medical school, Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in Portland, in 2001. OGI had twelve presidents in its often-tempestuous 38-year span.