William K Ferrell

A Celebration of Bill's Life with his family and friends took place at 1:30pm on Monday, August 8, 2016 at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Corvallis. Click the photo below for images from the event.

Bill was born in Barberton, Ohio to Roy J. Ferrell and Hazel M. Kreiter.

Enlisted in the US Army Air Corp. in 1942 where he worked in Air Photography, and was discharged a Captain in 1946 at the end of WWII.

Bill started his educational career at University of Michigan where he got his B.S. in Forestry in 1941. He then went to Duke University where he got his M.F. in Soils in 1942. After WWII Bill went back to Duke and got his PhD. In Forest Soils and Plant Physiology in 1948.

Bill’s employment started at the University of Idaho in 1948-1956 as an Assistant Professor. In 1956 he got a job with Oregon State University where he was first an Assistant Professor, then Associate and then full Professor.

After retirement from OSU in 1980 he substituted for a couple of years (1985) at University of Northern Arizona teaching forest ecology.

Bill continued his academic pursuits and in 1990 he co-authored an article in Science magazine directly challenging, with science, the argument that conversion of old-growth forests to young, fast growing stands would decrease atmospheric carbon dioxide. On the contrary, they argued, it would take 200 years before regenerating stands would begin to approach the carbon-storage capacity of the previous old-growth stand.

Bill married Louise G. Ferrell in Moscow, Idaho in 1949 and divorced in 1978. They had three children, Katherine, Thomas, and Stephen.

His second marriage was to Pamela J. Ferrell in Oregon in 1978 and was then divorced in 1982.

Bills final marriage was to Jeanne Sole Ferrell 1987, and he stayed married to her until her death in 2014. Through Jeanne he added a new family of Paul and Julie Rieck, son Jeremy and daughter Alison; Ellen and John Tappon, daughter Sarah and son Paul; John and Vicki Rieck, daughter Jessie.