| William Tebeau | |||||||
| Birth Name: | William Henry Tebeau | ||||||
| Birth Date: | November 23, 1925 | ||||||
| Birth Place: | Baker City, Oregon, United States | ||||||
| Death Date: | July 5, 2013 (age 87) | ||||||
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William Henry Tebeau (November 23, 1925 – July 5, 2013) in 1948 became the first African-American man to graduate from Oregon State College.[1] He was an engineer for ODOT for 36 years. A residence hall at OSU and Highway 126 between Eugene and Florence are both named after him.
William Tebeau was born in Baker, Oregon, United States, to Henry William Tebeau and Frances (née Binor) Tebeau. At age 12, he joined the Boy Scouts of America, earning the Order of the Arrow and eventually becoming an Eagle Scout. In 1943 he graduated from Baker High School.
Tebeau was admitted to Oregon State, but he was not offered a housing assignment because of his race, nearly a decade prior to Oregon's fair housing laws.[2] He found a job at a fraternity house tending the furnace, in exchange for a room in the basement. He graduated with a degree in chemical engineering in 1948. When he was unable to find work as a chemical engineer, he studied on his own to become a civil engineer.[3] [4]
Tebeau earned his civil engineering license and joined the Oregon State Highway Department, where he worked for 36 years. He also taught at Chemeketa Community College, where he was named 1970 Teacher of the Year.
In May 2014, Oregon State University announced that its new residence hall east of the Kerr Administration Building on Washington Way would be named after Tebeau, the first African-American male to earn a degree from the university.
In January 2016, the Oregon Legislature passed SB 5, designating State Highway 126 between Florence and Eugene as "William Tebeau Memorial Highway".[5]