Harold T. Osterud papers

Dr. Harold Truman Osterud was born in 1923 in Richmond, Virginia. He was a salutatorian of Ashland High School and went to Randolph-Macon College in 1940 in Ashland, Virginia. He earned an M.D. in 1947 from Medical College of Virginia where his father was a professor of anatomy. In 1948, he became a health officer for Wasco-Sherman Health Department in the Dalles, Oregon. From 1951-1953, he served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps during the Korean War. After he was stationed for 18 months in Korea, he returned to the U.S. and was employed as a health officer in Coos and Lane Counties in Oregon. In 1961, he joined OHSU Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine. He became Department Chairman in 1967 and served in the position until his retirement in 1990.

Dr. Osterud was an “outgoing, friendly, and energetic person” who actively participated in numerous county, state and national organizations that specialize in Public Health. His research interests encompassed a variety of topics, such as epidemiology of communicable and parasitic diseases, international public health and medical manpower in Oregon. He also was an excellent teacher who received great comments from students such as that he was “extremely knowledgeable and very enthusiastic about sharing his knowledge” and “very accessible and open to students.”

While serving as a department chairman, Dr. Osterud started to offer the Preventive Medicine Residency Program at OHSU in 1974, originally provided by the Oregon State Board of Health. This residency program has played an important role in producing certified preventive medicine physicians in the Portland area.

Even after retiring, Dr. Osterud continued to teach in the department and serve as the health officer in Washington and Clackamas counties. He worked assiduously on writing the history of Oregon medicine, especially focusing on the history of public health and the department where he served for nearly 30 years. Dr. Osterud died December 31, 2004.