WOU Repository

Roy Elwayne Lieuallen was born in Weston, Oregon in August of 1916 and attended Pacific University, University of Oregon, and Stanford University. He was a science teacher and basketball coach in Pilot Rock, Oregon from 1940 to 1942. After serving 38 months in the Navy, including two years in the South Pacific during World War II, he was released with the rank of Lieutenant, US Naval Reserve, and was awarded a bronze star for his combat performance as a navigation officer.

Lieuallen was active in the Methodist Church, Phi Delta Kappa fraternity, and multiple higher education organizations on both the state and federal level. He served as administrator in charge during Roben J. Maaske’s tenure when President Maaske travelled to Turkey to meet with the Turkish Ministry of Education. Lieuallen held the position of registrar and coordinator of instruction at Oregon College of Education from 1946 until the death of President Roben John Maaske in February of 1955. He then acted as administrator in charge until he was officially inaugurated as the college’s fourteenth president on February 5, 1956.

For over half a decade, President Lieuallen saw the expansion of campus boundaries through the purchase of land in lots and acreages from Monmouth Avenue to Stadium Drive north of Church Street, and other small lots in other directions. He oversaw steady growth of the campus to keep up with increasing enrollment. After his tenure as college President, he held the position of Chancellor of the State System of Higher Education. As chancellor, Lieuallen steered the state university system through an era of calm and tempest; a time when campuses expanded rapidly to absorb the incoming tide of baby boomers, and faced the upset of student anti-war protests. Lieuallen was praised widely for meeting the challenges with equanimity. He was Chancellor of the Oregon State System of Higher Education for twenty years; filling the post longer than anyone previously had. The administration building on campus is named after him. Roy Elwayne Lieuallen died in a Portland-area residential care home due to an age-related illness on April 20, 2005.