Mark H. Terrel was born May 27, 1920, in Chicago, Illinois, to John Ernest and Winifred Burns Terrel. The family moved to Omaha, Nebraska; Kansas City; and finally Glendale, California, where Mark graduated from Hoover High School. He attended Brown Military Academy in San Diego, then the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. He graduated in 1942 with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a commission as a second lieutenant in the Army. The following Fourth of July, he and Elaine Felton were married at Fort Benning, Georgia. He served with the 76th Infantry Division in Belgium and Germany during World War II and was awarded the Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. After the war, he attended Princeton University, receiving a master’s degree in nuclear physics. He and Elaine were stationed in Turkey and Spain before he was ordered to Korea.
After other tours of duty, he served in Vietnam. The couple then moved to Corvallis, where he was assigned as the Professor of Military Science at Oregon State University. He retired from the Army in 1972 following completion of his tour at OSU.
Colonel Terrel was active in the Corvallis Rotary Club, serving as president in 1979-80, and helped start the Rotary Club in Philomath, and he was an honorary member of both clubs. He was a member of the Military Officers Club of Corvallis and served as its president in 1975. He also served as president of the Oregon Council of Chapters for three years. He served as precinct chairman of the Republican Party and at the time of America’s two-hundredth birthday he served as chairman of the Benton County Bicentennial celebration. He enjoyed his family, reading, and fishing.
Mark passed away on August 8, 2000, and is survived by Elaine, his daughter Katie, sons John and Douglas, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. This memorial scholarship was established by his family and friends to honor his memory and support the education of the Army ROTC cadets at Oregon State University and Western Oregon University.