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CORVALLIS - William Ruckleshaus, who served under many presidential administrations and was the first head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, will deliver the 15th Gov. Tom McCall Memorial Lecture in Public Affairs at Oregon State University on Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Ruckleshaus, who recently represented President Clinton in negotiations over the Pacific Salmon Treaty, will lecture on the topic "The Northwest and Salmon - Our Common Future." The free public lecture will begin at 7:30 p.m. in LaSells Stewart Center, 26th Street and Western Boulevard in Corvallis.

A key figure in several presidential administrations, Ruckleshaus began his political career as Deputy Attorney General of Indiana in the early 1960s, and became a member of Indiana's House of Representatives. He was appointed by President Nixon in 1969 as Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Civil Division for the U.S. Department of Justice, and from that point his national administrative career took off.

He became the first administrator of the EPA in 1970, serving for three years. In 1973, he was appointed acting director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and later that year was named Deputy Attorney General of the U.S. Department of Justice.

After a two-year stint as a senior partner in a Washington, D.C., law firm, Ruckleshaus moved to the Pacific Northwest as senior vice president for law and corporate affairs for the Weyerhaeuser Co., where he remained from 1976 to 1983. President Reagan then appointed him to head the EPA once again.

Today Ruckleshaus, a resident of Seattle, is chairman of the board of Browning-Ferris Industries, Inc., of Houston, Texas, and is the director of several corporations, including Monsanto Co., Weyerhaeuser, Nordstrom, Inc., and Cummins Engine Co.

The 66-year-old Ruckleshaus also chairs or serves on the board of numerous nonprofit organizations.

He graduated cum laude from Princeton University in 1957, and earned a law degree from Harvard University in 1960.

The McCall Lecture honors the former Oregon governor who taught journalism and political science at OSU following the completion of his second term of office. It is sponsored by the OSU College of Liberal Arts.