September 13, 2007

50 YEARS
CSUF founders complete mission
Now celebrating 50 years, college founded on 240 acres grows to second largest university in California.

The year: 1957. The mission: Organize a college on 240 acres of orange grove with four houses.

Figure out: How to admit students, what kind of classes to offer, should there be a quarter system and should there be full- and part-time faculty.

“Basically, our leader, William Langsdorf was handed a blank slate from the state to launch a school,” said Lawrence de Graaf, one of five founding faculty members and an instructor for 43 years.

The result: Cal State Fullerton, which was shaped by de Graaf, Seth Fessenden, Barbara Hartsig, Lester Beals and Miles McCarthy – with help from Librarian Ernest Toy Jr., and Finance Director Jack Lyons.

In those years, most campuses were teachers’ colleges, but the CSUF team wanted a liberal arts institution “first and foremost.”

“Our most immediate mission was to give women a place to go if they wanted to go into another profession besides teaching,” de Graaf, 75, said.

Reflecting on the university’s 50-year history, de Graaf said the school’s highest achievement has been serving so many students at what is now the second largest university in the state, and turning out graduates for the needs of the community.

“It’s not just looking at the celebrities that graduate from here, but at the thousands of graduates who are helping build and maintain a society and an economy,” he said.