Foundation marks 70th anniversary
By Shirley Melikian Armbruster
The California State University, Fresno Foundation, a nonprofit education corporation created to provide private support to the university, celebrated its 70th birthday on June 19.
The Foundation is the principal repository for private gifts and governmental grants that enhance the academic mission of Fresno State. A 21-member board of governors leads the organization and manages the Foundation's $60 million endowment.
The Foundation was established on June 19, 1931, to promote the welfare of Fresno State College. But its roots go back a decade earlier, when an advisory committee was created by the Fresno Chamber of Commerce to discuss ways to resolve problems caused by a lack of housing at what was then Fresno State Teachers College.
The committee, initiated by college president Charles L. McLane, included McLane and other figures well-known in Fresno history: Edwin Einstein, W.B. Holland, George Osborn and state Sen. M.B. Harris.
The committee evolved in 1923 into an Advisory Board for the college, the first of its kind for teacher colleges in California. Its work included ways and means of encouraging fiscal support and recommending to the college a program for land acquisition.
One major accomplishment was the purchase of the land on which Ratcliffe Stadium now stands. In 1925, according to its minutes, the board purchased for $35,000 "fourteen lots east of the campus [today Fresno City College] and a block northeast of the campus for an athletic field."
By 1931, the scope of the committee's interests and activities had grown enough to incorporate the organization, establishing the Foundation. Its projects and developments since then include:
Back to University Journal, 8/27/01
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