Tony Greeley
The historical path commenced by Clarence W. Pierce begins with some Quonset huts set upon a relatively empty plot of ground. It develops into a small agricultural farm school and culminates in a full-fledged academic college complete with farms, ranches and a rodeo stadium.
It boasts a highly reputable drama and arts department, full academic curriculum, botanical garden, athletic programs and facilities, a child care center and much more, all set against the mountains and hills of San Fernando Valley.
None of it would be complete without a history of the college presidents who helped this institution develop and thrive.
Now that Pierce College is getting ready to put out the call for another president to fill its chair, a presidential picture wall is being developed to commemorate the Pierce legacy.
Looking back to 1947, a question arises in reviewing the succession of brief terms of office from 1985 to the present. On average, time in office breaks down to three years or less. Prior to this, the time in office ranged from five to 10 years for five men and one woman serving full-time.
“It’s hard to identify because each president is or was unique,” said Dr. Herbert Ravetch, president from 1979 to 1985 and a veteran of the college as both president and faculty member. “Each incoming president automatically enrolls in an 18-unit course, Pierce College.”
The first year for the campus leader involves going to each collegiate unit and familiarizing oneself with everything from academic departments, to athletic programs, student aid, childcare, storage, computer systems and campus security, not to mention the vast agricultural sector with its own maintenance and administrative issues, according to Ravetch. Year two is spent sorting this out.
By the the third year, the administrator begins to fully function in the role of president. Judging from the brevity of terms of office served during the last 20 years, the period of time that plays itself out before the new president is able to assume full control has been extended by only one candidate.
Let’s look at some of the earlier presidents first, for perspective. Edwin Angier served first from 1947 to 1955.
Under his administration, the Quonset hut scenario remained in place until 1955 when John Shepard stepped in. “The Early History of Los Angeles Pierce College: Its Genesis, Foundation and Transition,” a doctoral thesis from 1965 by former faculty member Robert Morris McHargue, discusses Shepard’s administrative capabilities.
He was reportedly very astute in communicating his
vision to the business and academic centers. He was able to engage people in supporting and implementing his ideas and instituted the practice of allowing the faculty members to participate in decision-making during a transformation process.
Nevertheless, said Ravetch, Shepard “had to work very
hard to convince the school board to re-establish and develop the new Pierce College.” It paid off.
“All of the dwellings still there from that time are the results of Shepard’s efforts,” Ravetch said.
Ravetch, a colleague of Shepard’s and was given his first job as a teacher at Pierce by Shepard himself, characterizes his employer as a man “who spoke very, very slowly. It took him a long time to cover his points … he was a deeply resolute individual and a man who always got the job done.”
He notes an incident that illustrates the open-minded and essentially democratic nature of his colleague.
During a scheduled speaking event sponsored by the West Valley Forum, an organization funded by the student body, a picket line had formed outside the auditorium where Ravetch had asked the highly controversial writer and speaker Carey McWilliams to appear.
This was the early ’60s and picketers were resolute in efforts to block McWilliams from taking the podium.
McWilliams was known for his concern with social issues like “farm labor, water rights, immigration and racial prejudice” according to the California Journal.
He had worked for Culbert Olsen, California’s first Democratic governor and wrote extensively about the socio-political history of California.
Shepard defended McWilliams’s right to be heard, declaring that the West Valley Forum was open to all points of view and that all who came to speak should have their say.
Marie Martin, president from 1965 to 1970, was the first woman in southern California to be elected president of a college. Martin grew up with a rural grass roots yet sophisticated background, very direct and with an iron will concealed by an elegant exterior.
Martin, whom Ravetch characterizes as “a silver-tongued orator…a tiny, petite woman about 5’1″ and weighing about 110 lbs.” and who gave Ravetch his first administrative position, “had enormous personal strength and a feisty nature. You always knew where she stood.”
Like Shepard, Martin had strong democratic ideals. During the late ’60s when Pierce, like many another college campuses, was boiling over the Vietnam War, got her chance to demonstrate these views.
Marchers decided to head down to the campus quad with the intention of pulling down the American flag. Martin’s assertion that the flag was “the symbol of the freedom and the right you have to protest” led her to cross swords with the school board.
She was given a job downtown where she gained the notice of people in Washington and was later appointed director of community college education for the entire United States. Martin died in West Hills of natural causes on Oct. 3, 2004. She was 96.
Ravetch, who was the founding president of Mission College and was there between 1975 and 1979, returned to Pierce in 1979 to serve as president for the next six years. He had been at Pierce previously as an associate professor of English between 1958 and 1970.
While at still at Mission he hired an assistant dean, David Wolf, who later became Pierce’s next president when Ravetch left office in 1985.
Wolf was in office for the next three years and had worked various assignments at different colleges before coming to Pierce.
His final assignment, before he retired two years ago, was executive director of Western Schools and Colleges, what Ravetch refers to as “a massive job.”
In the years between 1970 and 1979, that is, between the administrations of Martin and Ravetch, there were three men who held the office of president: Jack Nicklin, (acting, 1970 to 1973), Edward Liston (1973 to 1978) and Edward Robings (acting, 1978 to 1979).
Jean Loucks had two assignments as acting president from October 1988 to February 1989 and from March to May 1989. Between these two terms, she was dean of instruction at Pierce.
Six presidents served till Darroch “Rocky” Young (June 1999 to January 2004) became the most effective individual in this office in many years.
According to Ravetch, Young was able to “expand enrollment, which had dropped from 23,000 to 10,000 by the time he came aboard, to approximately 18,000.
Tom Oliver, current acting president since Young left office to become chancellor of the Los Angeles Community College District, was a faculty member, computer science department chair, owned his own computer firm, was dean of instruction and acting president at Mission College, then repeated the same path here at Pierce College.
Ravetch describes him as “the expert on computer education.”