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California State Polytechnic University, Pomona Don B. Huntley College of Agriculture Records
0017
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Title: California State Polytechnic University, Pomona Don B. Huntley College of Agriculture Records
Creator:
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Don B. Huntley College of Agriculture
Identifier/Call Number: 0017
Contributing Institution:
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Special Collections and Archives
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
12.67 Linear Feet
(16 boxes)
Date (inclusive): circa 1946-2015
Abstract: The Don B. Huntley College of Agriculture is one of nine colleges at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. It is
the oldest program at Cal Poly Pomona and considered the university's founding college. The collection contains printed materials,
photographs, and audiovisual materials that document the history, operations, faculty, students, staff, and buildings of the
college.
Advance notice required for access.
Unpublished manuscripts are protected by copyright. Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository
and the copyright holder.
[Box/folder# or item name], California State Polytechnic University, Pomona Don B. Huntley College of Agriculture Records,
Collection no. 0017, University Archives, Special Collections and Archives, University Library, California State Polytechnic
University, Pomona.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The materials in the collection were gathered from University Archives files.
The Don B. Huntley College of Agriculture is one of nine colleges at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. It is
the oldest program at Cal Poly Pomona and considered the university's founding college.
The campus that would eventually become Cal Poly Pomona was established in 1938. That year, the former Voorhis School for
Boys in San Dimas, California was donated to the state by its founder automotive executive Charles B. Voorhis. Voorhis wished
that the property be used for educational purposes and the state decided to operate it as the southern satellite branch of
the California Polytechnic School in San Luis Obispo (today known as the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis
Obispo.) The new campus became known as the Voorhis Unit and when it opened its doors in September 1938 it offered only three
courses of study, all of which were agricultural: Citrus Production, Ornamental Horticulture, and Agricultural Inspection.
The Voorhis Unit closed from 1943-1946 because most of the all-male student body had been drafted to serve in World War II.
When the campus reopened in September 1946, the three original majors remained, though Agricultural Inspection had been renamed
Services and Inspection. The campus added three more agriculture majors soon after the war: Crops Production, Soil Science,
and Agricultural Engineering.
As the Agriculture program continued to grow, the California State University system received another generous gift in 1949
when cereal magnate W.K. Kellogg donated his 813-acre Arabian horse ranch located in Pomona, California. Like Voorhis, Kellogg
stipulated that the land be used for educational purposes, but also that the Arabian horse breeding program continue. The
new campus was turned over to the California State Polytechnic Colleges and the two southern campuses became known as the
Kellogg-Voorhis Unit. With the addition of a working ranch, the school was able to offer a major in Animal Husbandry.
The student body soon outgrew the smaller Voorhis campus and all instruction was moved to the Kellogg Campus in fall 1956.
In 1959, the Agriculture Division began offering degrees in Agricultural Business Management and Landscape Architecture. The
department of Foods and Nutrition was launched in 1965, and in 1966, the Division was renamed the School of Agriculture. Two
years later, the school reorganized its various areas of study into three distinct departments: Plant and Soil Science (offering
degrees in Agronomy, Fruit Industries, Soil Science, and Agricultural Biology); Ornamental Horticulture (offering degrees
in Horticulture and Park administration); and Agricultural Engineering (later renamed Landscape Irrigation Science).
In 1970, longtime dean Carl Englund resigned. At the time, there were 1155 students and eight majors in the School of Agriculture:
Agricultural Business Management, Animal Science, Foods and Nutrition, International Agriculture, Landscape Architecture,
Park Administration, Soil Science and Urban Planning. Within a year, Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning were moved
to the newly created School of Environmental Design; the departments of Agricultural Biology, Agronomy, Fruit Production,
and Soil Science were combined into a single department of Plant and Soil Science; and a new credential program in vocational
agriculture to train secondary teachers in urban agriculture was introduced. This was a fifth-year program designed to meet
what was then a shortage of agriculture teachers.
In addition to the reorganization, a new degree in Home Economics was introduced by the Department of Foods and Nutrition
in 1971. A clothing laboratory to support the Home Economics curriculum was installed and by 1975 the department had been
renamed Foods & Nutrition/Home Economics. Twenty years later, the Home Economics program was phased out and the classes spun
off into the new department of Apparel Merchandising and Management. The Foods & Nutrition Department was renamed Human Nutrition
and Food Science in 2001 and in 2015 the department celebrated its 50th anniversary.
The first building constructed for the agriculture program was the Agricultural Engineering building (Building 45), which
opened in 1960. The Agriculture building (Building 2) was completed in 1963. The Agricultural Classroom building (Building
7) was completed in 1970 and would later become the Environmental Design building.
In 1987, Cal Poly Pomona was granted permission by the California State University Chancellor's Office to rename its various
schools "colleges" and the School of Agriculture became known as the College of Agriculture. The College was renamed in 2016
in honor of alumnus and benefactor Don B. Huntley. Huntley, who graduated in 1960 with a degree in animal husbandry, is a
successful farmer, businessman, and philanthropist who pledged his $16.4 million pistachio farm to the college. Huntley also
supported the creation of the 14-acre Huntley Vineyard on the Cal Poly Pomona campus, from which the college harvests grapes
to make Horsehill Vineyards wine. Another notable gift came from actor Raymond Burr, who donated his orchid collection to
the college in the 1980s.
As of 2019, the College of Agriculture has five departments: Agribusiness & Food Industry Management/Agricultural Science,
Animal & Veterinary Sciences, Apparel Merchandising and Management, Nutrition and Food Science, and Plant Science. In addition,
there are seven centers: Agricultural Research Institute, AGRIscapes, the Apparel Technology and Research Center (ATRC), the
Center for Antimicrobial Research and Food Safety (CARFS), the Center for Turf, Irrigation and Landscape Technology (CTILT),
the Farm Store at Kellogg Ranch, and the W.K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Center.
The collection containes printed materials, photographs, and audiovisual materials that document the history, operations,
faculty, students, staff, and buildings of the Don B. Huntley College of Agriculture at California State Polytechnic University,
Pomona.
The collection is arranged into the following series: Series 1: Printed Materials; Series 2: Photographs; and Series 3: Audiovisual
Materials.
Brandenburg, Mark John.
A Follow-up Study of Individuals Receiving a Vocational Agriculture Teaching Credential from California State Polytechnic
University, Pomona.
Pomona, CA: 1983.
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. College of Agriculture.
AgriColumn: College of Agriculture Newsletter., 1994-.
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. College of Agriculture.
College of Agriculture Newsletter., 1988-1994.
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona University Archives Oral History Collection, Collection no. 0023, University
Archives, Special Collections and Archives, University Library, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.
Helmuth, Darwin Lee.
Analysis of Student Admission Data of Cal Poly, Pomona, School of Agriculture. Pomona, CA]: Helmuth, 1979.
Kenneth Haun Kitch Papers, Collection no. 0085, University Archives, Special Collections and Archives, University Library,
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.
W.K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Center Records, Collection no. 0062, W.K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library, Special Collections and
Archives, University Library, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.
The collection was processed by Alexis Adkins and Evelyn Valenzuela in 2019.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
California State Polytechnic University Pomona University - Don B. Huntley College of Agriculture