Collection Guide
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Chancellor Daniel G. Aldrich records (University of California, Irvine)
AS.001
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections and Archives, University of California, Irvine Libraries
Title: University of California, Irvine, Chancellor Daniel G. Aldrich records
Creator:
Aldrich, Daniel G.
Creator:
University of California, Irvine. Office of the Chancellor
Identifier/Call Number: AS.001
Physical Description:
25 Linear Feet
(25 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1962-1984
Physical Location: Most of the collection is stored offsite. Please contact Special Collections and Archives staff in advance of your visit so
we can arrange for retrieval of the materials.
Abstract: Daniel G. Aldrich was the founding chancellor of the University of California, Irvine. The records in this collection document
many of the professional activities he engaged in while serving as chancellor, as well as his speeches and involvement with
community organizations.
Language of Material:
English
.
The collection is available for research, except some materials in Series 1, Personal files. Unrestricted materials in this
series can be made available with advance notice upon request.
Property rights reside with the University of California. Copyrights are retained by the creators of the records and their
heirs. For permission to reproduce or to publish, please contact the University Archivist.
University of California, Irvine, Chancellor Daniel G. Aldrich records. AS-001. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine
Libraries, Irvine, California. Date accessed.
For the benefit of current and future researchers, please cite any additional information about sources consulted in this
collection, including permanent URLs, item or folder descriptions, and box/folder locations.
Transferred from the Office of the Chancellor, 1984.
Mary Ellen Goddard processed this collection in 1993. In order to facilitate access, the collection was subject to minimal
processing.
Daniel G. Aldrich was the founding chancellor of the University of California, Irvine, serving from 1962 until 1984. Aldrich's
background in agriculture and his connection with the land-grant system at the University of Rhode Island influenced his decision
to design a campus in which environmental planning and community service would be crucial. After accepting the appointment
of chancellor he set out to create a university faithful to the land-grant tradition, yet appropriate to the opportunities
and challenges of the 21st century.
Born in Northwood, New Hampshire, on July 12, 1918, Aldrich received his Bachelor of Science degree from the College of Agriculture
at the University of Rhode Island in 1939. He earned his Master's of Science degree at the University of Arizona in 1941 and
married the former Jean Hamilton. He went on to get his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin in 1943.
Aldrich began his academic career at the University of California in 1944 as a soil chemist at the Citrus Experiment Station,
now the University of California, Riverside. In 1955 he was appointed chair of the Soils departments concurrently for the
University of California, Davis and The University of California, Berkeley. In 1958 he became dean of Agriculture for the
University of California, presiding over agricultural teaching programs at Davis, Berkeley, Riverside and Los Angeles, as
well as the Statewide Agricultural Experiment Station. He was responsible for activities on four campuses, a network of field
stations, and the Agricultural Extension Service, with farm advisors and home advisors serving 56 of California's 58 counties.
When appointed to the position of founding chancellor of UC Irvine, Aldrich was given the responsibility for developing the
new campus from blueprints to fully operating academic institution within three years. He accomplished this, encouraging the
newly recruited deans and department chairs to establish academic programs that reflected new developments in intellectual
inquiry. Thus, the School of Biological Sciences pioneered in establishing departments based on levels of analysis, the School
of Social Sciences developed programs emphasizing mathematical approaches to inquiry in the social and behavioral sciences,
and the School of Humanities fostered programs in creative writing, literary criticism, and comparative literature. The young
UC Irvine campus also provided a fertile setting for the development of newly-emerging interdisciplinary programs. The campus
landscape was Aldrich's applied laboratory, a reflection of his interest and expertise in soils and plant nutrition.
Aldrich retired as UC Irvine chancellor in 1984. However, with the sudden death of the UC Riverside chancellor, he became
acting chancellor of that institution from 1984-85. He was called again from 1986-87 to become acting chancellor of UC Santa
Barbara, after which he retired, finally, and became Chancellor Emeritus of UC Irvine.
In recognition of Aldrich's key role in the planning and development of the buildings and programs of UC Irvine, the park
in the center of campus was dedicated to him and named in his honor in 1984.
Aldrich was involved in numerous civic and professional activities, receiving honorary degrees and awards from a number of
academic institutions as well as many honors in recognition of his professional activities and his contributions to service
organizations. He served on advisory committees and boards of a large number of local, national, and international organizations
and provided leadership to groups concerned with world-wide problems of agriculture and natural resources, including the President's
Agricultural Task Force to Zaire (1985).
He was also an active participant in a variety of sports, ranging from coaching Little League teams in Riverside, Davis and
Berkeley, to participating (and winning medals) in U.S. Master Track and Field Championships, Senior Olympics, and World Association
of Veteran Athletes Championships.
When Daniel Aldrich died on April 9, 1990, he had been with the University of California for 47 years.
Collection Scope and Content Summary
Daniel G. Aldrich was the founding chancellor of the University of California, Irvine. The records in this collection document
many of the professional activities he engaged in while serving as chancellor, as well as his speeches and involvement with
community organizations.
The collection contains records relating to Aldrich's his service on boards, committees and organizations in the field of
agriculture and his related work at the National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council. Also included are speeches,
personal files including recommendations, invitations, and files documenting his memberships in, and service to, a range of
organizations including the Boy Scouts, Children's Hospital of Orange County, and Big Brothers of Orange County.
Not included in this collection are correspondence files, which can be found in AS-002, the University of California, Irvine,
Chancellor Daniel G. Aldrich Correspondence Files. Additional files documenting Chancellor Aldrich's activities are located
in AS-004, the University of California, Irvine, Central Records Unit Records.
The numbers at the series level correspond to the highest level of the file plan arrangement imposed by the University of
California, Irvine's Central Records Unit based on the Central Records file plan. The Chancellor's records used an extension
of this plan, with series numbers ranging from 950 to 965.
The Chancellor's records section of the Central Records file plan has changed over the years; file plan numbers have been
deleted, added and renamed to accommodate the changing needs of the office. In this collection many file plan numbers have
no material filed under them. This material may have been discarded for some reason, or numbers may have been merged and old
numbers not deleted from the latest version of the file plan. File plan numbers with no material associated do not appear
in this guide.
There is more information about the file plan in the University of California, Irvine, Central Records Unit Records, AS.004.
Please contact the Department of Special Collections and Archives for further assistance.
The collection is arranged in the following 7 series:
- 950 Personal files, 1968-1984
- 951 Invitations, 1970-1984
- 952 Agriculture, 1962-1984
- 953 National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council, 1961-1967
- 961 Speeches, 1970-1984
- 962 Memberships, 1963-1984
- 965 Pacific School of Religion, 1972-1984
Related materials can be found in the following collections:
- AS-002 Chancellor Daniel G. Aldrich correspondence and other materials
- AS-003 Chancellor Daniel G. Aldrich professional papers
- AS-004 UCI Central Records Unit records
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Chancellors
College administrators -- California -- Irvine -- History -- Sources
University of California, Irvine -- History
Aldrich, Daniel G. -- Archives
University of California, Irvine. Office of the Chancellor -- Archives
University of California, Irvine -- Archives
University of California, Irvine -- Administration -- Archives