William B. Langsdorf

William B. Langsdorf (October 23, 1909 – November 18, 2002) was the founding president of California State University, Fullerton (then known as Orange County State College).

William B. Langsdorf (1909-2002) was born in Denver, CO but grew up in Pasadena, CA. He completed his B.A. and M.A. degrees at Occidental College and his Ph.D. in history at the University of California, Berkeley. He taught history at Occidental for several years before becoming an administrator at Pasadena City College. He served as assistant principal at Pasadena City College from 1939 to 1950 and then as principal (president) from 1950 to 1959. At the time Langsdorf accepted the appointment as the first president of Orange County State College (January 19, 1959), the institution existed in name only. It had no campus, faculty, administration, or staff.

Langsdorf faced a number of challenges when he accepted the appointment as the first president of Orange County State College (later to become California State University, Fullerton). These included finding temporary quarters to house the administrative offices of the new college, as well as finding people to fill the administrative positions. Temporary quarters also had to be found to house the soon to be hired faculty, and the first classes to be offered by the college. A 228-acre tract of land in the northeast corner of the city of Fullerton had been identified for the permanent campus; however, title to various portions of the land was held by several different owners. It would take close to two years before the state could acquire all of this land for the campus.

Langsdorf was able to obtain the use of one floor of an old building owned by the local community college, Fullerton College, that had been moved to the campus of Fullerton High School to house the administrative offices. He also was able to obtain an agreement to use space at the recently opened Sunny Hills High School campus in north-west Fullerton to house faculty and classes until temporary buildings could be constructed at the permanent campus site.

Langsdorf quickly recruited an administrative staff that included Executive Dean Dr. Stuart McComb who had been Superintendent of the Pico Rivera School District, Dean of Instruction Dr. Gerhard Ehmann who had been president of Glendale Community College, Finance Officer Jack Lyons from the San Francisco State College Foundation, Dean of Students Dr. Earnest A. Becker from Pasadena City College, and Librarian Dr. Earnest Toy, Jr. from Riverside City College.

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