McLean, Hulda Hoover, 1906-

Hulda Hoover McLean (b. 1906), author of Genealogy of the Herbert Hoover Family (1967) and Uncle Bert, A Biographical Portrait of Herbert Hoover (1974), is the niece of Herbert Hoover.

Niece of Herbert Hoover.

Biographical/Historical Note

Niece of Herbert Hoover.

Biography

Hulda Hoover McLean was born in 1906 in Palo Alto, California, the daughter of Theodore Jesse Hoover and Mildred Crew Brooke. She spent her childhood in London, and then in 1914 moved with her family to Waddell Valley, just north of Davenport in northern Santa Cruz County, California.

In 1898 her father had fallen in love with the Waddell Valley while on a surveying trip as a student at Stanford University. After graduating from Stanford, he went to London to work as a mining engineer with his brother, (the future President) Herbert H. Hoover. The mining business prospered and in 1913 he bought property in the Waddell Valley, naming it Rancho del Oso. It was there that Hulda McLean grew up and where generations of her family have grown and prospered. In 1974, Mrs. McLean and her sister sold a major portion of their inheritence to the State Parks system to be added to Big Basin Redwoods State Park. With the acquisition of the Hoover ranch, park visitors can now hike literally from the "Skyline to the Sea," following a trail all the way from the summit of the Santa Cruz Mountains down to the Pacific Ocean. In 1984, a combination gift/purchase of the Charles and Hulda McLean house and surrounding acreage provided the facility for the Rancho del Oso Nature and History Center.

Hulda married Charles Alexander McLean, Jr. in 1925 at Stanford. After a year of study at McGill University in Canada, the couple returned to California and in 1927 both graduated from Stanford in Political Science. Charles went to work as an assistant secretary to the State Senate and Hulda started to work in community organizations interested in good government. The early years of their married life were spent in Pasadena, where their three sons, Charles Jr., Allan, and Robertson were born. In 1943, a couple of years after the death of her mother, the McLean family moved back to Rancho del Oso to help her father run the farm.

Hulda McLean served on the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors for two terms. "Every time I tried to get anything done," Mrs. McLean says, "I ran into the Board of Supervisors. So I decided to run for the Board myself." She was defeated in 1950, but was elected in 1956 to fill out an unexpired term and then re-elected in 1958.

During her time on the Board of Supervisors, several important things were accomplished. The county wage scale was brought up to standard and they were able to get rid of the "fire-trap" that passed for the old people's home. They codified the county ordinances, which had never been gathered together but left in the minutes and reports. While reviewing them, the Board rescinded many outdated ones. They also were able to persuade the County treasurer to invest county funds instead of keeping them all in savings, and abolish the industrial zoning which then existed for a hundred feet in depth back from all county roads. A major goal of Mrs. McLean, the building of an adequate Juvenile Hall, was slow in coming. The three major projects of the Board during her time in office were the establishment of the new University of California campus in Santa Cruz, drawing up a desparately needed County Master Plan, and building a new County Courthouse to consolidate county judicial and administrative business.

Over the years, Mrs. McLean was a member of Governor Earl Warren's State Tax Committee and worked with the California Tax Conference. In addition to serving two terms as Santa Cruz County Supervisor for Seaside district, she was at various times President of the California Council on Children and Youth, state president of the California League of Women Voters and manager of the California Farm Bureau. Locally, she helped organize the Health Council and the Youth Committee and served on the boards of the Tuberculosis and Health Association, the Farm Bureau, the American Association of University Women, the Business and Professional Women Organization, and the Art League. She also worked as a member of Red Cross, the Community Chest, the Chamber of Commerce, the Native Daughters of California, the P.T.A., the Y.W.C.A., the Civic Music Association, the Garfield Park Improvement Club, the Senior Citizens, the Garden Club, the Davenport Improvement Club, and the Monterey Bay Underwriter's Association, among others!

Today, at the age of 96, Hulda McLean is vice president of the Waddell Creek Association, and coordinates the volunteers at the ranger station. She is also an accomplished artist and writer, currently working on her authobiography. She was recently named Farmer of the Year by the Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau.