University of California, Santa Barbara. Office of the Chancellor

Biography / Administrative History

Biographical information from the University of California History Digital Archives, http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/uchistory/index.html .

Chief Campus Officers. Santa Barbara State College was under the supervision of a president, but in 1944, when it became a campus of the University, the title of the chief executive was changed to provost. In September of 1958, the Regents established Santa Barbara as a general University campus and at that time the official title of the chief campus officer became "chancellor."

Clarence L. Phelps. President, Santa Barbara State Normal School, 1918-1935; President, Santa Barbara State College, 1935-1944; Provost, Santa Barbara College of the University of California, 1944-1946. Born in Kentucky in 1881, came west for his college education, earning his A.B. and M.A. degrees at Stanford University. He fulfilled all course requirements for the Ph.D. degree, including the publication of his dissertation, but residence requirements prevented the granting of the degree. Before coming to Santa Barbara, he was on the faculties of teachers colleges at San Jose, Tempe (Arizona), San Diego, and Fresno. In 1918, he became president of Santa Barbara State Normal School of Manual Arts and Home Economics and in 1944 was appointed the first provost when the campus (then known as Santa Barbara State College) became a part of the University system, retiring from that position in 1946. He died in Santa Barbara on May 7 1964, at the age of 83. See also the box on Phelps in University Archives, History and Events.

J. Harold Williams. Acting provost 1946-1950; provost from 1950-1955. Earned his A.B., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees at Stanford University. He was director of the California Bureau of Research from 1915-1923, then joined the faculty at UCLA as lecturer. Dr. Williams advanced to a professorship in 1929 and became director of the Summer Sessions on the Los Angeles campus in 1936. He came to Santa Barbara in 1946 to take up the duties of acting provost. Acquisition of the Goleta site and preparation of a physical master plan for a 3,500-student campus were among his accomplishments. In 1955, he was appointed coordinator of Summer Sessions on a University-wide basis with headquarters on the Los Angeles campus. No Chancellor's records thus far found for Williams; see the Office of Public Information Biographical Files, UArch 11.

Clark G. Kuebler. Provost, 1955. Received his A.B. degree at Northwestern University and the Ph.D. degree at the University of Chicago. He was in the classics department of Northwestern from 1930-43, and served as president of Ripon College, Wisconsin, from 1943-55 before coming to the Santa Barbara campus in February of 1955. After a short tenure as provost, Dr. Kuebler resigned the position in November, 1955, and later entered private business.

John C. Snidecor. Acting Provost, Feb-June 1956. Received his A.B. degree from the University (Berkeley) and earned his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Iowa. He joined the Santa Barbara faculty in 1940. Following service with the Navy in World War II, Dr. Snidecor became a dean of the Division of Applied Arts in 1948 and continued in that post (except for the five months spent as acting provost) until July, 1960, when he resumed his full-time responsibilities in teaching and research. No Chancellor's records thus far found for Snidecor; see the Office of Public Information Biographical Files, UArch 11.

Elmer R. Noble. Acting Provost, 1956-1958; Acting Chief Campus Officer, 1958-1959. Received his A.B., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees from the University (Berkeley) before joining the faculty at Santa Barbara in 1936. He became dean of letters and science in 1955. In July of 1956, he was appointed acting provost of the campus and served as such until September, 1958, when he was made vice-chancellor and acting chief campus officer, a position he held until June, 1959. Dr. Noble then became vice-chancellor--graduate affairs, continuing until 1961 when he resumed full-time teaching and research. No Chancellor's records thus far found for Noble; see the Office of Public Information Biographical Files, UArch 11.

Samuel B. Gould. Chancellor 1959-1962. First chancellor of the Santa Barbara campus; was born in New York City on August 11, 1910. He received his A.B. degree from Bates College (1930) and his M.A. degree from New York University (1936). During World War II he served as an officer in the Navy. Dr. Gould was president of Antioch College for five years and on the faculty of Boston University for six years before coming to Santa Barbara to serve as chancellor from 1959-1962.

Vernon I. Cheadle. Chancellor, 1962-1977. Received his A.B. degree from Miami University, Ohio, and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University. Prior to coming to California, he was on the faculty of Rhode Island University, which included a decade of service as head of the botany department and director of the graduate division. During ten years of service as professor of botany on the Davis campus, he also served as chairman of his department for eight years and in 1961-1962 was acting chancellor. Dr. Cheadle came to the Santa Barbara campus as chancellor in 1962, at a time when enrollment was beginning a series of increases unprecedented in the history of the campus. See also Cheadle's faculty papers relating to his service as a professor, FacP 22.

Robert A. Huttenback. Chancellor, 1977-1986. A 1951 graduate of UCLA; received his Ph.D. from the same campus in 1959. He spent the 1956-1957 academic year on a Fulbright Fellowship at the University of London in the School of Oriental and African Studies. The following year, he was awarded a Ford grant to study and travel in India. Joined the faculty at the California Institute of Technology in 1958; served as chairman of the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences from 1972 until his appointment as chancellor of Santa Barbara in 1977.

Daniel G. Aldrich, Jr. Interim Chancellor, 1986-1987. First chancellor of the Irvine campus in 1962; left in 1984 and was appointed acting chancellor at Riverside following Chancellor Rivera's death. He later served as interim chancellor at Santa Barbara from 1986-1987. He died in 1990.

Barbara S. Uehling. Chancellor, 1987-1994. Provost of the University of Oklahoma-Norman; Chancellor of the University of Missouri at Columbia; then senior visiting fellow of the American Council of Education in Washington, D.C. Became chancellor at Santa Barbara in 1987 and served until 1994.

Henry T. Yang. Chancellor, 1994 - . Formerly the Neil A. Armstrong Distinguished Professor of Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering at Purdue University, where he also served as the Dean of engineering for ten years. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He has received many awards and honors for his research, teaching, and service, including an honorary doctorate from Purdue University and the Benjamin Garver Lamme gold medal, the highest honor from the American Society of Engineering.

From the guide to the University of California, Santa Barbara, Office of the Chancellor, Chancellors' Records, ca. 1904-2003, 1962-1977, (University of California, Santa Barbara. Library. Dept. of Special Collections)