Jordan College History: Eugene Egan named first Dean

- Dr. Dennis Nef, Dean Emeritus

(January 2023) -- As we celebrate 100 years of agriculture at Fresno State, you might be interested to know the role played by the first Dean.

Eugene Egan was appointed to the position in 1947 and immediately set about expanding the number of faculty after he was recruited from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. He was hired based on his experience with the President there (where he served as Dean of Student Welfare), as well as his work with the university foundation, the project program and with curriculum.

Among those he hired in his first year were George Ilg, Robert Selkirk, Robert Glim, Edmund Ragle, Ed Rousek, Vincent Petrucci, Jess Bell, Fred Roullard (who was part of the 1922 founding faculty but had recently retired as the Fresno County Ag Commissioner) and Lloyd Dowler. Of these nine, seven were still around when I joined the faculty in 1983.

Dean Egan’s hiring plan was interesting. He wrote “It is difficult to secure competent instructors carrying both the minimum in educational requirements and the maximum in agricultural experience. For a number of positions on the agricultural staff at Fresno State College, farming experience, in addition to the baccalaureate degree, is more important than additional degrees.”

Recognize that at the time these hires occurred, only an associate's degree was offered and training in agriculture was very much a vocational one. In addition to hiring faculty, the dean developed a farm operations plan and moved forward with an ambitious building plan at Hammer Field. He also pushed the development of a new curriculum. With faculty support, the courses and curriculum needed to support a bachelor’s degree were put in place and approval for a bachelor's degree was obtained. It was first offered in 1949-1950.

While Egan made huge strides, by 1951, he felt the state was not as supportive as it could be. Tiring of the “red tape” he resigned to take a position at Producers Cotton Oil.