• printer friendly
• mail this article
• iPod format
• digg

Past UCLA Leaders

---

2006-2007

---

Abrams was made acting chancellor on July 1, 2006. He has been involved at UCLA since 1959. Prior to his position as acting chancellor, he served as a professor and then dean at the UCLA School of Law and then vice chancellor of the university. He is a Chicago native who received his A.B. and J.D. from the University of Chicago.

1997-2006

---

Carnesale came to UCLA in 1997 after 23 years at Harvard. He helped raise $3 billion for the university, and research funding awarded to the university through contracts and grants doubled during his time as chancellor. During his tenure, many important programs at UCLA were launched, including the California NanoSystems Institute and the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine.

1968-1997

---

Young became chancellor at the age of 36 and led the university for 29 years, during which time he helped develop it into the prestigious, top-rate research university it is today. Young himself was a UC student, entering UC Riverside as a transfer, where he acted as student body president and graduated with honors. He then came to UCLA, pursuing his doctoral studies in political science. Prior to his appointment as chancellor, he served the university as an administrator and political science professor.

1960-1968

---

Murphy came to UCLA in 1960 after almost a decade as chancellor of the University of Kansas. Murphy revamped UCLA academics, turning the College of Applied Arts into the College of Fine Arts and developing a program of interdisciplinary institutes and study centers. The School of Library Service and the School of Architecture and Urban Planning were also established during his tenure.

1959-1960

---

Knudsen, a renowned physicist at UCLA at the time, was appointed as chancellor when he was just one year away from retirement. He played an important part in the establishment of graduate programs at UCLA. Before coming to the university as an administrator in 1934, he specialized in acoustics and helped design Hollywood sound stages and did research on submarine warfare for the U.S. Navy.

1952-1959

---

Allen was the first head of UCLA to receive the title of chancellor (an academic and administrative title) instead of provost (an academic title). He was trained as a doctor and worked in medical administration before coming to UCLA, which made him well-suited to help develop the UCLA Medical Center and the Schools of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing. Allen resigned amid scandal regarding under-the-table payments to football players throughout the Pacific Coast Conference.

1945-1950

---

Dykstra had taught political science at UCLA from 1922 to 1930, and 15 years later he returned to lead the university. UCLA was divided into two campuses at the time, and Dykstra was instrumental in developing the Westwood campus and creating on-campus housing for students. The first dorm was completed after his death in 1950 but was named Dykstra Hall in his honor.

1937-1942

---

Hedrick taught mathematics at UCLA for 13 years prior to his appointment to the head of the university in 1937. He received his bachelor’s degree by age 17 and his doctorate by age 20. He worked as author and editor of many articles and textbooks about mathematics and had 10 children, four of whom attended UCLA. Hedrick died in 1943.

1919-1936

---

Moore was one of the cofounders of the Southern Branch of the University of California in 1919, which became UCLA in 1927. He held professorships in education at both Yale and Harvard before coming to California in 1917. He taught at UCLA for five years after leaving his administrative position and continued to be involved in the university, living nearby. He died in 1955 at the age of 83, leaving his personal library to the university.

When Gene Block moved into the Chancellor’s Residence on campus earlier this month, he brought his broken radios with him.

He filled the house – one in the study, another in his bedroom, boxes full in the garage.

He buys them on eBay and, one by one, he fixes them.

“That’s his dream when he retires: to get the ones that aren’t working, working again,” said the chancellor’s wife, Carol Block.

Since moving into the Chancellor’s Residence – located on campus behind the Broad Art Center – the Blocks have used their broken radios and other quirky decorative items to personalize a residence that can often feel more like a banquet hall than a home. Each year, roughly 3,000 visitors flock to events on the mansion’s grounds.

Despite the couple’s efforts, the move to Los Angeles from Charlottesville, Va. – a small Southern college town they called home for nearly 30 years – has been trying.

And it’s clear the Blocks still have Virginia on their minds.

While speaking at a recent donor event on campus, Block marked his first major gaffe as chancellor, introducing Arnold Schwarzenegger as the governor of Virginia.

And Carol Block, in a recent interview at the residence, spoke longingly – and often – of Virginia, such as while discussing their new home’s dark oak floors:

“The University of Virginia house was all pine,” she said with a sigh. “It’s a much softer wood.”

Or while admiring the bricks that compose the home’s facade:

“Southern brick is wider and shorter.”

Living with the chancellor

Chancellor Block is not your typical campus roommate.

“He’s actually really good at picking up after himself,” Carol Block said.

That means beds made, dishes washed and magazines (mostly Consumer Reports) always in a neat stack by the toilet.

The same discipline applies to the biologist’s daily schedule.

Gene Block’s typical day starts at 5:30 a.m., when he wakes up for a jog on the basement treadmill and a set of sit-ups.

“By the time I come down, coffee’s ready,” Carol Block said.

In the evening, when the chancellor returns from his office in Murphy Hall, she will often have dinner ready.

But on nights when they’re both too tired to cook, the Blocks will venture into the Village, where they’ve already tried a number of Westwood eateries, “places that look different, places that don’t take reservations,” Carol Block said.

After a cup of coffee on their upstairs balcony or underneath the palm trees that line the pool, the chancellor often goes upstairs to his home office, where he reads and “plays catch-up” on the day’s tasks, she said.

A historic residence

While the UCLA Chancellor’s Residence may not have been designed and lived in by Thomas Jefferson – as the Blocks’ home at the University of Virginia was – the home is historic by West Coast standards.

Nearly eight decades old, the two-story house is modeled in the same Italian Romanesque style and with the same skinny red bricks as Royce Hall and some of the other signature buildings on campus.

Before it became mandatory for chancellors to live in the residence, just one campus executive – Earle Hedrick – opted against moving in. The three-bedroom home was simply too small to house his wife and 10 children.

Past chancellors have played host to an impressive group of high profile figures, such as Albert Einstein, poet Robert Frost and three U.S. presidents.

“It’s a venue; it’s a public venue,” Carol Block said. “It’s really a setting to meet all aspects of the university community.”

The walls downstairs are covered in art on loan from the UCLA Hammer Museum’s collection.

The Blocks are currently in the process of picking out pieces that suit their personal style – mainly Asian and Australian aboriginal art.

One piece they won’t be replacing is a stunning Andy Warhol original that hangs in the main library.

Part of the eccentric artist’s series featuring some of the late 20th century’s most iconic athletes, the work is a powder blue and orange portrait of a wide-eyed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar holding a basketball against his face.

The portrait of the former UCLA basketball great “really just makes people stop and say, ‘Wow,’” Carol Block said.

“I met Kareem at a UCLA event recently and I said, ‘Oh, I see you every day.’”