The death last week of former University of California system president and UC Irvine chancellor Jack W. Peltason at 91 elicited warm memories of the modest political scientist who achieved high positions in American academia without losing his sense of humor. He also was known for his role in helping to build new university campuses from scratch and growing them to maturity. At UC Irvine, which accepted its first students in 1965, Peltason hired many of its first faculty and later directed a massive expansion of the campus and its programs. Then, during his three-year UC system presidency, Peltason oversaw the difficult off-again, on-again search effort that in 1995 selected Merced as the site for UC's 10th campus; 10 years later, despite environmental and money problems, UC Merced opened.

March 25, 2015 ・ From Los Angeles Times