{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}} {{Infobox person | name = Edward Augustus Dickson | image = Edward Augustus Dickson (1879–1956).png | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1879|8|29}} | birth_place = Sheboygan, Wisconsin, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1956|2|22|1879|8|29}} | death_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S. | burial_place = Forest Lawn Memorial Park | occupation = Educator | awards = | spouse = {{Marriage|Wilhelmina de Wolff|1907}} | children = | education = University of California, Berkeley | signature = | political_party = Republican }} '''Edward Augustus Dickson''' (1879–1956) was an American journalist and politician. He served as a member of the Regents of the University of California for 43 years.<ref name="Dundjerski_Page_10">{{cite book |last1=Dundjerski |first1=Marina |title=UCLA: The First Century |date=2011 |publisher=Third Millennium Publishing |location=Los Angeles |isbn=9781906507374 |page=10 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WbLr-4QteEYC&pg=PA10}}</ref> In that capacity, he was a co-founder of the University of California, Los Angeles and earned the nickname "Godfather of UCLA".<ref name="Dundjerski_Page_10" />
==Biography==
===Early life=== Edward Augustus Dickson was born in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, on August 29, 1879.<ref name="pastleaders">{{Cite web |url=http://www.pastleaders.ucla.edu/dickson.html |title=UCLA Past Leaders |access-date=2013-08-22 |archive-date=2018-05-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180508195713/http://www.pastleaders.ucla.edu/dickson.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="spotlight">{{Cite web |url=http://www.spotlight.ucla.edu/special-guests/ed-dickson_founder/ |title=UCLA Spotlight |access-date=2013-08-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170910141804/http://www.spotlight.ucla.edu/special-guests/ed-dickson_founder/ |archive-date=2017-09-10 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="oac">[http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf9x0nb6dk/ Online Archive of California]</ref><ref name="kevin">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UaTslCOyLz0C&dq=%22Edward+Augustus+Dickson%22&pg=PA241 |title=Inventing the Dream: California Through the Progressive Era |first=Kevin |last=Starr |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=241 |date=1986 |access-date=2025-01-03 |via=Google Books}}</ref> When he was six years old, his father died and his mother moved with him and his older brother to Sacramento.<ref name="Dundjerski_Page_17">{{cite book |last1=Dundjerski |first1=Marina |title=UCLA: The First Century |date=2011 |publisher=Third Millennium Publishing |location=Los Angeles |isbn=9781906507374 |page=17 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WbLr-4QteEYC&pg=PA17}}</ref> He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1901.<ref name="pastleaders"/><ref name="spotlight"/><ref name="kevin"/>
===Career=== He taught in Japan in 1901–1902.<ref name="pastleaders"/><ref name="spotlight"/> During his time in Japan, he drafted a thesis on education that he planned to submit for admission to a Master of Education program upon his return to the United States. Unfortunately, an accident while boarding a steamship home sent his trunk and his manuscript inside to the bottom of Yokohama harbor.<ref name="Dundjerski_Page_17" />
Back in California, Dickson turned to a career in journalism.<ref name="Dundjerski_Page_17" /> He worked as a journalist for the ''Sacramento Record Union'', the ''San Francisco Chronicle'', and the ''Los Angeles Express''.<ref name="pastleaders"/><ref name="spotlight"/><ref name="oac"/> In 1919, he purchased the ''Los Angeles Express'' and became its editor.<ref name="oac"/><ref name="kevin"/>
Dickson co-founded the Lincoln–Roosevelt League, which helped elect Hiram Johnson as governor of California.<ref name="Dundjerski_Page_10" /> In 1913, Johnson tried to return the favor by offering Dickson the position of chairman of the California Railroad Commission, one of the most powerful positions in the government of California.<ref name="Dundjerski_Page_10" /> Johnson was astonished when Dickson refused to accept the appointment, and asked him, "What do you want, Dick?"<ref name="Dundjerski_Page_10" /> Dickson replied: "The only appointment that interests me is that of regent."<ref name="Dundjerski_Page_10" />
On October 25, 1917, Dickson had lunch with Ernest Carroll Moore (1871–1955) at the Jonathan Club, a private member's club in Los Angeles.<ref name="pastleaders"/><ref name="spotlight"/> Together, they decided to establish the Southern Branch in Westwood, Los Angeles, which eventually became the new campus of UCLA.<ref name="pastleaders"/><ref name="spotlight"/> He served as a regent for 43 years, until his death in 1956.<ref name="pastleaders"/><ref name="spotlight"/><ref name="oac"/> During his last eight years on the Board of Regents, he served as chair of the board.<ref name="Dundjerski_Page_17" />
He served as President of the Western Federal Savings and Loan Association from 1931 to 1956.<ref name="oac"/> He also sat on the board of directors of the Central Investment Corporation.<ref name="oac"/>
He was a member of the California Republican Party and served as a delegate to the 1932 Republican National Convention.<ref name="oac"/> He also served on the board of directors of the Olympic Games Association for the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.<ref name="oac"/> Furthermore, he was involved with the Los Angeles Art Association, the Los Angeles County Art Institute and the UCLA Art Council.<ref name="oac"/> He was featured in ''Who's Who in America''.<ref name="oac"/>
===Personal life=== He married Wilhelmina de Wolff in 1907.<ref name="oac"/>
===Death=== He died at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles on February 22, 1956, at the age of seventy-six, and was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park.<ref name="pastleaders"/><ref name="spotlight"/><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-e-a-dickson-ucl/162205665/ |title=E. A. Dickson, UCLA 'Godfather,' Dies |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |pages=39, [https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-e-a-dickson-ucl/162205713/ 68] |date=1956-02-23 |access-date=2025-01-03 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
===Legacy===
After his death, UCLA honored Dickson by naming two of the largest open spaces on campus after him.<ref name="Dundjerski_Page_17" /> UCLA's main campus quadrangle is known as Dickson Plaza.<ref name="Dundjerski_Page_17" /> The area immediately to the east, including the entire open space between Perloff and Schoenberg Halls and a bridge over a now-filled arroyo, is known as Dickson Court.<ref name="Dundjerski_Page_17" />
==Bibliography== * Dickson, ''The University of California at Los Angeles: Its Origin and Formative Years'' (1955)
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dickson, Edward Augustus}} Category:1879 births Category:1956 deaths Category:People from Sheboygan, Wisconsin Category:Academics from Los Angeles Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni Category:University of California, Los Angeles faculty Category:California Republicans Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)