{{Short description|American academic administrator (1907-2005)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Ralph Prator | image = | image_size = | image_upright = | alt = | caption = | office = 1st President of San Fernando Valley State College | term_start = 1958 | term_end = 1968 | predecessor = ''Office established'' | successor = James W. Cleary | prior_term = | office2 = 2nd President of Bakersfield College | term_start2 = August 1950 | term_end2 = 1958 | predecessor2 = Grace Van Dyke Bird | successor2 = Ed Simonsen | alma_mater = University of Colorado Boulder (BA, MA)<br>University of California, Berkeley (EdD) | profession = College administrator | spouse = Lois (d. 1996) | children = 3 | birth_date = {{birth date|1907|11|16}} | birth_place = La Veta, Colorado, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2005|7|25|1907|11|16|mf=y}} | death_place = Camarillo, California, U.S. }} '''Ralph Prator''' (November 16, 1907 – July 25, 2005)<ref name=Prator2005>{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-jul-27-me-prator27-story.html|title=Ralph Prator, 97; Founding President of Campus That Became Cal State Northridge|last=Stassel|first=Stephanie|website=Los Angeles Times |date=27 July 2005}}</ref> was an American college administrator. He served as the first president of San Fernando Valley State College (now known as California State University, Northridge) from 1958 to 1968.
==Academic career== Prator received bachelor's and master's degrees in history from the University of Colorado Boulder, and his Ed.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.<ref name=Prator2005 /> He briefly played minor league professional baseball with the St. Louis Cardinals farm system.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->| date=April 6, 1958 |title= Valley State Prexy Started as Ballplayer |work=Los Angeles Times |location=pg. SF9 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/167248893/ |access-date=November 18, 2024 }}</ref> He was a high school principal in Colorado and later became dean of men and athletic director at Mesa College (now Colorado Mesa University).<ref name=Prator2005 /> Prator served as an administrator at the University of Colorado beginning in 1940,<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->| date=July 27, 2005 |title= CSUN Founder Prator Dead |work=Daily News of Los Angeles |location=pg. N14 }}</ref> but interrupted his academic career to serve in the United States Navy during World War II.<ref name=Prator2005 /> He was hired as the President of Bakersfield College in 1950,<ref>{{cite news |last= Douglas |first=Theo |date=October 18, 2013 |title= BC at 100: Truly Bakersfield's College|work=Bakersfield Californian }}</ref> and in 1958 he became the inaugural President of California State University, Northridge (then San Fernando Valley State College).<ref>{{cite news |last= Callero |first=Chester |date=May 3, 1959 |title= Dr. Ralph Prator to Be Inaugurated as Valley State's First President: Valley State College to Be Formally Instituted|work=Los Angeles Times |location=pg. SF1 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/167519402/ |access-date=November 18, 2024 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->| date=May 8, 1959 |title= Dr. Prator Installed as President of College: San Fernando Valley State Institution Hailed as Potential Leader in Nation |work=Los Angeles Times |location=pg. SF1 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/167403283/ |access-date=November 18, 2024 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Gerth |first=Donald |date=2010 |title=The People's University: A History of the California State University |location=Berkeley, CA |publisher=Berkeley Public Policy Press |page=57 |isbn=978-0-87772-435-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/peoplesuniversit0000gert |access-date=November 18, 2024}}</ref> Prator served in this role until stepping down from the presidency in 1968,<ref name=Prator2005 /><ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|date=December 5, 1967 |title= Prator, Valley State College Head, Will Resign Next Fall|work=Los Angeles Times |location=pg. SF1 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/155760632/ |access-date=November 18, 2024 }}</ref> teaching six more years as a professor of education until his retirement in 1974.<ref name=Prator2005 /> Prator was succeeded in his role as president by James W. Cleary.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->| date=March 7, 1969 |title= Heads San Fernando State |work=New York Times|location=pg. 18 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/118696295/ |access-date=November 18, 2024 }}</ref> In addition, he was involved in various community organizations in Los Angeles after he resigned from the San Fernando Valley State College presidency.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->| date=June 7, 1970 |title= Dr. Prator Heads City Development Assn. |work=Los Angeles Times |location=pg. J2 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/156486230/ |access-date=November 18, 2024 }}</ref>
==Impact==
Prator presided over tremendous growth while president at both Bakersfield College and San Fernando Valley State College.<ref>{{cite news |last= Hinch |first=Charles |date=May 9, 1963 |title= College Prepares for Huge Student Influx: Enrollment of 30,000 Seen at Northridge by Mid-'70s|work=Los Angeles Times |location=pg. G1 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/168319079/ |access-date=November 18, 2024 }}</ref> He supervised the construction of more than a dozen buildings at Bakersfield College and nine buildings at San Fernando Valley State College.<ref name=Prator2005 /><ref name=Fanucchi1967>{{cite news |last= Fanucchi |first=Ken |date=December 10, 1967 |title= Building College Campuses Ends for VSC Prexy |work=Los Angeles Times |location=pg. SF_A1 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/155783096/ |access-date=November 18, 2024 }}</ref> Faculty increased from 100 to 600 during Prator's tenure, and student enrollment grew from 3,500 to 16,000,<ref name=Prator2005 /> although there were occasional barriers to campus growth.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->| date=June 9, 1962 |title=Defeat of Proposition Hits College's Growth |work=Los Angeles Times |location=pg. D8 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/168024751/ |access-date=November 18, 2024 }}</ref> Prator worked toward increasing the number of faculty<ref>{{cite news |last= Chiang |first=Sharline |date=September 27, 1998 |title= CSUN Founders Together Again|work=Daily News of Los Angeles|location=pg. N4 }}</ref>—and their salaries—but was frustrated in his efforts.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->| date=July 21, 1963 |title= VSC Prexy Urges Teachers Pay Rise: Prator Says Low Salary Level Causes Procurement Problems |work=Los Angeles Times |location=pg. SF1 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/168381134/ |access-date=November 20, 2024 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last= Estes |first=William |date=March 28, 1965 |title=Faculty Said Demoralized Over Salaries: President Claims Situation Critical at Valley State|work=Los Angeles Times |location=pg. SF_A1 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/155142039/ |access-date=November 20, 2024}}</ref> He was one of the few presidents in the California State College system who supported a statewide faculty senate in 1962.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gerth |first=Donald |date=2010 |title=The People's University: A History of the California State University |location=Berkeley, CA |publisher=Berkeley Public Policy Press |page=142 |isbn=978-0-87772-435-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/peoplesuniversit0000gert |access-date=November 20, 2024}}</ref> As a former director of admissions at the University of Colorado, Prator was appointed to the California Master Plan for Higher Education Committee on Selection and Retention of Students, and it was in this role that he opposed a "college preparatory curriculum for the state colleges."<ref>{{cite book |last=Gerth |first=Donald |date=2010 |title=The People's University: A History of the California State University |location=Berkeley, CA |publisher=Berkeley Public Policy Press |page=325 |isbn=978-0-87772-435-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/peoplesuniversit0000gert |access-date=November 20, 2024}}</ref> Toward the end of Prator's tenure as president, student activism greatly increased, and Prator began to find himself the target of public student protests,<ref name=Fanucchi1967 /><ref>{{cite news |last1= Fanucchi |first1=Ken |last2= Bernstein|first2=Sid |date=May 29, 1967 |title=9 Students Await Antidraft Hearings|work=Los Angeles Times |location=pg. SF7 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/155665904/ |access-date=November 20, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last= Fanucchi |first=Ken |date=May 30, 1967 |title= Nine Suspended Students Permitted to Attend Class: Ruling Marks Major Change in VSC Policy|work=Los Angeles Times |location=pg. SF8 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/155628555/ |access-date=November 20, 2024 }}</ref><ref>{{cite thesis |type=PhD |last=deGuzman |first=Jean-Paul |date=2014 |title="And Make the San Fernando Valley My Home:" Contested Spaces, Identities, and Activism on the Edge of Los Angeles |publisher=University of California, Los Angeles |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2064f4fm |access-date=November 20, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last= Fanucchi |first=Ken |date=June 13, 1967 |title=Student Demonstrator Expelled: Valley State Expels One, Suspends Two|work=Los Angeles Times |location=pg. SF7 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/155716555/ |access-date=November 20, 2024 }}</ref> the most extreme of which came after his resignation.<ref>{{cite thesis |type=PhD |last=Moreno |first=Joseph Gomez |date=2015 |title=The Chicana/o studies movement on campus: Popular protest, radicalism, and activism, 1968-1980 |publisher=Michigan State University |url=https://d.lib.msu.edu/etd/3453 |access-date=November 20, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->| date=November 17, 1968 |title=Ex-Valley State President Likes New Role |work=Los Angeles Times |location=pg. SF_B1 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/156004637/ |access-date=November 20, 2024 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last= Greenwood |first=Leonard |date=February 15, 1969 |title=New Acting President Named at Valley State|work=Los Angeles Times |location=pg. B1 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/156069277/ |access-date=November 20, 2024}}</ref> His initial response to student unrest was optimistic,<ref>{{cite news |last= Estes |first=William |date=June 2, 1965 |title= College Prexy Voices Optimism in Current Generation of Youth|work=Los Angeles Times |location=pg. SF8 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/155181004/ |access-date=November 20, 2024 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last= Garrigues |first=George |date=September 26, 1965 |title=VSC Striving for Harmony: President Acts to Give Students Bigger Role VSC President Acts to Avoid Future Trouble|work=Los Angeles Times |location=pg. SF_A1 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/155288140/ |access-date=November 20, 2024 }}</ref> but the continuing unrest in the late 1960s eventually led him to retreat to the teaching ranks.<ref name=Fanucchi1967 />
==Personal life== Prator was married to Lois Prator until her death in 1996. They had three children together. Prator died on July 25, 2005, in Camarillo, California.<ref name=Prator2005 />
==Bibliography== Prator authored one book: * {{cite book |last=Prator |first=Ralph |date=1963 |title=The College President |location=New York |publisher=The Center for Applied Research in Education }}
==External links== * [https://digital-library.csun.edu/csun-leaders/ralph-prator Interview with Ralph Prator in 1990 at California State University, Northridge]
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Prator, Ralph}} Category:1907 births Category:2005 deaths Category:American academic administrators Category:Bakersfield College Category:Colorado Mesa Mavericks athletic directors Category:Mesa Mavericks football coaches Category:Presidents of California State University, Northridge Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni Category:University of Colorado Boulder alumni Category:People from Huerfano County, Colorado Category:United States Navy personnel of World War II Category:20th-century American academics