Dickson Plaza and Dickson Court

Dickson Plaza and Dickson Court. Edward A. Dickson, UCLA Co-founder, 1879 - 1956. , In 1913, Edward A. Dickson, a 33-year-old Los Angeles business and civic leader, became the first Southern Californian appointed to the University of California Board of Regents. At that time, the only University of California campus was in Berkeley. , Four years later, Dickson started the campaign to establish a second UC location in the growing southern California region. His efforts came to fruition on May 23, 1919, when Governor William D. Stephens signed legislation to create a second UC campus, transferring the facilities of the Los Angeles Normal School, a state teacher training college located on Vermont Avenue near Griffith Park, to become the University of California's new "southern branch." Dr. Ernest Carroll Moore, director of the Los Angeles Normal School, continued as head of the new UC campus. In 1923, Dickson began the search for a new site that would allow for expansion. , On March 21, 1925, he persuaded the Board of Regents to acquire a 375-acre parcel from the Janss Investment Company in the sparsely populated Westwood Hills section of Los Angeles, instead of other proposed sites in Pasadena, Burbank, Fullerton and Palos Verdes. With four new buildings, the Westwood campus held its first classes on September 23, 1929. Moore, then the provost and university vice president, would go on to serve until 1936 as leader of the Los Angeles campus, which became known as UCLA. , Dickson and Moore are generally considered to be UCLA's founders. Dickson continued to champion the development of UCLA over its first three decades. He was still chairman of the UC Board of Regents when he died on February 22, 1956, at the age of 76. His 43 years of service as a regent remains the longest tenure on the university's governing board. In recognition of Dickson's instrumental leadership in the establishment and growth of UCLA, the Board of Regents later named the central grounds of UCLA in his memory , first, Dickson Plaza, the quadrangle west of the central flagpole to the top of Janss Steps; and later, Dickson Court, the sunken plazas north and south of the arroyo bridge road, just east of this plaque.