The Early History of Fullerton College

The following is from a work-in-progress about the history of Fullerton. You can support my ongoing research and writing on Patreon.

The main source for this information is Louis E. Plummer book A History of the Fullerton Union High School and Fullerton Junior College 1893-1943.

In 1913, the high school board of trustees approved the formation of a junior college as an extension of the high school. Twenty-six students were in the first class. Earl Dysinger of Fullerton was elected first student body president. Arletta Klahn was elected president of the sophomore class. Delbert Brunton, who was the Fullerton High principal, also headed the new Fullerton Junior College, as it was then called.

“During the school year 1915-1916 the enrollment reached a total of 44, and during 1916-1917 sixty students placed their names on the roll,” Plummer writes. “Then came the World War and a depletion of the ranks of college men. The Fullerton Junior College contributed her share to the armed forces.”

Louis E. Plummer became principal of the high school and Junior College in 1919.

Until 1922 the college was a department of the high school. In 1922 the college was reorganized as an independent junior college district.

In 1934 the Board of Trustees voted to purchase fourteen and one half acres located near the high school.

“The opening of the Civil Works Authority program in 1932 fitted, admirably, into plans for more adequate facilities for both the high school and the college,” Plummer writes. “Federal projects, twenty in number, were undertaken on the premises of the Fullerton Union High School and Junior College between 1933 and 1942. The aim of the Federal government in supporting such work was relief from unemployment.”

The first construction project undertaken on the new college campus consisted of a building to house the commerce department.

This was followed by the Administration and Social Science Building, which was followed by the Technical Trades Building, and the Student Union Building was built in 1938.

Fullerton College is today the oldest continuously operating community college in California.