Fred Harcleroad leaves us with one final word on his stance in higher education. In his quest to build a great learning institution in the East Bay, Fred took many risks and broke new ground in his field. He was acting President of the University for 8 years, proving monumentally important in the construction of the campus, the setting up of its basic tenets and ground rules, and in plotting its course for the future.

Unfortunately in 1964, Fred resigned from office after having been the victim of threatening letters from a small, but extremely vocal minority within the faculty. When Fred left office, the institution lost a great administrator; someone who cared about the future, not just of his own pocket books, but of the students over whom he presided.

Even fifty years after he left the institution, he finds himself fighting tears when thinking of the University he helped create. He was truly one of a kind, Fred Harcleroad: The First President of the University.