Former California Governor and Chief U.S. Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren strode to the podium on June 10, 1973, and told the graduating seniors at Cal State Bakersfield that the nation was in a troubled state. A giant of 20th century politics and jurisprudence and a Bakersfield High graduate, Warren urged the small group of students waiting for their diplomas under the June sun to reject the frustration and lethargy that gripped the country in that post-Vietnam era. Instead, he told them, “accept the challenge of the future.”

Little did Warren know that three years earlier, the school’s early faculty and administration, led by ex-Marine fighter pilot and college president Paul Romberg, had already accepted that challenge. They had overcome obstacles and built a four-year college that applied experimental teaching strategies and new ideas. The college would blossom into a university that would alter the region in ways Romberg probably never imagined.