Sheridan Hegland, Force Behind UCSD, Dies at 78

Sheridan Hegland, an educator and former Democratic state legislator who was instrumental in the establishment of UC San Diego, died Monday at his home in Chula Vista. He was 78.

Hegland had been taken home Saturday from UCSD Medical Center, where he was being treated for pneumonia, his nurse, Molly Tillet, said. He died at the Fredericka Manor retirement complex of emphysema with complications from pneumonia.

Hegland was best known for his work on behalf of higher education, said James Mills, a former state senator who served with Hegland in the Legislature and is now chairman of the San Diego Metropolitan Transit Development Board.

‘Deserved More Credit’

“His chief interest as a member of the Legislature was education,” Mills said, adding that Hegland, “more than any other individual, was responsible legislatively for the creation of UCSD. He deserved a lot more credit than he ever got for his work on behalf of education.”

Five years after a legislative resolution written by Hegland was sent to the UC Board of Regents, the new campus opened its doors in 1960 to its first graduate students. Hegland was also responsible for creating scholarships for students and closing down “diploma mills” that sold doctorate degrees, Mills said. He also proposed the law that led to the creation of the California Student Aid Commission.

“Hegland was very much interested in higher education. It was his primary concern in the Legislature and in life,” said Roger Revelle, a professor of science and public policy who was also instrumental in the founding of UCSD. “He was a very straightforward, good man. Everybody who knew him knew he had high ideals and high ethical professional standards.”

Hegland also stood up for what he believed in as an assemblyman, Mills said.

“He was a very conscientious legislator. I don’t know of anybody who agonized over every vote the way he did. He also was one of the early local opponents of the Vietnam War. He was driven by his conscience. He felt war was something we shouldn’t be involved in and he didn’t hesitate to say it,” Mills said.

Defeated in Congress Bid

Hegland served as an assemblyman for the 77th District, which included North County and the areas of Vista, Oceanside, Fallbrook and La Mesa, from 1954 until 1962, when he ran for Congress and was defeated in the Democratic primary by Lionel Van Deerlin.

Hegland is survived by his wife, Edwina; two children, Kenney Hegland and Sherina Cadmun, and five grandchildren.

“My father was primarily a teacher throughout his whole life, and both my sister and I have gone into education based on what we saw and how much he enjoyed doing it,” said Kenney Hegland, dean of the University of Arizona Law School in Tucson. Cadmun is a high school teacher in Oakland.

The family will hold a memorial service at 1:30 p.m. Saturday in the Fellowship Hall at Fredericka Manor, 183 3rd St., Chula Vista. The family asks that friends donate money to UCSD Medical Center in lieu of sending flowers.