Former SDSU President Love, 86, Dies

Malcolm A. Love, who helped San Diego State College become a university and served as its president for 19 years, died Saturday afternoon in San Diego following a long illness. He was 86.

Love, a native of Iowa whose career in college administration took him to Ohio, Illinois, Colorado and Nevada, came to San Diego in 1952 to become the college’s fourth president. When he retired in 1971, SDSU’s enrollment and faculty had quintupled, its campus had gained several new buildings and its research funding, previously nonexistent, exceeded $6 million.

“He guided the campus through some of its most difficult and important times,” said SDSU president Thomas B. Day. “His actions created the personality of the campus as we know it today. He fostered good relations with the community. He nurtured the faculty. He respected and was respected by the students. He was a giant. We hang our head in prayer and sorrow at his loss.”

During Love’s presidency, he reorganized the institution into colleges, creating colleges of engineering and of arts and sciences. He opened an Imperial Valley campus and ushered in the first joint doctoral degree program with the University of California. The first program, in chemistry, began in 1965 with UC San Diego. A genetics program with UC Berkeley followed in 1970.

In 1971, a new five-story library opened on campus, bearing Love’s name. Designed to hold one million volumes, the building contained more space than all the buildings of the original campus combined.

Love is survived by his wife of nearly 63 years, the former Maude Hale, their daughter Joan Maher of San Diego, two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. The family has asked that no services be held. They asked that expressions of sympathy take the form of contributions to the Malcolm A. Love Memorial Scholarship Fund, which is being established by the SDSU Scholarship Office.