New University Wins Endowments : Education: $250,000 chairs in communications and earth science/geology are donated to Cal State San Marcos by two area businessmen.

Before opening its doors to students, Cal State San Marcos has received two endowed chairs from local businessmen who donated $250,000 each, university officials announced Thursday.

The donations will provide a faculty position in communications and another in earth science/geology, university officials said.

The endowed chairs provide money for research and partial salary to help attract top professors. The two endowed chairs are impressive considering the infancy of the university and that the 19 other Cal State campuses have a combined total of 16 endowed chairs. The endowments bring to $750,000 the donations the university has received from private individuals and corporations.

“It is honestly a tribute to the public support that the people in the area feel for the university,” said university president Bill Stacy.

The university had not intended to hire a geology or communications professor until the 1992 school year, but that is likely to change because of the donations, Stacy said.

Allan O. Kelly, a resident of Carlsbad and self-educated geologist, endowed a chair to continue research into his theories of the earth’s geological transformation.

Bill Daniels, chairman of Denver-based Daniels & Associates and founder of Prime Ticket Network, a regional cable television sports network, donated the money toward a communications professorship.

“He is making a statement that he is happy to support education,” said Phil Urbina, a spokesman for the 70-year-old cable television pioneer.

Urbina said philanthropy is not new to Daniels, who donated $10 million to the University of Denver last year to integrate ethics courses into its business program.

Kelly, a lay geologist, has theories on how the Earth has developed and would like to see research into those theories, said K.C. Cordes, a spokesman for Kelly.

“He wants somebody to carry on investigating and attempting to prove his theories in a scientific manner,” Cordes said.

Kelly has written two books on the “impact theory,” a hypothesis that many Earth formations resulted from the impact of large space bodies, such as asteroids, hitting the Earth.

“He’s had a terrible time getting acceptance within the geological field, partly because he’s not from a geological background, and partly because people are so set in their ways,” Cordes said.

Kelly will also donate his collection of geological writings and artifacts to the university.

A search for professors to fill the two posts will begin this year, and university officials hope to have people in place for the 1991-92 school year. There are no geologists or communications professors on staff at Cal State San Marcos.