Donald Click; Led Santa Monica College and School District

Donald W. Click, former superintendent of the Los Angeles Community College District and president of Santa Monica College, has died. He was 69.

He died Thursday in Ventura’s Community Memorial Hospital after a short illness, according to his stepson, Justin DuPont.

Click headed the large junior college district during its turbulent early years when the board was engaged in a political tug-of-war between conservatives and liberals.

Born in Independence, Mo., Click was educated at USC. As an English teacher and later an administrator rising to dean of the evening division, he served on the staff of Valley College in Van Nuys from 1953 until 1970.

On Feb. 17, 1970, Click was named to the post of deputy superintendent of the Los Angeles junior colleges in charge of all internal operations. The job was created in a controversial move by the conservative board majority, which was designed to strip power from then-Superintendent T. Stanley Warburton with whom they had frequently clashed.

Reduced to a figurehead, Warburton resigned, and Click became superintendent July 1, 1970. But Click also tangled with the Board of Trustees when he fired the East Los Angeles College president, and resigned under pressure on June 28, 1972.

Commenting that he was “looking forward to getting out of politics and back to education,” Click then accepted a position as president of Santa Monica College.

By Dec. 19, 1973, however, Click had taken a leave of absence, and two months later, the Santa Monica board bought out the remaining two-and-one-half years of his four-year contract. The ouster was attributed only to “professional differences” between the board and Click.

In addition to his stepson, Click is survived by his wife, Phyllis, his son, Stuart Click, and a stepdaughter, Suzanne Wallace.