SATICOY : $12-Million Bequest Will Promote Farming

Saticoy will be home to a University of California agriculture education and research center if the wishes of the last surviving member of a longtime Ventura County farming family are fulfilled.

Thelma Hansen, who died last year at the age of 95, bequeathed the entire family estate--$12 million in property, cash and securities--to her alma mater to be used to promote agriculture, said Larry Yee, director of the county office of the UC Cooperative Extension program.

The public education center would be built on 36 acres of land between California 126 and Telegraph Road.

“She believed very strongly in caring for the land and believed if you take care of the land, it will take care of you,” said Yee, who worked with Hansen on the project for three years. “She wanted to do as much as possible to educate the public about the wise use of land resources and the importance of farming.”

Yee is one of five members of an advisory board that will consult with the university system on the future of the center.

The other board members are Ventura avocado grower Link Leavens, Santa Clara Valley farmer Dorcas Thille of the Ventura County Farm Bureau, Ventura businessman Harry Maynard and Toby Winer of Oakland, who is assistant vice president for UC’s Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

“I think this represents a very special opportunity for Ventura County,” Yee said. “I would hope we would primarily focus on the needs of Ventura County agriculture in the broadest sense but that those benefits would extend way beyond the boundaries of Ventura County.”