Former CSUF Administrator Jack Preble Dies : Education: Professor and author had retired as chairman of his department after 28 years with the university.

Kenneth J. (Jack) Preble, a venerable Cal State Fullerton educator and administrator, died Sunday of respiratory failure. He was 66.

Preble, a longtime Fullerton resident, joined the staff at Cal State Fullerton in 1963 as a professor of educational administration following a seven-year stint as an elementary and junior high school teacher and principal in Illinois.

While at Fullerton, Preble moved through faculty ranks and became an administrator. By the time he retired in 1991, he was chairman of the department of educational administration at the School of Human Development and Community Service.

During his 28-year association with the university, Preble developed a variety of new courses and workshops, wrote numerous academic articles and co-authored two books on education administration for the University of Chicago.

Many of Preble’s former students are school superintendents in Orange County, according to his widow, Jeanne.

She said her husband had worked hard to promote the advancement of female administrators in what had been a largely male-dominated field in the 1960s and ‘70s.

“He was one of the pioneers in pushing for women roles in administration,” said Jeanne Preble, a therapist who advises the Orange County chapter of Parents of Murdered Children.

She said one of her husband’s most rewarding endeavors at Cal State Fullerton was directing a program called Project Upward Bound, which helped gifted, underprivileged students earn college degrees.

Poor health forced Preble to retire early, his widow said. But even during his retirement, he continued to do consulting work and became active in Orange County’s Habitat for Humanity organization.

“He was a great man who believed so much in people,” Jeanne Preble said. “It was a real gift that he had. I don’t think he ever stopped teaching even when he was retired.”

In addition to his wife, Preble is survived by daughters Deborah J. Hansen of Spokane, Wash., and Kimberley J. Voisan of West Covina, son John M. Preble of Murietta, Ga., and four grandchildren.

Visitation will be Wednesday from 6 to 8 p.m. at McAulay & Wallace Mortuary, 902 N. Harbor Blvd., Fullerton. The funeral will be at 11 a.m. Thursday at Valencia United Methodist Church, 2050 N. Valencia Ave., Placentia.

In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that donations be made in the name of Jack Preble at the Valencia United Methodist Church or to Habitat for Humanity of Orange County, P.O. Box 7086, Orange, Calif. 92613.