Instructor Named Irvine Valley College’s Interim President

Raghu P. Mathur, an Irvine Valley College chemistry instructor and chairman of the school of physical sciences, has been chosen interim president of the college.

Robert A. Lombardi, chancellor of the two-college Saddleback Community College District, had been filling the post since March, but the district’s Board of Trustees decided he was needed in the chancellor’s office full time, district spokeswoman Diane Riopka said.

Trustees on Monday selected Mathur, 48, who has been teaching chemistry at Irvine Valley College since 1979 and has served as chairman of the School of Physical Sciences and Technologies for about 10 years.

Mathur will be paid $99,000, about $18,000 above his current annual salary. He will serve as interim president until September.

The college, which has 10,700 students and 324 teachers, has been without a chief executive since Daniel L. Larios left in April to become president of Fresno City College in his hometown.

Mathur, who lives in Laguna Hills with his wife and two sons, served as a Saddleback Valley Unified School District trustee from 1983 to 1992.

He began teaching at Cal State Fresno in 1967 and has held teaching positions at Saddleback College and the Capistrano and Kings Canyon unified school districts.

He earned a bachelor of science degree in chemistry, geology and geography from Banaras University in India and a master’s degree in chemistry from Cal State Fresno. He is working on a doctorate in higher education administration from Nova Southeastern University in Florida.