Cleary Led CSUN Coolly for 23 Years

Settling into his new office as president of Cal State Northridge in June 1969, James W. Cleary didn’t need to look far for a grim reminder of the turmoil the campus had recently endured.

Seven months before his arrival, black students and their supporters took over the fifth floor of the administration building and held 34 college officials and employees captive for four hours, demanding more opportunities for minorities at the nearly all-white campus. Directly across the hall from Cleary’s office were the former presidential quarters that had been scorched in a fire set by arsonists a month after the takeover.

Cleary was no stranger to student unrest, having dealt with 10 days of National Guard occupation as an administrator at the University of Wisconsin the year before he came to CSUN.

“I have been asked countless times why I chose to jump from the frying pan into the fire,” Cleary once said. “My answer is that there are things wrong with higher education. Why not seize the opportunity to solve them?”

During his 23-year tenure, Cleary kept a low profile, handling university business behind the scenes. While he was at CSUN, the Oviatt Library and a new science center were built; the campus National Center on Deafness was established; the college went from being known as San Fernando Valley State College to California State University, Northridge; and all sports programs except football made the move to NCAA Division I.

In 1982, he nearly became chancellor of the Cal State University system, losing to W. Ann Reynolds, then provost of Ohio State University.

Cleary retired from CSUN 10 years later, replaced by Blenda J. Wilson, a University of Michigan chancellor who became the first African American and the first woman to head the campus, which now has an ethnically diverse student population of 27,500.

These days, the 70-year-old Cleary lives in Boise, Ida., where he and his wife, Mary, moved to be closer to their three daughters and two granddaughters.

An expert on parliamentary procedure, Cleary is still called upon by various boards for advice, having co-written Robert’s Rules of Order, Newly Revised in 1970.