VENTURA COUNTY NEWS : CSU Donor Hopes Gift Spurs Others

Discussing for the first time his landmark donation to Ventura County’s new state university, Oxnard rancher John S. Broome said Friday he hopes his pledge will spur others to dig deep to support the developing campus.

University officials announced earlier this week that Broome had pledged $5 million to establish a library and media center at the Cal State Channel Islands campus.

The money will jump-start the planning process and later help transform a shuttered research unit at the old Camarillo State Hospital into a 283,000-square-foot library complex.

“I can’t think of anything more worthwhile to be involved in,” said the 81-year-old vegetable farmer, whose family has worked the fields adjacent to the budding campus since before the turn of the century. “I have nothing to gain by it, and I don’t want anything out of it,” he said. “The only satisfaction I’ll get is to see the university blossom into a major educational institution.”

Like it or not, Broome almost certainly will receive something for his generosity. University trustees later this month will consider naming the building after him when the first phase of construction is completed.

But Broome wanted to make clear that his donation had nothing to do with possible creation of a John Spoor Broome Library.

“I really suggested it be anonymous, but they didn’t think they could put ‘anonymous’ on the building,” he said. “For some reason or another they seem to think it might be an incentive for other people to give.”

Indeed, the donation--one of the largest in county history--provides a shot in the arm for the university’s private fund-raising efforts. Those efforts, headed by the Cal State Channel Islands Foundation, are central to the university’s mission of finding nonpublic money to expand the campus.

“It’s a whole new era in university financing generally and it’s particularly the case for this university,” said Oxnard lawyer Laura McAvoy, treasurer of the foundation.

“Fund-raising is necessary to pay for the things we need to have, like a library, and it’s also important to show the breadth of community support,” she said. “This is a leadership gift to show that this university is real and to encourage others to step forward and do the same.”

Broome said it’s only a coincidence his donation was unveiled just days after university officials launched the inaugural phase of the campus. Classes began Monday at the new home for the 1,800 students at CSUN’s satellite center, which in two years is expected to evolve into an autonomous institution.

He said it doesn’t take much imagination to visualize the campus filled with students and teachers--people, he said, who realize sooner or later the value of higher education.

“Things can happen,” Broome said. “You can lose your job, lose your land, lose your wealth--but nothing can take away from your education. My father used to talk about that all the time. If you have education, you have it for life.”

Broome’s parents, Thornhill and Caryl Broome, were principal landowners of what today is Point Mugu State Park and Thornhill Broome State Beach. His family entered the farming business in 1880, and he followed in 1946, producing a range of crops in Ventura, Kern and Monterey counties.

He has served on a number of boards and commissions, including the Ventura County Harbor Commission, Pleasant Valley County Water District and the board of directors of Pepperdine University.

Broome also once served on the Camarillo State Hospital board of directors.

“I knew the campus when it was a hospital. It looked like a campus then, it looks more like a campus today,” he said.

“I’m hoping that in some way people will realize what an enormous opportunity they have, what an asset this will be to our community and to future generations,” he added. “If nothing else, I hope it will get other people to jump on board.”