Leo F. Cain; Founding President of Cal State Dominguez Hills

Leo F. Cain, founding president of Cal State Dominguez Hills and a leader in special education, has died. He was 91.

Cain, who retired from the Carson campus in 1976, died Sunday in San Mateo, Calif., spokesmen for the Sneider and Sullivan Funeral Home there said.

A psychologist who created educational programs for teachers of both gifted and disadvantaged children, Cain was tapped in 1962 to head a design team for a new state college campus, originally planned for the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Scheduled to open in the fall of 1965 with 400 students and, in Cain’s words, “no ‘Mickey Mouse,’ easy or snap courses,” the 18th campus in the statewide system met its deadline. But only 75 students were enrolled, classes were held in a Rolling Hills Estates bank building and the faculty was so small that even Cain had to teach courses.

Land values continued to soar on the peninsula, and the budget-strapped California State College and University Board of Trustees soon settled on a 346-acre campus in Carson, overlooking junk yards, oil wells and tract housing. Both construction and enrollment proceeded more slowly than envisioned, and at one point an efficiency task force appointed by then-Gov. Ronald Reagan recommended closing the college and transferring its few students to Cal State Long Beach.

Cain remained undaunted.

“Students want a good, solid education in a program that is broad enough to offer them variety,” he told The Times in the lean early years. “And they also want to be involved in a learning program where they are known by their name and not by their number.”

Cain fashioned a curriculum and administrative system stressing individuality and participation of students in planning, with flexible schedules enabling full-time employees to get college educations at night and on Saturdays. He also made provisions for accelerated completion of degrees and developed job-related programs leading to employment at graduation.

By the time Cain retired in 1976, his new campus was a permanent fixture in the state university system, with 7,000 students. The enrollment today is 12,900.

“We are where we are today because of his wisdom at the start and his leadership during those early years, those most challenging times,” said current university President James E. Lyons Sr.

Born in Chico, Calif., Cain earned his bachelor’s degree at Chico State and master’s and doctoral degrees at Stanford. He taught initially in public schools, then served in the Navy during World War II. After a few years on the faculty at the universities of Maryland and Oklahoma, he moved to San Francisco State. He began as a professor, then became dean and eventually vice president, establishing the school’s internationally recognized department of special education.

After retiring from Dominguez Hills, Cain returned to the San Francisco campus to head its special education doctoral program for 10 years.

In 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson named him to a three-year term on Johnson’s Committee on Mental Retardation. Cain also served as president of the Council for Exceptional Children and received its national award.

A widower, Cain is survived by three daughters, Barbara Cain Miller of San Jose, Nancy Cain of Denver and Caroline Cain Detwiler of Sacramento; a brother, Edmund of Reno; a sister, Mary Ellen Leary of Moraga, Calif.; and four grandchildren.

A memorial service is set for 11 a.m. Thursday at St. Bartholomew’s Catholic Church in San Mateo. The family asks that any donations go to the Leo F. Cain Scholarship Fund at Cal State Dominguez Hills, 1000 E. Victoria St., Carson, CA 90747.