Dr. Bob Suzuki, Vice President

President-Emeritus, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Dr. Bob H. Suzuki retired as President of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona in July 2003 after serving in this position for 12 years. As president, he oversaw and provided leadership to a campus with 19,000 students, 2,200 faculty and staff, and an annual budget of over $180 million. During his tenure, the university completed over $250 million in new construction projects and raised more than $120 million from private sector sources. It also started construction on a $200 million high technology park, Innovation Village, which currently includes two business incubators for biotech and other high tech startups and the new $40 million Southern California American Red Cross center for blood processing and research.

Dr. Suzuki was born in Portland, Oregon to Japanese immigrant parents. During World War II, he was imprisoned with his family in an internment camp in Minidoka, Idaho, where he received his first 3 years of schooling. After the war, his family resettled in a rural community near Spokane, Washington, where he grew up and worked on the family’s farm. In high school, he was student body president and graduated as class valedictorian. He then attended the University of California at Berkeley, where he received his B.S. degree in 1960 and his M.S. degree in 1962 in Mechanical Engineering. From 1961 to 1963, he worked as a research engineer for the Boeing Company in Seattle, Washington. In 1963, he returned to graduate school at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. After completing his doctorate there in 1967, he taught for 4-1/2 years in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Southern California.

While teaching at USC, he became deeply involved in civil rights and public and community affairs. Among numerous activities, he was one of the leaders of a successful nationwide campaign that led to the Congressional repeal of the Emergency Detention Act of 1950, and served as chair of the National Education Commission of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), and vice chair of the Community Advisory Committee for the Desegregation of the Pasadena Schools.

As a result of his involvement in these activities, he decided in 1971 to change his professional field and devote himself full-time to work that more directly addressed pressing societal problems. After considering a number of possible options, he joined the faculty in the School of Education at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Almost immediately after his arrival there in the fall of 1971, he was asked to take the position of Assistant Dean for Administration in the School of Education. After serving in this capacity for 3-1/2 years, he resigned in December 1974 and engaged in full-time teaching and research for the next 6 years.

Dr. Suzuki returned to academic administration in January 1981 when he assumed the position of Dean of Graduate Studies and Research at California State University, Los Angeles. After serving in this position for 4-1/2 years, in July, 1985, he assumed the position of Vice

President for Academic Affairs at California State University, Northridge. In July of 1991, Dr. Suzuki was selected as the fourth president of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.

He currently serves on the Boards of Directors of the Pasadena Bioscience Center and Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics (LEAP) in Los Angeles, on the Advisory Board of the Ahimsa Center at Cal Poly Pomona, and on the Board of Trustees of Western University of Health Sciences. He has also served as a member of the National Science Board, the Board of Directors of the American Association of Colleges & Universities (AAC&U), the Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), the California Student Aid Commission, the Board of Trustees of the Japanese American National Museum, and numerous other bodies at the local, state, and national levels.

Dr. Suzuki has been honored on numerous occasions for his contributions in the areas of community service, education, and human and civil rights. Most recently, on November 3, 2003, he was conferred the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon by the Japanese Government. He and his wife, Agnes (nee Hirano), who hails originally from Honolulu, Hawaii, and has a B.A. degree in Sociology from UC Berkeley, have three grown children.

Dr. Suzuki currently works part-time on a variety of projects as the Special Assistant to the Chancellor on the Cal State L.A. campus.