Last
founding faculty member dies at 84
By Cynthia Tom
Summer On-line Forty-Niner
Dr.
Irving Ahlquist, the last of the 13 original
founding faculty, died on June 13 after
more than 50 years of service to the university
as a counselor to student teachers and a
history professor.
Those who knew Ahlquist best remember him
as an extraordinary teacher, colleague and
man. “He had such enthusiasm for teaching
and for history,” said Dr. Arlene Lazarowitz,
coordinator for the social science credential
program that Ahlquist established.
Lazarowitz met Ahlquist in 1969 when she
was a student in his U.S. Civil War and
Reconstruction class, says that when she
returned to CSULB as a teacher in 1984,
Ahlquist was as excited about teaching as
he’d been when she was a student.
“He was so passionate about what he was
teaching. Everything from his lectures to
his stories were fresh, as if he were teaching
them for the first time.” she said.
After his official retirement from CSULB
in 1983, Ahlquist continued to teach part-time
until 1989. Two years later, he returned
to the campus to supervise student teaching
until 2002.
“He had a great love for students, and a
love for helping students become teachers,”
said Dorothy Abrahamse, dean of the College
of Liberal Arts. “Students would get up
in the middle of the night to sign up for
spots in his class.”
Ahlquist’s son, Steve, also remembers his
father’s commitment to education.
“He had a desire to see people of all ages
and cultures get an education and enter
into whatever they wanted to do. Even in
his last days, he was engaging people and
finding out who they were, how they were
doing, where they were from, and what their
dreams were.”
In his address to the campus community at
CSULB’s 50th anniversary celebration, Ahlquist
said, “May each of the students find on
this campus a warm and receptive welcome,
free of prejudice and intolerance.”
The legacy of his words still resound with
Lazarowitz.
“He always found something good in every
situation and person,” she said. “He had
a genuine concern for his students and colleagues.”
A memorial service for Ahlquist will be
held on Wednesday, July 9 at 1 p.m. at First
Evangelical Free Church of Fullerton. Donations
in his memory may be made to the Irvine
Ahlquist History Scholarship for students;
the Ahlquist Scholarship Fund for student
teachers; Westmont College.
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