Long Beach State grew up right along with the sprawling Southern California suburbs. Born in 1949, it swelled to accommodate the post–world war enthusiasm for education and land. The rapid expansion brought its share of growing pains. Students took classes in a cramped converted apartment with no books and playing ring-around-the-rosie for physical education. Money was scarce, and faculty at times feuded with the administration. But the new college's "let's put on a show" spirit produced a scrappiness that endures today. Read about the personalities that grew the college from Fred Bixby's bean fields into one of the largest universities in California.
Barbara Kingsley-Wilson has been a full-time lecturer and adviser for the Daily 49er since 2004 at California State University, Long Beach. A journalist for twenty years, she covered courts, crime, education and sports for the Orange County Register, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Rochester (NY) Times-Union. She has won awards from the Orange County Press Club and contributed articles to a Register project that won the Pulitzer Prize. She lives with her family in Long Beach.