Contact: Patti Klein Lerner,
(818) 677-2130

Whitsett Descendants and Friends Add $50,000
to their Ancestor's Endowment at Cal State Northridge

The donation from the Whitsett Family Foundation will be added to the W.P. Whitsett Endowment at CSUN, which supports the W. P. Whitsett Endowed Chair in California History, the Whitsett Lecture Series, the Valley Pioneer Lecture series and the Whitsett Fellowship.

It also helps support the Whitsett Reading Room on California History at CSUN and an annual Los Angeles History Conference for teachers that CSUN co-sponsors with the Historical Society of Southern California at the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum.

The W.P. Whitsett Endowment was created in 1986 with a $500,000 gift to CSUN from the Foundation. The gift allowed creation of the first endowed chair in history at any California State University school and the first endowed chair in any subject at CSUN. Gloria Lothrop, a noted author and California historian, occupies the chair.

Whitsett's three granddaughters, Myrtle Harris, Eleanore Robinson and Sarah Ann Siegel, and family friend Sara Baur made the $50,000 donation to the endowment last month.

"We are excited by the new gift. It reflects the generosity of the family and their continued commitment to the study of California history. It will allow the university and our college to continue its leadership role in California studies," said William V. Flores, dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences.

The endowment has also been used to replace the earthquake-damaged W. P. Whitsett Room in CSUN's Sierra Hall, which has been used for a long list of important university events.

Whitsett bought a half interest in the one square mile town of Van Nuys in 1911.

The Whitsett endowment is now close to the $1 million mark, said Mishka Michon, Director of Alumni Relations and Development at CSUN.

For more information, call Michon at (818) 677-3850 or Flores at (818) 677-3317.