Tribute to Professor Emeritus Arthur C. Turner

TRIBUTE TO PROFESSOR EMERITUS ARTHUR C. TURNER -- (Extensions of Remarks - June 02, 2004)

SPEECH OF
HON. KEN CALVERT
OF CALIFORNIA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
TUESDAY, JUNE 1, 2004

Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to University of California at Riverside Professor Emeritus Arthur Campbell Turner in conjunction with the Citizen's University Committee Banquet being held in his honor on June 3, 2004.

Professor Turner himself explained best his role in the creation of the University of California at Riverside (UCR), in a quote to the local newspaper, the Press Enterprise, in 1988: "I was here before the beginning. I am one of the reasons there was a beginning." No truer statement could be given. Indeed, Professor Turner stands as one of the original eight founding faculty members in 1954 when the California State Legislature deemed that the Citrus Experiment Station in Riverside should become a new campus of the University of California system.

In 1953 professor Turner was recruited from the University of Toronto by founding Provost Gordon Watkins as Chairman of the Division of Social Sciences and Associate Professor of Political Science. As Chairman, Professor Turner appointed about one-quarter of the founding faculty of the College of Letters and Sciences at UCR. In 1958, Dr. Turner became a full Professor. He remained as Chairman until 1961 and was Chairman of the Department of Political Sciences until 1966. As if that is not enough, Professor Turner proceeded to be appointed as associate dean of University of California's Graduate Division, Southern Section, and as such was instrumental in the formation of a graduate division at UCR in 1961.

Dr. Turner, professor of Political Science, was born and raised in Glasgow, Scotland. He received his undergraduate degree in History from the University of Glasgow, graduate degree in History at Oxford (Queens College), and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkley. While at Berkeley he met and married Netty, a graduate student.
Following his Ph.D., Dr. Turner joined the faculty of the University of Toronto.

His educational career at UCR also includes his membership on the Editorial Committee of the University of California Press from 1959-65 and 1980-83, and Chairman of the Committee from 1962-65. Professor Turner has published extensively on British affairs, international relations and the Middle East. Not surprisingly, he has been named in Who's Who in America for the past thirty years. Professor Turner retired in 1988.

Mr. Speaker, Professor Turner has given back to his community four-fold. His vivid memories of the early days of UCR, the joys of building a new university, seeing it grow and become a formidable institution, and recruiting faculty members, some of who are still on the faculty, serve to give us a foundation by which we may judge the progress of our community and future generations.

Professor Turner has been and continues to be a shining example of a person with passion and principles, who has strived to improve the cultural and political direction of our nation. We have a vast system of public higher education in this country; a network of great state universities and colleges. Today we enjoy academic excellence in America as it is enjoyed nowhere else in the world. Professor Turner is one of those responsible for that part of America's incredible
educational experiment known as UCR.