New Cal State Boss Went to Middle School and High School in Pleasant Hill

-Bay City News

California State University officials named a man with strong Bay Area ties as the new chancellor Thursday.

Timothy White will replace current CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed, who announced in late May that he planned to retire after a 14-year tenure.

White, 63, has spent the past four years as chancellor of University of California at Riverside. Born in Argentina, White and his family moved to Calgary before settling in the Bay Area when he was 9 years old, he said in a teleconference Thursday.

White attended elementary, intermediate and high schools in Pleasant Hill, he said. His first job was delivering newspapers for the Contra Costa Times, and he "never broke a window."

The chancellor then went to Diablo Valley College before getting his undergraduate degree at California State University, Fresno.

White was on the swim and water polo teams while at Fresno State and wanted to become a coach for those sports.

He said in order to coach at a high school level, he needed a master's degree, so he then returned to the Bay Area where he got it at Cal State University Hayward, now Cal State East Bay.

White then wanted to coach those sports at the collegiate level and needed to get a doctorate degree, which he earned at University of California at Berkeley.

White has had stints working at Oregon State, University of Idaho, University of Michigan and UC Berkeley before becoming chancellor at UC Riverside.

"This is a very important job and I'm pleased and proud that the board has selected somebody who understands the California state schools' mission," Chancellor Reed said of White's hire.

White was the unanimous decision by the CSU Board of Trustees to
be Reed's heir apparent.

White will take over as CSU chancellor in late December. He will earn an annual salary equal to Reed, at $421,500 with the CSU standard benefits package, as well as a $30,000 supplement from CSU Foundation sources.