Alexander Crippin Roberts: San Francisco State Teachers College President 1927-1945

Alexander Crippin Roberts (1878-1968). San Francisco State Teachers College President 1927-1945. Born in Iowa in 1878, Alexander C. Roberts attended high school and State Teachers College in Iowa before receiving his Bachelor's degree at the University of Wisconsin. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Washington. Prior to coming to San Francisco, Dr. Roberts was a supervisor of teacher training programs in the Iowa and Washington schools, President of Centralia State Normal School, and Professor of Education, Director of Extension Services, and Dean of the Summer Quarter at the University of Washington. Alexander Roberts was appointed the third President at SF State in 1927 with a formal installation in March 1928. It was during Robert’s tenure, the California State Legislature funded the purchase of 56 acres of land near Lake Merced, bound by the Ingleside Golf Course (Park Merced) on the south, Lake Merced Boulevard on the west, and 19th Avenue on the east. This land replaced the cramped, aging buildings of the old campus, just off upper Market Street. Although some ground was broken in November, 1939, World War II restrictions delayed actual construction of buildings until June, 1949. Roberts likely mentored Acting President Mary A. Ward (Summer 1927). President Roberts retired in 1945, and died in Des Moines, Washington, in 1968 at the age of 90.