Harvey F. Yorke: Director of Public Affairs and Communications

Harvey F. Yorke. 1968. Director of Public Affairs and Communications. BA (1939) Stanford University; advanced studies Golden Gate University. Last listed in 1972-1973. During World War II, Yorke was a public relations information officer for the United States Army Air Corps. Yorke was hired at SF State in May 1968, just in time for the sit-in staged by the Third World Liberation Front and Students for a Democratic Society. The SF State Student Strike starting in November brought Yorke and Acting President S. I. Hayakawa together the third President that Yorke worked with in one year. Yorke documented the Strike in color slides, which were donated to the University Archives in 2020. When the Strike launched Hayakawa’s political ambitions, Yorke managed his successful 1970 Senate campaign, and set up his press office in Washington, D.C, and his San Francisco office. California Governor Ronald Reagan made Yorke his Chief of Information Services for the State of California. [Yorke’s photographs (digitized from color slides) documenting the Strike are in the University Archives: https://digital-collections.library.sfsu.edu/our-collections/university-archives. He went with Hayakawa as his political fortunes rose.]