President Glenn S. Dumke with Helen Pélenc, San Francisco State College, 1961

Helen Pélenc, widow of French artist Siméon Pélenc, donated a collection of his artwork to San Francisco State College in 1961. Siméon Pélenc was known for introducing Italian sgraffito mural techniques to California and for his work on public buildings, including murals at the Berkeley Public Library. Glenn S. Dumke (1917–1989) served as president of San Francisco State College from 1957 to 1961 and later became Chancellor of the California State University system, serving until 1982.

Glenn S.  Dumke, (1917-1989): San Francisco State College President 1957-1961. Glenn S. Dumke earned his B.A. and M.A. from Occidental College in Los Angeles and received his Ph.D. in history from the University of California, Los Angeles. A noted historian of the American West, Dumke served as President of San Francisco State College from 1957 to 1961. During his presidency, he was one of three administrators—alongside Paul Dodd and Frank Fenton—who supported the creation of the first college-sanctioned free speech platform in the United States. This redwood structure, located in the northwest corner of the Quad, gave students a formal space for civic engagement, public discourse, and the exchange of controversial ideas—a significant precursor to the broader student activism that would follow in the 1960s. Dumke played a pivotal role in shaping public higher education across the state. He contributed to the landmark California Master Plan for Higher Education and the Donahoe Higher Education Act of 1960, which provided the foundation and funding for the creation of the California State College System.Following his presidency at SF State, Dumke became the first Chancellor for Academic Affairs and later served as Chancellor of the California State University system, remaining in that role until 1982. He passed away in 1989.

Credits: Helen Pélenc's bio and Glenn Dumke's bio were provided by Meredith Eliassen and some descriptions were developed with the assistance of ChatGPT, an AI language model by OpenAI.