Obituaries : Morton Renshaw; Ex-University Dean

Morton J. Renshaw, dean of students at California State University, Los Angeles, during the greatest period of its growth in the 1950s and 1960s, has died. He was 85.

Renshaw, who also taught education, died Friday at his home in South Pasadena.

He assumed the dean’s post in 1950 when Cal State Los Angeles was still combined with Los Angeles City College and shared the current LACC campus on Vermont Avenue. During Renshaw’s 14-year tenure, Cal State Los Angeles grew from a small college to a major university and moved to its own campus in East Los Angeles.

A champion of two-year colleges, Renshaw moved easily into the four-year program of the growing university. He left the dean’s post to return to teaching at Cal State Los Angeles in 1964. He retired in 1973.

A native of Colorado, Renshaw earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Colorado State University and his doctorate at Stanford. He taught high school in Colorado, then moved into higher education at the University of Washington, the University of Alaska, Washington State and San Diego State.

Renshaw is survived by his wife of 57 years, Mary Alice; two daughters, Susan Meyer of Hermosa Beach and Gaynor Cannon of Temple City; a sister, Dorothy Carson of Albuquerque, and four grandchildren.

A memorial service, including Masonic rites, is scheduled for 2 p.m. Wednesday at St. James Episcopal Church in South Pasadena.

The family has asked that any memorial contributions be made to the Morton Renshaw Scholarship Fund at Cal State Los Angeles, 5151 State University Drive, Los Angeles 90032.