On Feb. 15, 1954, UCR welcomed 127 undergraduate students to the first day of classes on the new University of California campus. Those students, and the hundreds more who joined them throughout the rest of the 1950s, became known as the Pioneer Class and established campus traditions such as selecting the nickname Highlanders, choosing Scotty the Bear as the school mascot, and erecting the giant C on the Box Spring Mountains. “The Pioneer Class is very special, and it did feel like we were given a precious opportunity to shape a new university and the culture,” said S. Sue Johnson, past chair of the Board of Regents of the University of California and former chair and trustee emerita with the U.C. Riverside Foundation Board of Trustees. “It was a magnificent experience.”
“It feels so encouraging to have the support of donors and the Pioneer Class because it really solidifies the idea that I am worth it, my education is worth it, and other people are seeing that.”
Members of the Pioneer Class have stayed involved at UCR after graduating through serving on various volunteer boards and advisory committees. The Pioneer Class regularly reunites on campus, most recently in March 2023 where the alumni revisited familiar landmarks like The Barn and explored recent additions like the Student Success Center. “Because of the relative youth of the campus, it’s been amazing to have access to and hear from our first students/graduates,” said Jorge Ancona, assistant vice chancellor for Alumni Engagement and executive director of the UCR Alumni Association. “They will tell you that they were here before there were sidewalks. The iconic Bell Tower, a symbol of UCR, was built after their time on campus. To have them recall quotes from administrators is a clear indication that it was significant enough for them to recount after all these years.”
One of the alums at the 2023 reunion was Ernest Garcia ’55, who established the Pioneer Class Chancellor’s/Regents Endowed Scholarship Fund in 2012 with Henry Ramsey ’60. Through their efforts, and the generosity of other Pioneer Class members, this endowment bolsters the merit-based Chancellor’s and Regents Scholarships at UCR. Since the fund’s inception, over $40,000 has been awarded to support the educations of 11 UCR undergraduate students.
Garcia, who passed away in April, was UCR’s first Hispanic graduate and had a distinguished career in education, beginning as an elementary school teacher and retiring as the dean of the College of Education at Cal State San Bernardino. He served on local arts and educational boards, had an elementary school in Rialto named after him, and was one of UCR’s 40 Alumni Who Make a Difference in 1994. Ramsey, who passed away in 2014, was one of UCR’s first African American graduates and became a prominent lawyer and legal scholar, serving as a deputy district attorney in Contra Costa County, then working in private practice before joining the faculty at UC Berkeley and later serving as law dean at Howard University. He was a judge in Alameda County, city council member in Berkeley, member of many advisory boards, and the UCR Distinguished Alumni Award recipient in 1987.
Grace Tirado is a fourth-year bioengineering major in the fiveyear B.S.+M.S. program and received Pioneer Class scholarship funds as an incoming first-year student. “It feels so encouraging to have the support of donors and the Pioneer Class because it really solidifies the idea that I am worth it, my education is worth it, and other people are seeing that,” she said. “It motivates me to move forward as far as I can, to show them that they made a fruitful decision to support me.”
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