Growing up in Orange County, I can still remember the trip in my high school years with my father to see the new University of California in Irvine. I saw barren rolling hills with newly built structures and minimal vegetation or trees.
Decades later, as a State Senator representing the 37th District, which includes UCI, I attended the 50th anniversary banquet and sat with the founding chancellor Daniel G. Aldrich, Jr.’s (1918-1990) family, including his widow Jean and son Dan. So much had changed during the intervening years, and the history is compelling reading.
These memories and more would flash back as I read “Transforming the Irvine Ranch—Joan Irvine, William Pereira, Ray Watson and The Big Plan” by H. Pike Oliver and C. Michael Stockstill….