Playing the name game on SF State’s campus: a 125th anniversary retrospective

Burk Hall

Frederic Lister Burk is the man who started it all as the founding president of the San Francisco State Normal School (SF State’s first name). The school was originally a teacher-training institution, so it’s fitting that Burk Hall is now home to the Graduate School of Education. Burk chose SF State’s motto Experientia docet, “experience teaches,” and promoted individualized instruction, believing a strict “lockstep” curriculum stifled creativity and deterred individuality. “[T]hereafter no lessons would be prescribed, each would pursue his own lessons and proceed at his own rate,” he later recalled. “The result was electrifying.”

J. Paul Leonard Library

Every Gator knows the library. It’s where students go to work, meet study groups or grab caffeine at Peets before class. The SF State library is named for the University’s fifth president, J. Paul Leonard, who served from 1945 to 1957 and helped lead the building of the current campus at the Holloway location. Appointed after World War II, Leonard wanted to reshape instructional programs to better serve the ever-growing communities of the Bay Area. He worked with faculty to develop education that would have classes in social and civic understanding, life values and an evolving world. The library was named in his honor in 1977.

Mary Park Hall and Mary Ward Hall

These traditional undergraduate residence halls honor two women who greatly impacted the University and its students.

Mary Park was a fixture in the SF State community. Known to students as “Mother Mary,” she was a food server and custodian for 10 years and supervising custodian for the residence halls for 20. When she retired in 1981, the University renamed a residence hall after her, making it the only SFSU building (and the first in the CSU system) named after a staff member at the time.

Alumna Mary Ward graduated from the San Francisco Normal School in 1906 with a degree in Math. She was an early student of President Burk, who appointed her as the school’s supervisor of practice teaching arithmetic. From 1916 to her retirement in 1951, she was the only dean of women to serve the University. During the summer of 1927, she served as acting president until the third University president was appointed. Her legacy included advocacy for underserved populations and immigrants, lobbying for a living wage for female students needing employment and more.

Thornton Hall and Hensill Hall

Inside these buildings, students carry on the scientific legacy of the buildings’ namesakes, two former deans of the School of Natural Science (now known as the College of Science & Engineering).

Robert Ambrose Thornton was the first dean of San Francisco State’s School of Natural Science in 1964 and the first Black-Native American (Cherokee) faculty member to become a dean of science at the University. He joined SF State in 1956 as a Physics professor with an established career as a scientist, educator and administrator. In 1944, he wrote Albert Einstein a letter about the philosophical side of science, which led to a nine-year correspondence and several in-person visits.

John S. Hensill first came to SF State as a Biology professor in 1947. He later became chairman of the department and was dean of the School of Natural Science from 1969 to 1975. He oversaw the rapid expansion of the school and completion of the physical and life science buildings (now Thornton and Hensill Halls, respectively). He considered the naming of Hensill Hall to be a great honor and was known to give the building a salute when he walked by.

Cox Stadium

These days, many Gator stories start at Cox Stadium because it’s often the location of the entering class photo and pinning ceremony. The stadium was dedicated to Coach Dave Cox, who spent $7,500 of his own money to get good lighting and expand the facilities. On the old campus at Haight and Buchanan streets, Cox invited students to make suggestions for a dream stadium and gymnasium and then he forwarded their responses to the California State Architect. Cox was the first head coach and director of men’s athletics in the 1930s. His legacy includes forming two basketball teams, a track squad, a swim team and a football team. In 1931, the rise of athletics energized students to vote for SF State’s mascot the Golden Gater (Gator), now known as the beloved Alli Gator.

Jack Adams Hall

Jack Adams Hall, a large auditorium-style space, is at the top of SFSU’s Student Center. A Virginia native, Adams joined SF State in 1969 as the properties manager for the School of Creative Arts. He became assistant director of the student union in 1982, serving until he had to resign as his health declined. Adams became a “face” of the epidemic and inspired the creation of the “all-campus” AIDS coordinating committee made up of students, faculty, staff and administrators who created pioneering curriculum responding to the AIDS epidemic launched in fall 1986. During this time, Adams’ SFSU colleagues supported him by bringing meals and providing company. Adams died in November of 1992 at the age of 47 due to AIDS-related complications. A year later, the Student Union Governing Board passed a resolution to rename the room Jack Adams in honor of his dedication to backing student causes and connection with Associated Students. Since then, a scholarship has also been inaugurated in his honor.

Don Nasser Family Plaza

Don Nasser Family Plaza is home of SF State’s main gymnasium, affectionately known as “The Swamp.” Nasser (B.A., ’63), an alumnus and SF State Foundation director, was a major donor for the gym’s renovation, which was completed in 2014. After earning a degree in Business/Real Estate, Nasser worked in banking for two decades and served as president of Bay Properties, Inc. He also managed the famous Castro Theatre, which belonged to his family.