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Katherine B. Loker

Katherine B. Loker has been a long-time benefactor of California State University, Dominguez Hills. When dreams and plans for the college’s permanent campus became the focus of a few key people 36 years ago, Katherine Loker and her husband, Donald, were among them. Ms. Loker answered Founding President Leo F. Cain’s call to be a member of the College Advisory Board to the President (1967–76). In that capacity, she worked to shape the college’s vision and goals. Even now, she serves as an honorary member of the CSUDH Foundation Board.

“I have to reach for the words to express how much we value Katherine Loker’s friendship and generosity,” says President James E. Lyons, Sr. “Through her gifts we have been able to build a student union, improve a high-school academy, and offer scholarships to deserving students. Her friendship is especially valued because her perspectives draw upon a long history and association with Cal State Dominguez Hills.”

In 2002, she became the donor of the largest gift ever pledged to the University – $4 million toward the expansion to the Katherine B. and Donald P. Loker University Student Union. The union bears her name alongside her late husband’s because together they provided the largest endowment toward the building, which opened in fall 1992. They recognized the need for the diverse student body of Dominguez Hills to have a focal point on campus for getting together, having a place for special programs, activities and services. Donald P. Loker died in 1988, but Katherine Loker has carried on their legacy.

Now after a successful student referendum backing the expansion of the Loker Student Union in 2001, plans have accelerated toward adding more space and services to what indeed has become the hub of campus.

On January 28, 2003, the CSU Board of Trustees formally recognized Ms. Loker’s significant contributions to CSUDH, highlighting her landmark gift to the Loker Student Union expansion.

In addition to the union, Ms. Loker has provided integral financial support to the California Academy of Mathematics and Science (CAMS), located on campus, in making its permanent buildings a reality. CAMS is a magnet high school offering an outstanding mathematics and science education for a student body built around a minority and female population – students showing low numbers in the fields of science and math.

As an undergraduate at USC, she was active in intercollegiate athletics, running track competitively at the Los Angeles Athletic Club in the 1930s. She graduated as an English major in 1940. Shortly thereafter, she married Donald P. Loker, a well-known stage and screen actor who later became a vice president of the StarKist Foods Company, an organization founded by her father in 1917.

In view of her exceptional contributions to the community and specifically to education, Katherine Loker received an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from the University at the Thirty-Third Commencement in May 1999.

Ms. Loker also has served as a trustee and foundation member of the California Science Center of Los Angeles, a member of the foundation board of the Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda, and a founding member of the Los Angeles Music Center. She is an avid supporter of the Donald P. Loker Cancer Treatment Center at the California Hospital Medical Center, Los Angeles.

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