HONOREE
John B. Shepard
Shepard Stadium
John B. Shepard was the second president of Pierce College, serving from 1955-1965, instated at a time when the growing San Fernando Valley needed a comprehensive community college beyond Pierce's agriculture curriculum. Under Shepard, a new mission was established, the college's core buildings were constructed, and enrollment grew from a hundred or so in 1947 to 14,000.
When the college opened in 1947, the students were male agriculture majors returning from World War II. With its wide cow pastures and make-shift classrooms in bungalows and Quonset huts, students in the mid-1950s joked that the campus looked more like an Army post than a college.
Shepard arrived in 1955, taking the reins from first president Dr. Edwin B. Angier. In 1956, the college was renamed Los Angeles Pierce College to reflect its new mission. By the time Shepard retired, not only had Pierce become a full-fledged liberal arts institution, but the once undeveloped grounds had been transformed into a modern metropolitan college with permanent buildings, concrete walks and landscaped trees.
Born in Barre, Vermont in 1900, Shepard earned bachelor's degrees in agriculture and education at the University of Vermont before coming west in 1923 to take a teaching position in the Whittier school system. In 1927, Shepard joined the L.A. Unified School District as head of the Physical Education Department at Eagle Rock High School. Over the next 28 years, until his appointment as president of Pierce, Shepard served in various teaching and administrative positions including vice principal and principal of six area h