Walter Van Dyke

Candidate Biography:

Born: October 3, 1823 in Tyre, New York
Died: December 25, 1905 in East Oakland, CA

1851: District Attorney, Klamath County (first District Attorney and County Organizer)
1854: District Attorney, Humboldt County
1855-1858: Owner, The Humboldt Times
1874: U. S. Attorney, District of Northern California
1879: Delegate, Second Constitutional Convention (Sacramento)
1888: Justice, Los Angeles County Superior Court
1899-1905: Justice, California Supreme Court

• During his service with the Second California Constitutional Convention, Van Dyke introduced a section on the article on Education which established the constitutional independence of the University of California. Although it has been amended (most recently in 1976), Article IX, Section 9 of the State Constitution has related to the  independence of the University of California since the latest Constitution was written in 1878: "The University of California shall  constitute a public trust... subject only to such legislative control as may be necessary to insure compliance with the terms of its endowments and the proper investment and security of its  funds. It shall be entirely independent of all political or sectarian  influence, and kept free  therefrom in the appointment of its regents, and in the administration of its affairs..."

Source: California Blue Book (1903)