Learn More about the History Associates

The sketch below comes with a past (of course). Our founding president was Dick Cook, a former advertising executive who came to Santa Barbara to retire. He started sitting in on History classes and enjoyed them so much he wanted to do something to make it easier for others to make use of UCSB’s resources, and to help the History Department at the same time. To get the UCSB History Associates off the ground, he asked his friend, local artist Barnaby Conrad, to draw something for our first mailer.

That was in 1987. We started with about 50 members, and in our first year a beaming Dick Cook presided over the award of $600 in fellowships for graduate student support. Twenty years later, more than 200 History Associates have raised more than half a million dollars in support for present and former grad students who are teaching everywhere in the United States and abroad.

True to Dick Cook’s vision, the History Associates sponsor a series of talks and programs to bring together award-winning UCSB History faculty and interested members of our far-flung community. Recent events have ranged from talks on ancient Greek warfare to modern Middle East politics, from a panel discussion of The DaVinci Code to a behind-the-scenes viewing of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America.

We invite you to become part of this exciting and ongoing relationship. Members are eligible for reduced-price admission to a number of UCSB activities and receive the History Department’s Historía newsletter, published six times a year. It’s a great way to keep in touch with people and events in History.