In honor of their accomplishments in their respective fields and their service and support of the university, Cal State Fullerton recognized four Distinguished Alumni and two Honorary Alumni on Feb. 24 as the 2024 CSUF Vision & Visionaries Award recipients. Established in 1994, the biennial awards are the highest honors presented by CSUF to alumni and community supporters.
As former dean of the College of Extended and International Education and professor of anthropology at Cal State Dominguez Hills from 1998 to 2012, Margaret Faulwell Gordon introduced several innovative programs that left a legacy of prioritizing access to higher education.
But the Titan community knows her best as former first lady to Cal State Fullerton for more than two decades, serving alongside her husband, President Emeritus Milton A. Gordon, during his time as the university’s fourth president from 1990 to 2011.
In honor of her time at CSUF, which left an indelible mark on the campus community and helped to move the institution forward, Gordon has been named a 2024 CSUF Vision & Visionaries Honorary Alumni award winner.
Gordon was born in San Diego and later moved with her family to Los Angeles. She earned her bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees from UCLA before heading to Chicago where she accepted a teaching position at Chicago State University. There, she met her husband, Milton, who served as the university’s dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
The couple headed west to California as Gordon’s husband became the vice president for academic affairs at Sonoma State University in 1986 and then president at CSUF in 1990. While serving as first lady at CSUF, she held her roles as dean and professor at CSUDH.
Gordon’s passion for anthropology was rooted in a love for language and linguistics, and when her grandmother became ill, she became interested in the way in which she was being treated. While in Chicago, she went back to school for her master’s degree…
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