Former Gov. George Deukmejian’s archives from his time in office and his previous political work will begin to be categorized at Cal State Long Beach in the next few months.
The George Deukmejian University Archives, located on the underground floor of the University Library, was dedicated on March 24.
CSULB University Library Dean Roman Kochan will oversee the categorization process.
Kochan expressed interest in hiring a professional archivist and getting some students to help with the project as well. He said the goal is to start the process within the next two to three months.
“I’m just itching to get some folks in here working for us,” Kochan said.
Deukmejian said he was pleased to hear about the impending plans to categorize the former California attorney general and 35th governor’s archives.
“I would be delighted if that can be done, and the sooner the better,” Deukmejian said.
Kochan said he has spoken with Deukmejian about making the archives completely open to the public, which is a seemingly acceptable idea to Deukmejian. If done, the archives would be the first gubernatorial archive to allow public access.
According to Deukmejian, there is a good possibility of allowing public access to the archives, but everything has to be categorized before that would be possible.
Kochan also said he would like to make the archives available to view online.
Deukmejian said he particularly likes that the archives are all in one place because they were previously split up, with some of the boxes at Stanford University and others in storage, Kochan said.
Deukmejian’s archives cover 1,200 square feet in a massive collection of 2,853 boxes. The boxes contain press releases, studies, laws, speeches and other documents from the Republican’s political career.
According to Deukmejian, when he left office, his preference was to send the archives to CSULB, but the university was not set up to receive the archives at that time so he sent them to the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
After his term, Deukmejian moved back to Long Beach, and had a difficult time getting the access he needed to the archives because they were so far away.
“Over time, I began to ask CSULB if they were interested, and by then, they were set up for it, and they were [interested],” Deukmejian said.
Because of a state law implemented in 1988, governors who took office after Deukmejian must have their documents sent to the state archives in Sacramento.
Deukmejian was given an honorary doctorate from CSULB after establishing a scholarship for disabled students. He also has a street on campus named after him.
The George Deukmejian University Archives also house records from Republican Steve Kuykendall, political activist Dorothy Healey and the Vincent Thomas Bridge.
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