Eugenia M. Schmidt succeeded Adeline Brinckley in 1913, and Mildred A. Kreischer replaced Schmidt in 1916, when three geography courses were offered. No geography courses were given in 1921-22, but in 1922 Anna Verona Doris was appointed as the first long-term geography instructor. Educated at the University of California and Columbia University, Doris’s original title was Supervisor of Visual Instruction (cartography and map interpretation); she later became Director of Visual Instruction and Assistant Professor of Geography. In the 1920s, Doris taught such courses as Human Geography, Economic Geography, Geography of the Americas, and The New Point of View in Teaching Geography. Her courses were offered by the Social Sciences unit, which housed Contemporary Civilization, Geography, Economics, History, Sociology and Government courses. This marked the beginning of the association of geography with the social sciences on our campus, a relationship that has continued to the present. It also marked the interdisciplinary nature of the field, as Anna Doris also offered Introduction to Geology and Physiography in the Physical Sciences unit. Doris continued teaching Geography here until 1948, when she gained emeritus status.

In 1935 the Normal School was reconstituted as San Francisco State College, with a liberal arts curriculum and a Social Science Department offering instruction in the fields of Economics, Geography, Government, History, and Sociology. In 1936/37, the “field” of Geography grew by a half position with the appointment of Theodore Treutlein as Assistant Professor of History and Geography. Dr. Treutlein soon became a full-time historian. In 1937 Walter A. Hacker, educated at the University of Vienna, was appointed Instructor in Geography and Geology. Although he was instrumental in establishing a Geology program—and served as Advisor for the Major in Earth Science, Dr. Hacker remained with the “field” and then Department of Geography until his retirement in 1972.

The end of the Second World War brought the G.I. Bill, which supported a period of rapid growth in the geography program, the College, and indeed higher education throughout the United States. In 1947/48 the Division of Social Science was created, and the geography major and minor established. In 1948 Anna Doris retired and was replaced by Lyle E. Gibson as Assistant Professor of Geography.

The campus moved to its present Lake Merced site in 1952, allowing a period of physical expansion to begin and for academic programs to continue their development. Geography was housed in what is now the Business Building from 1952 to 1965. Alfred R. Sumner joined Drs Hacker and Gibson in 1953 and by Dr. Walter Olson in 1955. A fifth faculty member, Dr Astvaldur Eydal, joined the program in 1959.

The program finally became the Department of Geography in 1961/62, with Dr. Gibson as Department Head. That year also saw our first graduate course. Dr Gibson left in 1962, when Dr. Walter Hacker became Chair. Dr. Jean B. Vance was hired in 1962; and Drs. John B. Leighly, Richard F. Hough, and Robert D. Picker in 1963. Thus seven geographers were listed in the 1964/65 University Catalog, when the old Social Science Division became the School of Behavioral and Social Sciences. At that time, the Department of Geology was established in the School of Natural Science, and the Department of Geography moved to its present location on the second floor of the north wing of the Humanities and Social Sciences Building.

The Department of faculty grew to nine with the hiring of Max C. Kirkeberg and Roy Gordon in 1965; Kirkeberg is now the most senior faculty member in the Department. In 1966/67 the Master of Arts in Geography was approved and Georg Treichel was appointed to a tenure-track position. Dr Hans J. Meihoefer and John E. Westfall joined the Department in 1968, followed by Dr. Roger Crawford in 1969 and Dr. Steven Pease in 1975; Pease died while on sabbatical in Fall 1984.

The 1970s and 1980s saw a succession of full-time lecturer appointments in physical geography, including Drs. Keith Topps (1973-76), Mark Winsor (1974-77), Rene Barendregt (1977-82), Larry Band (1983-84), Mark Schwartz (1985-87) and Jerry Davis (1985-88). Tenure-track appointments resumed in the 1980s, with Drs. Nancy Wilkinson (1986) and Jerry Davis (1988.) During this era, the MA: Concentration in Resource Management and Environmental Planning gained approval and the Department became the home of the Multidisciplinary GIS Center. Dr. Gordon retired in 1989.

Tenure-track hires during the early 1990s included Drs. Trish Foschi (1990) and Barbara Holzman (1992.) Dr. Larry Foster, former Dean of the Graduate Division, joined the Department in 1992. For one summer, the department attained its greatest size ever (13 T/TT faculty.) The death of Jean Vance that summer, followed quickly by the retirements of Picker, Hough and Treichel, soon dropped the department back to nine TT members.

Kirkeberg retired in 2001 (although he still teaches as a lecturer in his emeritus status), Crawford retired in 2002 and Foster in 2003. Westfall and Meihoefer are now participating in the faculty early retirement program. We have been fortunate to gain many new faculty members in recent years: Dr. Qian Guo joined the Department in 1998, Dr. Ellen Hines joined in 2001, Drs. Jeffrey Bury and Andrew Oliphant joined in 2002; and Drs. Jason Henderson, XiaoHang Liu, and Edna Wangui began this Fall 2003. This brings our department to eleven T/TT faculty and two FERPs.

Department chairs over the past two decades have included Roger Crawford (1979-1980), Jean Vance (1980-92), Hans J. Meihoefer (1992-97) and Nancy Wilkinson (1997-present.) Wilkinson has been elected to a third three-year term, which began Fall 2003.