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Theodore L. Hullar, ɫ��ɫ’ fourth chancellor and a biochemist who pushed for major shifts in the university’s identity, died Sept. 28 at the age of 90.

Hullar came to ɫ��ɫ after serving as chancellor of UC Riverside from 1985-87, and jumped headlong into transformational projects like the shepherding of the draft version of the Long-Range Development Plan, a document that sought to guide ɫ��ɫ enrollment growth and expansion through the 2005-06 academic year.

That document envisioned major construction projects, and construction or renovation would begin or be completed on 21 buildings during Hullar’s tenure from 1987-94, including the Social Sciences and Humanities Building, the Walter A. Buehler Alumni Center and more. Also during Hullar’s time as chancellor, research funding and private gifts grew, and U.S. News and World Report named ɫ��ɫ one of its top five “up and coming” universities.

Hullar also oversaw the 1990 purchase of Russell Ranch, more than 1,500 acres of agricultural land west of Highway 113, some of which is still set aside for work in sustainable agriculture.

“Chancellor Hullar’s legacy during a formative time for ɫ��ɫ will be remembered well,” Chancellor Gary S. May said. “One area that endures today is our Principles of Community, which were developed under Ted’s leadership. We are now celebrating 35 years of those Principles, and they still serve as our aspirational goals.”

A push for a more representative university was one of Hullar’s first goals.

In his March 1988 formal inauguration ceremony, he urged the recruiting of more students and faculty members from underrepresented populations, and made numerous calls for bold change.

“Like any good effort we must have our full measure of boldness, risk, and even — like adventurers everywhere — a goodly amount of derring-do, saying ‘yes,’ not ‘no,’ to the unknowns which lie ahead,” he told the crowd in what was then known as Recreation Hall, according to a transcript published in Dateline ɫ��ɫ.

Over the time that Hullar led ɫ��ɫ, the number of women in ladder-rank faculty positions grew, as did the number of students, faculty and staff who were part of underrepresented populations.

He sought to expand ɫ��ɫ’ core strengths, said Hullar’s son, Ted W. Hullar, Ph.D. ’13.

“When you think of Davis as well-rounded institution — other areas outstanding in their expertise — I think that’s where my dad was able to bring a slightly broader view to campus,” he said, noting that he worked as an academic coordinator at ɫ��ɫ until last year and had several people tell him the same. “I see my dad as really having been one of the main movers to start moving the campus that way.”

Before becoming chancellor, Hullar served as an environmental toxicologist for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation; as well as director of Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station. He discovered a chemical reaction in 1966 — the Hanessian-Hullar reaction — so named because he and another researcher coincidentally published their work within a few months of each other after making the same discovery independently.

That researcher, UC Irvine Distinguished Professor Stephen Hanessian, said Hullar’s work was held in high regard in the research community.

“I remember him as a brilliant synthetic chemist whose work was characterized by the highest level of scientific rigor,” Hanessian said this week.

At ɫ��ɫ, Hullar examined potential changes to research policies, and undertook a “campus identity” study that eventually led to the creation of the ɫ��ɫ wordmark that combines a traditional serif font “UC” with a more modern san-serif font “Davis,” symbolizing the blending of old and new. 

Not all of Hullar’s efforts were popular, and a proposal that research funding be used as a measure of faculty success received so much pushback that the entire project was shelved, according to Abundant Harvest, the ɫ��ɫ History Project’s book that tells the story of ɫ��ɫ from 1905 to 2000. In that book, author Ann F. Scheuring calls Hullar “an articulate and vigorous man who viewed himself as an agent of change.”

Hullar also had to contend with a 1990 recession that led to reduced state funding and layoffs on campus; the UC Board of Regents ordered salary cuts, student fee increases and more. 

In 1993, UC President Jack Peltason transferred Hullar to a special assignment in the president’s office working on an economic development initiative. That fall, Hullar announced he would resign as chancellor the following spring. Looking back on his accomplishments during an October 1993 news conference, Hullar cited “a change in expectation. We just have different views of ourselves — who we are, what we are, what we can be, what the university can be.”

Larry Vanderhoef, who served as provost and executive vice chancellor under Hullar and was his successor as chancellor, had praised Hullar’s work at the time.

“Ted Hullar has spent virtually all of his waking hours attending to chancellor’s duties, always encouraging us to increase our aspirations, always extending the campus into the broader community,” Vanderhoef said in 1993, according to ɫ��ɫ Magazine. “In the process, he caused people on this campus to think in ways they never have before.”

From the start, Hullar said he sought to stay focused on forward progress.

“Special recognition must go to my family,” he said at his inauguration in 1988. “My mother and my late father taught me long ago to look ahead, to walk across unknown ground as best one is able, to ignore the swirling that goes round about, and to know that the rest will take care of itself. That is all I can do even now.”

Hullar is survived by his wife of 67 years, Joan Miller Hullar; two sons, Timothy E. Hullar and Ted W. Hullar; and one grandson.