2018

Dan Giustina is managing partner of Giustina Resources, an Oregon-based timber products company, and former president and chairman of the University of Oregon Foundation. He likely would not have a connection to the Chico State College of Agriculture were it not for his friends the Bell family, who ranched in Butte County dating back to 1875. Many Bell family members attended Chico State over the years, including Ada Bell, who enrolled in the first class to attend Chico Normal School in 1889.

As a young man and aspiring cattle rancher in Southern Oregon, Dan Giustina met Tom Bell, who ranched more than 16,000 acres in California and Oregon. Tom and his wife Dorothy took Dan under their wings and were cherished friends until Tom passed away in 1987, leaving $30,000 in his will to promote excellence in animal sciences at Chico State. After Tom’s passing, both Dan and the College of Agriculture had the opportunity to deepen our relationships with Tom’s sisters Helen Head and Claudine Bell, who were delightful friends of the College of Agriculture well into their 90’s and even until Claudine’s passing in 2011 at the age of 104.

A year later when Helen passed away, Dan made the remarkable decision to start the first college-based presidential scholarship at Chico State to honor his friends, the Bell family. Dan’s gift to Chico State is a touching memorial for this wonderful family, whose line has ended, but whose legacy will live on forever in the lives of students who receive the Bell Family Presidential Scholarship.

Four years into the Bell Family Presidential Scholarship legacy, the first of the Bell Scholars, Holly Hocket graduated in the spring of 2018. Holly and each of the Bell scholars can attest to the great impact that Dan’s generosity has had on their lives, and the deep, rich honor they feel in being a part of the Bell family legacy.

Dan was the recipient of the University of Oregon Presidential Medal in 2007 for “long-standing and extraordinary support” where he received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. He was a main donor to Oregon’s Ford Alumni Center, which opened in 2009. Through his work, both at University of Oregon and at Chico State, it is clear that Dan Giustina is one of the leading philanthropists supporting excellence in higher education in the west.