Gustave O. Arlt

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Gustave Arlt, dean emeritus of UCLA’s Graduate Division, has moved almost effortlessly into positions of leadership and service in everything that he has undertaken. His insights are strengthened by a lifetime of study and dedication to the highest intellectual and spiritual values that Western culture has produced. They are part of the heart, nerve, and life’s purpose of a man now in his ninth decade, who has led an enormously productive university life.

A 1931 graduate of the University of Chicago, Arlt came to UCLA as a professor of German literature and language in 1935. Soon named chairman, he transformed an average department into one of great academic promise, his efforts having a beneficial effect on other language departments at UCLA. He helped to strengthen UCLA’s music department, which had hitherto stressed conservatory type training. As his leadership role grew, he was instrumental in the creation of the Department of Theater Arts, which led logically to the establishment of the College of Fine Arts in 1948. He became associate dean of the Graduate Division in 1950 and dean in 1958, retiring in 1962.

Arlt’s was crucial in making UCLA the high-ranking institution it is today. Paramount among his achievements was the successful evolution of graduate research and education on the campus, which under his leadership gained national prominence. Taking up a new challenge after his retirement by starting anew as founding president of the Council of Graduate Schools, in Washington, D.C., Arlt soon communicated his ideas on humanistic learning to public figures and effectively played a major role in the 1965 establishment of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

UCLA alumni, faculty, and students owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Dean Arlt for his exceptional service and many lasting contributions to the University, to graduate education nationwide and to our entire community.