It was 1965, when California State Senator Robert Lagomarsino first voted to authorize funds for an advance acquisition site study for a state college. At that time, he also introduced Senate Bill #70, which called for the establishment of a state college for Ventura County. Almost twenty-five years later, Mr. Lagomarsino continued his fight for a Ventura County university at a 1990 California State University site selection meeting.
Decades later, in 1992, former Congressman Lagomarsino and his wife, Norma, generously dedicated his political collection to California State University Northridge’s satellite campus in Ventura, California. The donated materials were transferred in 2000 to California State University Channel Islands, Ventura County’s own four year university and newest campus in the California State University system. As you may know, CSUCI is the former home of Camarillo State Hospital and Developmental Center.
In April of 2002, Robert and Norma Lagomarsino donated $1,000,000 to establish the Robert J. and Norma M. Lagomarsino Department of Archives and Special Collections located in the new John Spoor Broome Library. Their generosity secured the Archives' legacy in preserving and presenting Ventura County history.
