Who Was Aldous Huxley?
Famed Author Visits Alameda County College
Aldous Huxley was an English writer and philosopher who authored “Brave New World” and “Doors of Perception”, among other famous works. By the time of his visit to speak at the 1962 commencement of the new state college in Hayward, Huxley was considered a leader in world thought of the first rank. As a humanist and pacifist who espoused the use of psychedelic drugs, he was controversial among his peers, but became wildly popular among the counter-culture youth of the mid- to late 1960s. The celebrated author’s visit to the State College for Alameda County (later CSUEB) put an early stamp of credibility on the Hayward campus. Huxley died a year after his visit to the Hayward college campus, at age 69, on the day of John F. Kennedy’s assassination.
Aldous Huxley mounts the steps of the old Hayward Union High School (above). The old high school served as CSUEB’s first campus for two years, before the new college moved to its current site in 1963. Huxley is flanked by administrators Hillary Fry (left), Arnold Biella (3rd from left), and President Fred Harcleroad (on the right).