That\u2019s exactly how it turned out.<\/p>\n
\u201cBob was kind of a classic Canadian,\u201d said Parode Dynes. \u201cHe would go with the flow and wasn\u2019t easily irritated. But he stood up for what he believed in and took positions that weren\u2019t necessarily popular.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Robert](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/sut-l-robert-dynes-02.jpg\")
Robert Dynes and his wife Ann Parode Dynes. (The Dynes family)<\/p>\n
Dynes grew up in a Canadian family of modest means. He was born on Nov. 8, 1942, in London, Ontario, where his father sold shoes and his mother taught kindergarten and first grade.<\/p>\n
Early on, the young Dynes developed a deep interest in taking things apart and putting them back together, simply to learn how they worked. This evolved into a passion for physics and mathematics.<\/p>\n
He went on to earn a bachelor\u2019s degree in those subjects at the University of Western Ontario, then a master\u2019s degree and a doctorate at McMaster University.<\/p>\n
A private industry job soon followed at AT&T\u2019s famed Bell Laboratories, the birthplace of the transistor and a key player in the development of lasers, where he rose quickly, becoming the head of semiconductors and director of chemical physics.<\/p>\n
He arrived in the late 1960s during a golden age of research at Bell Labs, which focused on basic research rather than simply developing things that helped AT&T\u2019s telephone business. The company tended to quietly weed out people who didn\u2019t wander around looking for ways to collaborate \u2014 a way of running things that aligned with Dynes\u2019 thinking.<\/p>\n
But over time, Dynes \u2014 a warm, chatty, energetic man \u2014 grew restless and decided to move on.<\/p>\n
\u201cI left a declining powerhouse \u2026 and I came to an emerging powerhouse, the University of California at San Diego,\u201d Dynes said<\/a> at an education symposium in 2014.<\/p>\n By the time Dynes joined UC San Diego\u2019s physics faculty in 1991, Atkinson had already laid the foundation<\/a> for the school to become a research giant and felt comfortable moving on to serve as president of the UC.<\/p>\n Dynes was named Atkinson\u2019s replacement as UC San Diego chancellor in 1996 \u2014 astonishing many, because he had arrived at the growing campus only five years earlier.<\/p>\n Dynes oversaw the creation of the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, the Rady School of Management and the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, now known as the Qualcomm Institute. The \u201cQI\u201d quickly became famous for it innovations, including the creation of AlertCalifornia, a network of live cameras that detect and monitor wildfires.<\/p>\n In 2000, UC San Diego surpassed $1 billion in annual research funding for the first time \u2014 a figure that has since nearly doubled. That same year, Dynes launched the school\u2019s first $1 billion fundraising campaign, successfully tapping industries like telecommunications, engineering, health care and defense for money.<\/p>\n He also helped found the Preuss School, a charter middle and high school on the UC San Diego campus that was among his favorite endeavors. \u201cPreuss may have been the thing he was most proud of,\u201d Parode Dynes said.<\/p>\n His achievements didn\u2019t go unnoticed by the UC Board of Regents, which chose him to succeed Atkinson as the system\u2019s president in 2003.<\/p>\n It was a difficult moment in the UC\u2019s history. The state was facing a huge budget deficit<\/a> that led lawmakers to slash the university system\u2019s funding to help stabilize the state\u2019s finances.<\/p>\n It was also facing political turmoil. In a recall effort, voters removed Gov. Gray Davis from office and replaced him with actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, with whom Dynes had a deep friendship.<\/p>\n That friendship helped Dynes, along with others, to negotiate a compact<\/a> with Schwarzenegger that stabilized and eventually increased funding for the UC and California State University systems \u2014 but that also faced criticism from students and families for ushering in significant fee hikes.<\/p>\n Dynes also prevented<\/a> the UC from losing the right to manage and operate two national laboratories that were being scrutinized for safety and security problems. And in 2005 he oversaw the opening of UC Merced, the first new UC campus in a generation.<\/p>\n That same year he made another move that proved consequential \u2014 appointing Michael Drake chancellor of UC Irvine. Drake would later become the first Black president of the University of California system.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was one of my career highlights when he appointed me,\u201d Drake said in a statement this week. \u201cHis bold vision and unwavering commitment to academic excellence positioned the University for national impact and future success that is still evident today.\u201d<\/p>\n But Dynes\u2019 tenure leading the university system also was marked by controversy, notably a scandal over executive compensation that surfaced in 2006. A state audit<\/a> revealed that the UC\u2019s system for paying top managers and professors was filled with irregularities, including the awarding of pay or perks without proper approval.<\/p>\n Dynes introduced changes in an effort to fix the problems. But his handling of the matter cost him the support of some members of the Board of Regents and the state Legislature.<\/p>\n In August 2007, he announced that he would step down the following year. He didn\u2019t attribute the decision to the scandal. Instead, he made reference to his wife, Ann, whom he had married earlier that year. He had been married twice previously.<\/p>\n During a conference call with reporters, Dynes said<\/a>, \u201cI am in love with my wife, and it\u2019s time for me to spend time with her before it\u2019s too late. You never accomplish everything you want to accomplish.\u201d<\/p>\n He also had more time to work with civic and scientific organizations and did so \u2014 notably with the San Diego Foundation and the La Jolla Institute for Immunology.<\/p>\n![\"Dick](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/sut-l-robert-dynes-1.jpg\")
Dick Blum, right, chair of University of the California Board of Regents, is shown with UC President Robert Dynes, center, at a regents meeting on Wednesday, March 14, 2007, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo\/Nick Ut)<\/p>\n