Ben Rude

Ben Rude was a student of CSUN during its early years. After serving in the Air Force during the Korean War, he attended Los Angeles State College (later California State University Los Angeles) until 1956, when he took classes at what was then a satellite campus of L.A. State in the San Fernando Valley, also serving as the first president of the Associated Students there. He earned his BA in 1957, subsequently becoming first president of the Alumni Association. He went on to earn an MA in June of 1961 from San Fernando Valley College, which had become independent of L.A. State in 1958, and started teaching there in September of 1961. He taught English as a Second Language (ESL), and served as foreign student advisor and coordinator of the ESL program. He passed away in 2005.