A Family Affair
Alumna Linda La Kretz Duttenhaver ‘77 and her father, Morton La Kretz, establish a new research center at Sedgwick Reserve
Devotion to environmental causes runs deep in the La Kretz family; so does a passion for philanthropy. Put them together and it’s a true force of nature. Or, more appropriately, a force for nature.
That’s the case at UC Santa Barbara, where alumna Linda La Kretz Duttenhaver ’77 and her father, Morton La Kretz, pledged $6 million for the university’s 6,000-acre Sedgwick Reserve in Santa Ynez. Their gift establishes The La Kretz Research Center, meant to fortify — and further — the reserve’s stature as an invaluable site for ecological inquiry and education. The gift also creates an endowment for directorship of the center and supports fellowships for promising graduate students.
“Sedgwick is unique,” said Duttenhaver, who previously funded renovations of the reserve’s barn and historic Ranch House. “There are very few places in this state of its size and pristine nature. This makes it ideal for groundbreaking research. The reserve is also inspirational because of its sheer beauty, and the diversity of plant and animal life.
“This is the perfect moment to further Sedgwick’s importance and impact,” she added. “My vision is for a first-class intellectual center attracting top-notch scientists, researchers and environmentalists, those who could develop solutions to today’s pressing environmental problems, such as drought, climate change, native habitats and more. It will be a site for high-level conferences, workshops and brainstorming sessions with the most brilliant minds in science and the environment.”
The center will serve as a fulcrum of activity for a UCSB-led, interdisciplinary, collaborative effort to study, identify and innovate solutions for the myriad environmental challenges impacting California’s critical habitats. It was largely inspired by the UCLA La Kretz Center for California Conservation Science established by Morton La Kretz, a UCLA alumnus and prolific philanthropist focused on education, the environment and conservation.
Leading this new center at Sedgwick will be Frank Davis, a noted ecologist and conservation scientist, and a professor in UCSB’s Bren School of Environmental Science & Management. He also is the former director of UCSB’s National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis.
“Frank Davis is the perfect leader for the La Kretz Research Center at Sedgwick Reserve,” Duttenhaver said. “He has years of research history at Sedgwick, a deep knowledge in many aspects of environmental science and intellectual curiosity — vital attributes for executing on Sedgwick’s mission to find solutions to our planet’s conservation and environmental challenges. Frank is truly a ‘rockstar’ in the field, and we could not be more thrilled that he is at the helm of the La Kretz Research Center.”
Davis is decidedly thrilled himself. “It is a real honor to serve as founding director of the La Kretz Research Center at Sedgwick Reserve,” he said. “The ranch holds deep personal meaning for me. My relationship goes back 30 years and includes a decade as faculty manager and 25 memorable years of field classes and research on oak ecology.
“With this wonderful gift from Linda Duttenhaver and Morton La Kretz, we will accelerate research on Sedgwick Reserve and raise the visibility of the reserve in the larger constellation of field research stations in the U.S. and abroad,” Davis added. “The La Kretz Research Center at Sedgwick Reserve helps a very special place realize its full potential as a nexus for field research on California’s foothill ecosystems. Such research has never been more timely and important.”
Published November 2017
My vision is for a first-class intellectual center attracting top-notch scientists, researchers and environmentalists, those who could develop solutions to today’s pressing environmental problems, such as drought, climate change, native habitats and more.
Linda Duttenhaver ‘77
