Obituary of Norris C. Hundley

Norris Cecil Hundley, jr. passed away peacefully on April 28, 2013. He was born to Norris and Helen Hundley, and was the oldest of seven children on October 26, 1935 in Houston, Texas . His surviving siblings are Juanita Walters, Helen Daugherty, Betty Howell, John Hundley, Patty Talbott, and Dr. Charles Hundley. In 1954, Norris met Carol Marie Beckquist at San Gabriel Mission High, they fell in love and were married on June 8, 1957. Norris graduated from Whittier College in 1958. After receiving his Ph.D. in History in 1963 from UCLA, he taught at the University of Houston for a year before returning to UCLA in 1964. He was a Professor of American History at UCLA from 1964 - 1994. Professor Hundley was a renowned scholar of water rights in the west. As editor of the Pacific Historical Review for almost thirty years (1968-1997), Professor Hundley was instrumental in shaping the field of the American West as well as the Pacific Rim through his introduction of new scholars and fields to this leading journal. Further, during his time as editor of the journal he took a leading role in the development of environmental and ethnic studies. Twelve times Professor Hundley received either the Billington Award of the Western History Association or the Blegen Prize of the Forest History Society for editing the most outstanding article on western history or conservation history respectively. To honor his commitment, "The Norris and Carol Hundley Award" (conferred annually by the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association) provides a prize for the "most distinguished book" written by a scholar residing in the trans-Mississippi West and Western Canada. Professor Hundley also served on various boards including the executive committees of the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association (President, 1994-1995), the Institute of American Culture, and on the editorial board of the California Historical Association. He served as Chair of the UCLA Program on Mexico from 1982-1994, and as the Director of the UCLA Latin American Center from 1989 - 1994, and again from 1994 - 1997. He also served as the 34th President of the Western History Association (1994-1995). As a scholar, Professor Hundley has authored over a hundred books and essays. He wrote with John Caughey, the widely read California: History of a Remarkable State (4th ed.; Prentice-Hall 1982). However, Hundley is clearly best known for his scholarship about western water rights, beginning with his published book Dividing the Waters: A Century of Controversy between the United States and Mexico (1966, trans. Spanish 2000), and then he expanded his approach to examine Water and the West: The Colorado River Compact and the Politics of Water in the American West (1975, rev. 2009), both books serving as pioneers in the then-emerging field of water resource history. He also wrote the highly acclaimed The Great Thirst: Californians and Water, 1770s-1990s (1992, rev. 2001). He has authored scholarly articles, two of which merited the Western Historical Quarterly's Oscar A. Winther Prize. His research has been acknowledged by grants from the Ford Foundation Award, The National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Guggenheim Foundation. Norris will be lovingly remembered by his wife of 56 years, Carol, his older daughter, Wendy Harris and her husband, Craig and his grandchildren Caitlyn Harris, Mackenzie Harris, and Paige Harris; daughter Jacqueline Reid and her husband Scott, and his grandson, Sean Kerr, along with step-grandsons, Matthew Reid and Seth Reid, and great-step granddaughter, Aubrey Reid. A Memorial Mass will be held at Our Lady Mount Carmel Catholic Church on Wednesday, May 22, 2013 at 1:00pm at 1300 East Valley Road, Santa Barbara, CA a Reception will be held at Stella Mare's 50 Los Patos Santa Barbara, CA immediately following the mass. In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to Lewy Body Dementia Association, Inc. (404) 935-6444. Arrangements entrusted to McDermott-Crockett Mortuary. http://www.tributeslides.com/tributes/show/8FK5BJ74X2LLW4XD