The street that College of the Canyons calls home is aptly named for COC’s first superintendent-president, Dr. Robert Clarke Rockwell (1913-2000). The youngest of thirteen children, Rockwell was born in Santa Barbara and grew up in Carpinteria. Aside from getting his bachelor’s at Harvard, he was a lifelong Californian, earning his masters and doctoral degrees in educational administration at USC. After helping develop Cerritos College, Dr. Rockwell was superintendent-president of Santa Barbara City College before coming to Santa Clarita in 1968 to run the brand new COC; with a permanent campus years from completion, classes began in 1969 at Hart High. This street was christened in 1975, during Dr. Rockwell’s twelve-year tenure. As the county wouldn’t let the school name the street after a living person, they added a bogus “Canyon” as a workaround. Robert Rockwell and his wife Betty retired to Encinitas in 1980.
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