World War I, “the war to end all wars” was grinding to a bloody halt. Broken men were returning home with horrible new injuries from mustard gas, machine guns and German 88 mortars. They had slept in the mud and bomb craters for months and came down with “trench foot,” “shell shock” and drug habits. They saw friends die on barbed wire in no man’s land, stained a sickly green by poison gas. Writers would call them “The Lost Generation.” It was an apt title. Many would be lost, to syphilis, poisoned liquor, gang war, and the general insanity that began with the 1919 Volstead Act, which outlawed alcohol in the Roaring Twenties.

The 1907 Caminetti law made it easier to get state funds to prepare high school students and returning soldiers for college. Too many high school grads were flunking out of universities because high school had left them unprepared. Now students could spend their first two years in college prep courses while living at home, saving parents money and students the stress of living away from home for the first time.

Applications were made and papers were signed. It was official. Santa Rosa Junior College was born. But the wrong man was chosen to lead it. The school’s first dean, Dr. Clyde Wolfe, said the fledgling school, located in a few rooms on the second floor of Santa Rosa High would be “no more than a bump on the top side of the high school.” He left for greener pastures after just a year and local businessmen set out to prove him wrong. He was replaced by physics instructor Floyd P. Bailey, who would guide the new school through its most difficult period.

In 1918, Santa Rosa was a farm town, producing apples, hops, dairy, sheep and eggs. Wages were $1.50 a day, for laborers working 10-hour shifts and six-day weeks. The JC opened in the fall of 1918 and closed just as quickly. The influenza pandemic was at its height and most public schools and large meetings were shut down to prevent spreading the disease. Classes resumed in November with eight professors teaching 19 students.

Versatility was important for such a small staff and all the professors doubled up, teaching multiple subjects, as well as high school classes. School President Floyd Bailey selected teachers for chemistry, foreign languages, English, engineering, physical education, math, physics, history and Latin. The school scraped by, on loans, gifts and borrowed textbooks. Funding was a problem. As a public institution, the JC was barred from charging tuition. Nine years passed with very little growth or change in policy. The school was stuck in a rut.

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