LAKE COUNTY – A late Lake County cattle rancher and philanthropist is the namesake of two newly endowed faculty positions at the University of California, Davis.

The Russell L. Rustici Endowed Chair in Rangeland Watershed Science and the Russell L. Rustici Endowed Specialist in Cooperative Extension in Rangeland Watershed Science were among six new faculty positions celebrated at a dinner in Davis on April 7.

“Endowed chairs and professorships strengthen a university's most important resource: its excellent faculty,”Chancellor Linda Katehi said in remarks prepared for the evening, a dinner to honor all UC Davis endowed chairs and professorships, which now number 120.

“They help the faculty excel in learning, discovery and engagement with the broader community for generations to come,” said Katehi. “We are grateful to the donors who have given so generously to establish these new endowed positions.”

The two Rustici endowments were created with a $1.2 million gift from the estate of Rustici, a Lake County cattle rancher who died in October 2008 at age 84.

Rustici had worked with several University of California professors, Cooperative Extension farm advisors and specialists who studied issues he cared about – cattle and preservation of the rangeland ecosystem.

A World War II veteran and 1948 graduate of UC Berkeley, Rustici also endowed the Russell Rustici Chair in Rangeland Management at Berkeley's College of Natural Resources.

He also bequeathed $300,000 to Carlé Continuation High School in Lower Lake. The month after he died, the Lake County Board of Supervisors approved naming the Lower Lake park for Rustici.

Selections for both of the new Rustici endowed positions at UC Davis already have been made.

Randy Dahlgren – professor of soil science and biogeochemistry, chair of the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources at UC Davis and director of the UC Davis-based Kearney Foundation of Soil Science – has been named the Rustici Endowed Chair in Rangeland Watershed Science.

The chair supports research and outreach programs related to the California rangelands that Rustici appreciated and worked to preserve. In the near term, the endowment will provide funding for collaborative work with colleagues to prepare a new book, “Biogeochemistry of Mediterranean Watersheds,” which will be dedicated to Rustici.

Ken Tate, a rangeland watershed specialist in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences and the department's vice chair for outreach and extension, has been named the Rustici endowed specialist. His research and outreach program focuses on the diverse managed ecosystems that make up California's rangelands.

The Rustici endowed specialist also will support research and outreach programs related to the California rangelands, including collaborative work with science colleagues to prepare the book to be dedicated to Rustici.

Appointment to an endowed chair or professorship is one of the highest honors a university can bestow upon a faculty member.

Created through funds that are permanently invested to provide annual income in perpetuity, these endowments support stellar teaching and research while, at the same time, ensuring the advancement of knowledge for generations to come.

Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf .