Founding Sonoma State economics professor and longtime department chair Richard Van Gieson dies at 94
Richard Van Gieson, a founding faculty member at Sonoma State University who built its economics department from the ground up and led it for more than two decades, died March 23, 2026. He was 94.
Van Gieson joined Sonoma State in the early 1960s as its first economics faculty member, helping shape the academic direction of the then-new institution in Rohnert Park. Over the course of his career, he developed at least 30 courses, hired the department’s original faculty, and served as department chair for more than 20 years. He was known as a dedicated educator and mentor who inspired generations of students; during his tenure, about 50 graduates of the department went on to earn master’s or doctoral degrees at universities across the country.
A Fresno native, Van Gieson enlisted in the Naval Air Reserve in Alameda and served from 1951 to 1955. After his military service, he attended Sacramento State College (now California State University, Sacramento), where he earned a bachelor of science degree in economics with honors in 1958, becoming the first in his immediate family to graduate from college. He later earned a doctorate from the University of Colorado in 1963.
Van Gieson retired in 1999 and moved to Lincoln, California.
In 1953, he met Betty, his wife of 54 years, at a UC Berkeley sorority dance. They married in 1954 and raised four children together. Betty Van Gieson died in 2008. In 2013, he met Carole Orlando, who remained his partner until his death.