Dominican University - a Historical Overview

How did a university run and taught by the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael become the liberal arts school we see it as today? 

As University Archivist for Dominican University of California, an institution with well over 125 years of history in San Rafael, Louis Knecht works with a myriad of histories and historical materials that reveal these histories. As the only accredited four year university in Marin County, the intertwining engagements of Dominican and the larger Marin region throughout the course of time are plentiful. Spending a large part of its history as an all women’s catholic college until 1970, Dominican University of California also offers a view of the changing environment of higher education. 

Louis Knecht was born and raised in Southern California, where he also studied History at UC Santa Barbara and received his Master in Library and Information Science at UCLA. Along the journey Louis has worked at Disneyland, Humboldt State University, and Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park, all of which influence his day to day perspectives on history and the preservation of its artifacts.