09/03/2026
It is with profound sadness that we share that J. Clayburn La Force, Jr. (M.A. ’58, Ph.D. ’62), dean emeritus of UCLA Anderson and one of the most consequential leaders in the history of our school, has passed away.
It’s fair to say that Clay’s tenure as dean was transformative, impacting nearly every aspect of the school. He recruited world-class faculty, developed significant new sources of financial support, expanded degree programs, encouraged entrepreneurship and helped create research centers that remain essential elements of Anderson today. But no development during his deanship proved more consequential than the relationship he forged with John E. Anderson, a relationship that resulted in the renaming of the school and helped lay the foundation for our future.
With the support of then UCLA Chancellor Charles Young, Clay and John set out to find a benefactor willing to make a naming gift that would launch the effort to build a new facility. Ultimately, John decided he would make the commitment himself. John and Marion Anderson’s $15 million gift in 1987 was then the largest cash contribution from an individual in University of California history. The Graduate School of Management became the John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management, and the gift became the cornerstone of the campaign to construct a new home for the school at Sunset Boulevard and Westwood Plaza.
Clay immersed himself in the effort to create the new complex. Working with the chancellor, John and other benefactors, he helped secure the public and private resources necessary to make it possible. He also worked closely with architect Henry Cobb on a design intended not simply to provide classrooms and offices, but to create an academic community, a collection of interconnected buildings that would serve as a village for the school and a metaphor for the institution that was rooted in tradition but also built with an eye on the future. Clay’s imprint on that community became literal as well as figurative. One of the red-brick pillars in the Anderson courtyard bears the inscription “May La Force Be With You,” an affectionate tribute from faculty and staff to the dean who spearheaded construction of the complex.
The naming of the school and creation of its new home were the most visible manifestations of a broader strategy Clay pursued throughout his deanship. From the beginning, strengthening the faculty was among his highest priorities. Looking back on those years, Clay once recalled that his goal was to build a better faculty while retaining the outstanding scholars already at the management school. Doing so required resources, and he recognized that the school could not depend solely on traditional university funding. He pursued private support, including endowed faculty chairs, and sought new ways for the school to generate resources of its own.
One of the most important breakthroughs of his tenure came with the creation of the EMBA and FEMBA programs. These programs provided the school with an important new source of revenue while offering a world-class management education to a cohort of experienced professionals, part of a strategy that gave Anderson greater financial capacity to invest in its faculty and programs.
Clay also encouraged the development of several of our research centers, including the UCLA Anderson Price Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation and predecessors of our current centers in global management, real estate and finance.
He was similarly open to bringing the experience of business practitioners into the classroom. During his deanship, several accomplished professionals joined the school as lecturers and adjunct faculty.
After stepping down as dean in 1993, Clay remained part of the UCLA Anderson community as dean emeritus and professor emeritus. His legacy is reflected not only in the school’s buildings and programs but also in the J. Clayburn La Force Faculty Leadership Award, which recognizes faculty members for leadership and service to Anderson.
Please join us in remembering Clay and offering our deepest condolences to his surviving children, as well as the colleagues, former students and generations of members of the UCLA Anderson community who benefited from his leadership and his extraordinary commitment to our school.
