New Scholarship to Benefit Students Studying War and Society, History, and Political Science

The Dr. Ora B. Gordon, MD and CAPT Lance B. Gordon, USN (Ret.) Endowed Scholarship for the Center of War and Society will support a wide range of SDSU students.

Lance Gordon graduated from SDSU with a B.A. in political science. He received a J.D. from the University of California, San Francisco, School of Law, and an LL.M in taxation from New York University, School of Law. He also received a Master of Strategic Studies degree from the U.S. Army War College.

Gordon retired as a captain in the U.S. Navy Reserve after 30 years of service and as a lawyer specializing in international taxation.

“When I reflect on my educational experience at SDSU, I see it as the foundation of my professional careers,” he said. “It is where I learned core critical thinking skills and explored courses in numerous disciplines in a public-school environment with an incredibly diverse, creative, dynamic, and fun student body and faculty.

“My wife and I feel it is essential for any college graduate to give back and support educational institutions that provide so much for their students. Endowing a scholarship fund for the Center for War and Society is particularly meaningful because the center is so innovative, topical, and focused on areas of interest to me as a retired Naval officer."

“The generosity of the Gordons and their commitment to our vision of building a nationally renowned Center for War and Society is so inspiring,” said Gregory A. Daddis, the USS Midway Chair in Modern U.S. Military History at SDSU. “With the support of community leaders like Ora and Lance, we will be able to attract some of the very best students from across the country to study a topic that truly has global significance.”

Graduates of the program have entered professional careers such as teaching, serving in the U.S. Departments of State and Defense, or going on to earn their Ph.D.s at superb universities like Yale and Brown.

Gordon believes it is important to create a scholarship to assist students in realizing their academic aspirations at SDSU — the university where his academic career was launched.

The Dr. Ora B. Gordon, M.D. and CAPT Lance B. Gordon, USN (Ret.) Endowed Scholarship for the Center of War and Society will be utilized by the College of Arts and Letters to provide scholarship support to graduate students pursuing their master's degree and who are active duty service members, reservists, National Guard, and/or veterans of the United States Armed Forces, or who are pursuing a major in history with a concentration in War and Society or political science, or who are involved in activities or coursework through the Center for War and Society in the College of Arts and Letters at SDSU.