Harold Tokmakian papers

Harold Tokmakian was a city planner. Born in Sanger, California in 1927, he served in the United States Army in Japan just after World War II. After earning bachelor's and master's degrees in architecture at Stanford University and a master's degree in city and regional planning at Cornell University (1955), he worked as a planning consultant in Pennsylvania, drawing up plans for the urban design of Reading and working on several projects with Russell Van Nest Black. He returned to California in 1958, where he ran Fresno County's advanced planning division until he became Fresno County Planning Director in 1963. In 1968, he began teaching courses in urban planning through the University of California Extension and then became a professor at California State University, Fresno, where he established the department of Urban and Regional Planning. Beginning in 1970, he also served on both the Fresno City and County planning commissions. After retiring from teaching, he remained active in Fresno's development by volunteering as a member of the Downtown Fresno Coalition trying to save the Fulton Mall and through his work with the San Joaquin River Conservancy, working to establish the San Joaquin River Valley Parkway Trust. He died in 2016.