If you weren’t here, it’s hard to imagine San Diego between 1955 and 1975. Especially from a Downtown viewpoint. At the time the Pete Wilson era was beginning, the Jack Borchers era was winding down. But Borchers, the president of the San Diego Chamber for those two mid-century decades, imagined the future and set the city in motion. He died a year ago at age 94. And now the visionary who wouldn’t be seated is having a chair named for him.
The Chamber is establishing the Borchers Research Chair through its economic research bureau, which predates even Borchers. An advisory panel will decide who fills the chair and suggest potential studies. The first study will be the economic impact of the military in San Diego. Other possibilities include analyses of the proposed Chargers stadium, teacher accountability, public funding of the arts and local government reorganization.
For such big thinking, the Borchers name has a weighty legacy. He was instrumental in converting the military’s Camp Matthews into UCSD’s Matthews Campus and siting the Salk Institute on pueblo land. He helped found LEAD San Diego and, years earlier, the San Diego Taxpayers Association in 1946. “He was a feisty guy,” says the Chamber’s chief financial officer, Bill Scarfia.
Scarfia’s mission, with the support of Dave Ferguson of Goldman Ferguson Partners, is to make the chair happen. They anticipate first-year startup costs of $200,000 with annual sustaining funding of $250,000-$300,000.
“The idea is to make it independent of the chamber— to examine large-scale, ongoing important topics facing the region,” says Ferguson. For more information, visit sdchamber.org.
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