Iris Engstrand, San Diego’s preeminent local historian who taught at the University of San Diego for 49 years and authored more than 20 books and dozens of articles on Spanish, California and San Diego history, died Sept. 12 at the age of 91.
Read more Vista Jail inmate dies in apparent suicide, sheriff’s officials say
She was the go-to expert for countless radio and television shows and newspaper and magazine writers and shared her deep knowledge of local history with students, friends and the general public.
Born in Glendale, she grew up on the beach at Newport Beach’s Balboa Island where she once confronted Marines with stealing her teen group’s lobsters. She attended community college before enrolling at the University of Southern California, where she earned bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in history, focusing on Spanish scientific exploration in the New World.
She bucked academic norms as a woman in the male-dominated history profession to earn a professorship at the University of San Diego.
Mayor Todd Gloria, one of her many students who went on to develop successful careers, remembered her for her “scholarship, passion and generosity.”
“As a student at the University of San Diego, I saw firsthand the talent Dr. Engstrand brought to her classroom,” he said. “San Diego is a better place because of Dr. Iris Engstrand.”
Long-time city planner Mike Stepner called her “a mainstay in talking about the importance of who we were and what we did.”
“As a person, she really had wonderful stories to tell,” said long-time friend Klonie Kunzel.
One was about the summer of 1951, when she and a group of teenage friends in the Newport Beach area set lobster traps for a few days until they started coming up empty.
“We saw a helicopter from El Toro Marine base,” she recalled. ” They hovered low over the water, threw out a rope and hooked the trap, retrieved the lobsters and dropped the trap back into the water.”
The next day, Engstrand, 16, called the base commander and declared, “Your helicopter is robbing our lobster trap.”
That gumption came in handy after she earned her doctorate in 1962 and began teaching at Long Beach City College. But she couldn’t secure a full-time, tenured-track university position.
“At the time, for women in history and the academy, it was difficult,” said her daughter Kristin Moran, a USD communication professor. “They discriminated against her because she was a young woman.”Eventually she got her wish at USD, where she was the first non-Catholic woman appointed to the faculty in 1968.
In 1970, Engstrand married Paul Engstrand, a prominent attorney specializing in water rights, and developed contacts throughout the region. She was commissioned to write biographies of prominent San Diegans and histories of local companies and institutions, from San Diego Gas & Electric to the Natural History Museum and the San Diego Yacht Club.
She was on the boards of that museum as well as the San Diego Maritime Museum and the San Diego History Center. But she didn’t just stick to high society and the leadership class. She made a point of reaching out to Native Americans and learning their side of the Spanish missions story.
Ethan Banegas, 45, a professor of American Indian Studies at San Diego State University, became one of Engstrand’s most devoted students. She congratulated him on being elected to the Barona Indian council but said he needed to develop his academic career and earn a Ph.D. He returned to USD to earn a master’s but deferred doctoral work until his teenage children are older.
Read more Man convicted of murder in Gaslamp Quarter shooting
“USD is my second home, and Iris was my mentor, and I feel grateful for that,” he said.
Molly McClain, a fellow history professor at USD, said Engstrand could have labored quietly on her specialty of 18th-century Spanish naturalists but instead was engaged with development of the USD campus as well as regular teaching duties, overseeing graduate students and promoting interest in local history.
“She chose to make history public,” McClain said. “She wanted San Diegans to feel like their own history belonged to them, not just to academics.”
The two women co-edited the San Diego History Center’s Journal of San Diego history for 15 years.
“While Iris always had a view of the past, she was also very passionate about the region,” said History Center CEO Bill Lawrence. “She was such a force of nature, but always very elegant, convivial and always a class act.”
Engstrand served as president of the American Historical Association and Western History Association. Spanish King Juan Carlos conferred the Order of Isabel la Católica on her in 2007. She was also inducted into the San Diego County Women’s Hall of Fame and honored with Iris Engstrand Day by the San Diego City Council when she retired in 2017.
At the San Diego Maritime Museum, Engstrand worked closely with Ray Ashley when he took the helm in 1995. She served as the historical expert for the museum’s recreation of the San Salvador, the 200-ton galleon that Cabrillo sailed into San Diego Bay in 1542.
“You’re talking about a pretty serious work ethic there,” Ashley said, “not just books and contributions to other publications. If you go to Old Town and look at the menus of some of the restaurants, darn if it isn’t Iris that wrote those too.”
Iris Higbie Wilson Engstrand was born in Glendale on Jan. 9, 1935, to Iris and Clarence Higbie. Her father was an attorney and her mother was a homemaker. She attended Orange Coast City College before transferring to USC and was married briefly to a fisherman, Larry Wilson, before marrying Paul Engstrand. They had one daughter, Kristin, and Paul had two sons by a previous marriage, David and Craig. Survivors include Kristin, Craig, six grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
Growing up in the Engstrand household meant dining out and take-home meals — both parents were not into cooking — and trailing along on family trips at home and abroad. She spent time researching her next book and buying more books that over the years turned into thousands of volumes that filled their Del Cerro home. Engstrand would plop down her typewriter on the kitchen table and keep writing, while keeping one eye peeled toward the backyard pool where Kristin and her friends were playing.
A child of the Depression, Engstrand’s tastes were simple and practical. When her husband bought her a piece of jewelry as a holiday gift, her daughter recalled, she’d say, “Why are you spending money on that?” Shopping, concerts and plays were not her passion. The Padres and Chargers were.
Tom Workman, former superintendent of Cabrillo National Monument, became close to Engstrand after Paul died in 2015. He said they used to watch morning episodes of “Gunsmoke” during the COVID pandemic. On long road trips, they would talk about growing up, family and historic controversies, such as the Cabrillo’s birthplace — Portugal or Spain. They pointed to credible evidence that Spain was the answer.
It will take many history buffs to replace Engstrand’s encyclopedic knowledge of San Diego. But in her one-volume history, Sunbelt Publications’ “San Diego: California’s Cornerstone,” she left behind advice to local leaders and historians:
“Historians can point out the forces and events that have shaped this city, indicating what avenues remain open and can best be chosen for improved future development. But the future is up to the next generations who take the lead.”
A tribute and reception will be held at 12:30 p.m. Oct. 3 at the USD University Center’s Forum C.
Read more Paid parking proposal causes shock, dismay at The Lumberyard businesses in Encinitas
Roger Showley is a freelance writer for the U-T.
