Two locals document O.C. history with new book ‘Transforming the Irvine Ranch’
Pike Oliver and Michael Stockstill both spent years working at the Irvine Co., developing what would become the planned community of Irvine.
“It was a phenomenal experience for both of us. We had different emphases but worked together quite a bit,” said Oliver.
The former co-workers always talked about writing a book that would chronicle the making of the community of Irvine. Then the pandemic had them both stuck at their respective homes, with quite a bit of time on their hands. So they began the research and writing of their book, “Transforming the Irvine Ranch: Joan Irvine, William Pereira, Ray Watson and the Big Plan.”
“The book is really a comprehensive history of the Irvine family, the Irvine Co., UCI and to an extent, Orange County and the city of Irvine, and all the personalities that were involved in that time period of 1957 to 1977,” said Stockstill. “It is a history of how the Irvine Ranch went from an agriculture empire, just a huge farm, and transformed into what we consider to be one of the most successful planned communities in the United States.”
The book focuses mainly on three individuals: Joan Irvine Smith, William Pereira and Ray Watson.
“Their lives and how they interrelated really formed the spine of the book, if you will,” said Stockstill. “It is important to note that Ray Watson, who had been the president of the Irvine Co., wrote six chapters of what he hoped would be his book describing his experiences at the Irvine Co. from the time he arrived in 1960 until he left in 1977.”
Both Oliver and Stockstill knew Watson.
“We would hear him say from time to time, ‘Oh, I am going to put that in the book!’” said Stockstill.
Watson never finished his book, but the six chapters he did write provided an oral history Oliver and Stockstill could reference.
Joan Irvine Smith, the granddaughter of James Irvine II, also wrote a book, “A California Woman’s Story,” which Stockstill calls a comprehensive history from her standpoint.
Pereira was an architect and planner and was commissioned by the University of California to do its master plan for what became UC Irvine. Pereira was featured on the cover of Time Magazine in 1963; Oliver recalls seeing a copy as a high school student in Marin County.
“It became clear to us that there was a tremendous amount of information available,” said Stockstill. “Thanks to the internet and thanks to some very helpful librarians in special collection all across the United States, we were able to get a tremendous amount of firsthand data that had been left behind in terms of memoirs, oral histories, records. So it just kind of built on itself.”
The pair set out to record the history of a pivotal time at the Irvine Co., both with backgrounds that lent them to the task.
Oliver began his career in real estate development strategies and master-planned communities in the 1970s, including his eight years at the Irvine Co.. He resided in Irvine in the 1980s and 1990s. Before moving to Seattle in 2013, Oliver taught real estate development at Cornell University and directed the undergraduate program in urban and regional studies.
Stockstill worked as a reporter and editor in Orange County before joining the Irvine Co. in 1978, where he spent 13 years implementing strategy for major planning. A former trustee of the Irvine Land Trust,
Stockstill still lives in the city.
Recently the co-authors, who have an uncanny resemblance, presented their book to the American Planning Assn. California Chapter Convention at the Anaheim Marriott.
“The presentation was both a combination of trying to give an overview of what was in the book, but because it was directed at planners, we emphasized a number of things,” said Stockstill. “There are three chapters in the book that really detail what the planning philosophy was, how it was enacted. We talk about Woodbridge as really kind of the culmination of all the things that the Irvine Co. had learned.”
Oliver said he was surprised to learn many of the conference attendees weren’t familiar with Irvine’s beginnings.
“We met people who were planners in Orange County or L.A. and the Inland Empire, and I asked what they knew about the Irvine Ranch, and they really didn’t know anything about it,” said Oliver.
Since Oliver left Orange County, he still returns for visits and makes time for catching up with Stockstill. On one such visit, in 2020 before they became co-authors, Stockstill insisted they take a drive to the community they both had a hand in creating. It was during that drive the two began to talk about writing a book together.
“We got together, and I said, ‘Hey let’s drive around the ranch. You ought to see what has happened since you were here last,’” said Stockstill.
Oliver also recalls the drive well.
“Coming back and seeing it decades later, in a bigger picture, I was just astounded at how much of the plan had carried through, consistently,” said Oliver.
The friends realized then they had a responsibility to share the story of how the big plan came to be. It was an opportunity to write history.
“It is like doing the second draft of history,” said Oliver. “The first draft would be notes that people write and like what Ray Watson wrote and the archives in the university, that would be the first.”
“Transforming the Irvine Ranch: Joan Irvine, William Pereira, Ray Watson and the Big Plan” is available on Amazon.
All the latest on Orange County from Orange County.
Get our free TimesOC newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Daily Pilot.
