History of CSF

Mr. Charles F. Seymour is the founder of California Scholarship Federation. Mr. Seymour first proposed this idea of a state-wide organization to honor outstanding high school students. As a vice-principle at National City High school in San Diego, Mr. Seymour had organized a scholarship society on his campus, modeling it after one already established at Long Beach Polytechnic High School.

In order to gain support to take action, Mr. Seymour led an active campaign for the next five years. Two of the numerous schools that organized similar societies in support, National City and San Luis Obispo, began to use a seal patterned after the one used by Long Beach. These were the first steps toward affiliation. In 1921 Mr. Seymour, now head of the Social Studies Department at Long Beach Polytechnic, again appeared before the Principals’ Convention in San Rafael and asked that a state-wide scholarship society be founded. Despite significant opposition, Mr. Seymour’s idea carried the day, and a few weeks later all high school principals received an invitation to send representatives to Los Angeles on June 4 to establish such an organization.

On October 15, the constitution for CSF became ratified. Thirty-four schools applied for charter membership. Twenty-nine of these received full status immediately, and chapter numbers were determined by lot. All subsequent chapter numbers have been assigned in the order of approval.