Gardiner, Fred O.

Fred O. Gardiner was an Iowa-born educator, expert penman, and corporate executive who profoundly advanced commercial education throughout the state of California. After working as a youth telegraph operator and earning a Master of Accounts degree in 1894, he co-founded and served as corporate secretary for the extensive Heald chain of business colleges. In 1915, he permanently settled in Fresno as the sole proprietor of Heald’s Business College, expanding the consolidated school into the largest commercial training institution in interior California.

Beyond his academic leadership, Gardiner was an enthusiastic agriculturalist who developed a productive one-hundred-acre Smyrna fig orchard in the foothill coves above Clovis. He was heavily integrated into regional civic life, holding active memberships in the Fresno Chamber of Commerce, the Rotary Club, the Masons, and the Odd Fellows. Following the passing of his wife, Josephine Mylotte, with whom he raised three daughters, Professor Gardiner continued to leverage his national reputation as a master instructor to foster economic prosperity in the San Joaquin Valley.